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Papa & Yo designer Vander Caballero shares tips and techniques for building better empathetic games and expounds upon the value of exploring empathy in game design during GDC 2014.
May 7, 2014
"Metaphor is so crucial -- it helps [players] connect to your story, and not be afraid of it."
- Minority Media co-founder Vander Caballero explains the value of using metaphor when designing games about very personal, very emotional subjects. Papa & Yo creator Vander Caballero gave an impassioned hour-long presentation during the Game Narrative Summit at GDC 2014 earlier this year about the state of empathy games -- titles like Gone Home, That Dragon, Cancer, Beyond: Two Souls and Papa & Yo that are designed explicitly to challenge the player on an emotional level. During his talk Caballero laments the industry's tendency to group these games into broad categories like "indie" that diminish the value of empathetic games, offers suggestions and advice earned from his own experience making Papa & Yo to other empathetic game developers, and expounds upon the value of exploring how games can evoke emotions beyond satisfaction, fear and excitement. We've taken the liberty of embedding the free video of "Empathetic Games Are Here to Stay! What's Next?" above, but you can also watch it here on 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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