Takeaway: Attendees understand how games establish a high level of character identification, and they acquire techniques that can be used to achieve similar results. Writers (and developers working with external writers) gain insight into the design and identity concepts that should guide the development of character, story and mission objectives in games.

Intended Audience: Game designers, writers and developers working with external writers.

Download the annotated .PDF slides (3mb).

Speakers

• Coray Seifert, Senior Game Designer, Arkadium
• Neil Alphonso,Lead Designer, Splash Damage
• Matthias Worch, Senior Level Designer, Visceral Games
• Jim Brown, Lead Level Designer, Epic Games
• Joel Burgess, Senior Designer, Bethesda Softworks
• Forrest Dowling, Senior Designer, Irrational Games
• Ed Byrne, Creative Director, Zipper Interactive

Session Description
In this intense day-long tutorial, attendees will gain deep insights from some of the most experienced level designers in the industry, delving into every aspect of the level design process, from early concept and white-boxing to narrative design and level design metrics. This session brings back last-year’s highly-rated tutorial roster with an all-new line-up of best practices, lessons learned, interactive audience participation and case studies from Brink to Dead Space and Gears of War to Fallout 3.

Takeaway
Newcomers to the world of level design will gain a solid foundation in the art and science of level design while experienced level designers will come away from the talk with a bevy of tips, tricks, and best practices being used by the best level designers in the industry. Experienced producers, artists, and testers will gain an intimate understanding of the level design process, and will be better equipped to manage and collaborate with this essential part of the game development process.

Intended Audience
Level designers, mission designers, game designers, and scripters responsible for crafting moment-to-moment gameplay. Writers, level artists, and quality assurance professionals will come away from this talk better prepared to collaborate and contribute to the level creation process. All attendees should have a solid understanding of the level design process, as well as a basic familiarity with the tools of the trade.

Speaker/s: Matthias Worch (Visceral Games)
Day / Time / Location: TBD
Track / Format: Game Design / Lecture

Description: Who is the actor in a game? Is it the person holding the controller in the real world, or the player-character who moves through the game-world? The answer is Both, and the game designer must work carefully to keep the interests of these two consciousnesses aligned. This session presents a design approach for reconciling developer-defined and player-derived character identities. Games often feature strong pre-authored characters and story arcs, while trying to give the player the feeling of uninhibited agency. The practical techniques presented here show how to design stories that dont simply provide a context for the players actions, but instead create impulses and motivations within the player that are in alignment with those of the avatar. Player and avatar float along in unison inside an identity bubble, working towards a common goal.

Takeaway: Attendees understand how games establish a high level of character identification, and they acquire techniques that can be used to achieve similar results. Writers (and developers working with external writers) gain insight into the design and identity concepts that should guide the development of character, story and mission objectives in games.

Intended Audience: Game designers, writers and developers working with external writers.
Eligible Passes: All Access Pass, Main Conference Pass

Oh, an email!

You can watch the high-res version of this video on the official Dead Space page.