Monomi Park's plort-em-up Slime Rancher was one of the indie hits of 2016, and owes a lot of its success to its thousands of eponymous slimes who captured the hearts of its players.

At GDC 2017, Monomi Park chief Nick Popovich gave a talk during the Independent Games Summit about what helped make those balls of goo so likable: the stories they helped the player tell.

Driven by a series of wants and needs, these slimes create hundreds of tiny, emergent stories that end in triumph, cuteness, and chaos. In his talk, Popovich dived into a detailed breakdown of how the slime's vibrant, unpredictable behavior is actually the "secret sauce" that makes Slime Rancher sing, and how it's all crafted from surprisingly simple systems

It was a fun and informative session, one that you can now watch entirely for free over on the official GDC 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.

Gamasutra and GDC are sibling organizations under parent UBM Americas