Team Ninja's samurai action game Nioh was in development for over a decade, and it went through a lot of changes before being released this year.

At GDC 2017, game director Fumihiko Yasuda spoke at length about how the game's design was deeply impacted by Team Ninja's decision to open the game up to public testing via the release of both an "alpha" and "beta" demo prior to launch.

That testing wound up significantly influencing the game, and Yasuda went through the key lessons learned, the applications of collected data, the way players responded to this sort of open development, and how Team Ninja implemented the feedback gathered.

It was interesting, especially given the relatively unforgiving design elements at work in Nioh. If you missed Yasuda's talk at the show, good news: you can now watch it 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.

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