Industry luminaries Will Wright, Warren Spector, and Raph Koster present their love story game designs based around falling for a virtual character, a Regency romance novel, and a first person kisser, in this free video lecture courtesy of the GDC Vault. Hosted by Eric Zimmerman, these developers attempt to win the vote of the audience with their designs for the experimental Game Design Challenge at GDC 2004. First up, Raph Koster imagines a multiplayer Regency romance novel experience, where the engine takes players and assigns character flaws. These flaws build into character arcs, and the arcs become set pieces that are played through. Next, Will Wright envisions a romantic game played in real time with players using their real identities. His solution: a peer-to peer, first-person kisser that takes place as a game inside a game (in his example, Battlefield 1942.) Finally, Warren Spector does not propose a specific game, but he addresses several design concerns when making a game about falling in love. He suggests making players fall for a virtual character would be more challenging than a real one. For such games to exist and thrive, he says games have to expand to include better characters that experience and express emotions more clearly and that simulate conversations more realistically. The free video that crowns one of these designers as the winner is available here.

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