The striking visual design of ustwo games' award-winning 2014 puzzle game Monument Valley was critical to its success. The game's puzzles, based on optical illusions and impossible geometry required combining artistic and technical creativity.

At GDC 2015, Monument Valley lead designer Ken Wong spoke to how the team designed the game's unique look, drawing on Influences as wide ranging as M.C. Escher, Middle Eastern architecture, Japanese flower arrangements and low-poly 3D art.

It was an interesting rundown of how the game's visuals were deeply integrated with the gameplay, story and design themes, and fellow devs can learn much from ustwo's trials and triumphs.

If you missed Wong's talk the first time around, no worries: you can now watch the whole thing for free via 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 Tech