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Video: Brenda Romero's dream of game design masteryVideo: Brenda Romero's dream of game design mastery

Game industry veteran Brenda Romero exhorts her fellow developers to strive for greatness and shares what she's learned about mastery from Michelin-starred chefs at GDC 2014.

June 11, 2014

2 Min Read
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"As a lead you're there to make a great game, not to spare feelings."

- Game industry veteran Brenda Romero reminds us that negative feedback is a hard but necessary thing to give your fellow developers if you want to make something great. Independent game designer and UC Santa Cruz professor Brenda Romero has been making games for decades, but she still considers herself a student striving for mastery of the art. At GDC 2014 she explained some of what she'd learned from teaching game design to a younger generation and exhorted her fellow developers to aspire to greatness in a stirring session titled "Jiro Dreams of Game Design." Inspired by the film "Jiro Dreams of Sushi" and her ongoing study of Michelin-starred chefs at work, Romero spoke at length about how she believes contemporary game designers can achieve something as nebulous as "mastery" and why it's important to try, especially when shipping games often means compromising on an ideal vision. We've gone ahead and embedded the free video of "Jiro Dreams of Game Design" above, but you can also watch it here on the GDC Vault.

About the GDC Vault

In addition to this presentation, the GDC Vault offers numerous other free videos, audio recordings, and slides from many of the recent Game Developers Conference events, and the service offers even more members-only content for GDC Vault subscribers. Those who purchased All Access passes to recent events like GDC, GDC Europe, and GDC Next already have full access to GDC Vault, and interested parties can apply for the individual subscription via a GDC Vault subscription page. Group subscriptions are also available: game-related schools and development studios who sign up for GDC Vault Studio Subscriptions can receive access for their entire office or company by contacting staff via the GDC Vault group subscription page. Finally, current subscribers with access issues can contact GDC Vault technical support. Gamasutra and GDC are sibling organizations under parent UBM Tech

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