From Greg Foertsch's perspective, many game dev postmortems share something in common: a sense of regret about not handling pre-production well.

Foertsch is a Firaxis veteran who most recently served as an art director on XCOM: Enemy Unknown and its sequel, XCOM 2. Earlier this year he came to GDC to talk about what he's learned about the art of pre-production, and how fellow devs can plan out and prepare for their next game to minimize problems down the line.

While it was an interesting talk for anyone who seeks insight into how teams at studios like Firaxis make games, it was especially relevant for folks in a leadership role since Foertsch dug into the array of challenges faced by art directors during the early stages of development, including management, vision, and inspiring the team.

If you missed seeing it at GDC this year, good news: you can now watch Goertsch's talk for free 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.

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