How do you make your game more meaningful?

At GDC 2014, Ubisoft's Patrick Redding argued that for a game experience to be meaningful, players should suffer occasional setbacks - situations in which the game requires them to shift their immediate goal in order to continue and succeed.

In his talk, Redding (Far Cry 2, Splinter Cell Blacklist) explored the conditions that permit setbacks to develop systemically and examined several design strategies that encourage them without provoking players into reloading a saved game. He also looked at the unique challenge of fostering recoverable setbacks in stealth games, which at their best lets players play a tense cat-and-mouse game with a formidable AI; but which at their worst can degenerate into brittle guesswork with little room for experimentation or error.

It was a thorough talk from an expert in the field, and if you missed it back in 2014 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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