'Future of games' conference GDC Next has added more exciting talks to its inaugural lineup: Raph Koster on the expanding definition and audience of games, Ouya's Julie Uhrman on 'Why Now Is the Best Time Ever to Be a Game Developer,' and Three Donkeys's Skaff Elias (a key figure in the creation of Magic: The Gathering) on tweaking luck and skill in game design.
GDC Next is the spiritual successor to GDC Online, and will take place alongside the App Developers Conference on November 5th-7th, 2013 at the Los Angeles Convention Center.
This new event aims to highlight the future of video game development, with session tracks organized around 'Next Generation Game Platforms', 'Free To Play & New Business Models', and 'Smartphone & Tablet Games', as well as cloud and indie game tracks.
For veteran designer Raph Koster (Ultima Online), the future of games is already here -- and they're far exceeding the medium's traditional boundaries and expectations. Amidst gamified restaurants, immersive narrative experiences, political statements, and more, there are conflicts between audience subcultures and within the development community. Players get mad when a title isn't what they expected. Developers grow angry as they watch the encroachment of business practices they dislike.
In a titled talk 'Playing with "Game",' Koster will offer a craft-centric approach to these fundamental game dev questions: What do we make, who do we make it for, and how can we best make what we want? He will present a framework for thinking about varied types of interactive experiences, and the four types of problems that make for compelling play, along with practical design checklists and techniques for different kinds of game experiences.