It's tricky business, making a game that deals with grief.

At GDC 2017, game designer and cultural researcher Sabine Harrer (of the Copenhagen Game Collective) took the stage to discuss grief as context for game design(ers), fleshing out challenges, and suggesting strategies to get this ordinary experience back into games.

She drew on the example of Jocoi, a game based on the experience of four women who suffered a miscarriage, and tackled three challenges in particular: Why make "grief games", anyway, and what can one expect? How can game designers represent grief accurately through rules and mechanics? And how do they know whether their grief game "works"? 

Harrer's talk was remarkably insightful and thought-provoking, so take a moment to take advantage of the fact that you can now watch it completely free via the official GDC Vault YouTube channel!

About the GDC Vault

In addition to this presentation, the GDC Vault and its new YouTube channel 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.

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