As 2014 comes to a close and the industry winds down its reflections on the year that was, Game Developers Conference officials are pleased to announce a forward-thinking talk for GDC 2015 about what games can be and do in the years to come.

Richard Lemarchand, former Naughty Dog lead game designer and associate professor in the USC Games program, will deliver a talk at the March conference that investigates the game design potential of "open play" - play that does not necessarily result in an outcome of victory or defeat.

When Microsoft quietly released Access Games' episodic Xbox One adventure game D4 at the tail end of September, it sparked strong emotional reactions from fans of director Hidetaka "SWERY" Suehiro's previous work -- the cult classic Deadly Premonition.
"The really hardcore DP fans, for whom DP is their life, have gotten kind of mad at me because [D4] is so different from DP," says Suehiro.
Dealing with emotional fans isn't exactly a new challenge for the idiosyncratic developer, but designing D4 to evoke a broader spectrum of emotions from its player -- for better or worse -- proved tricky enough to prompt Suehiro into pitching a GDC 2015 talk about D4 and the topic of emotional game design.

Organizers of the 2015 Game Developers Conference have confirmed the return of the GDC Play emerging/independent developer showcase to the show this year, with the 'Best in Play' awards also returning to the event.

GDC Play, which is still available for potential exhibitors, is a separate area of the San Francisco show that showcases emerging and independent developers with a series of tables and meeting rooms. It will take place from Wednesday, March 4 to Friday, March 6 at Moscone Center during GDC 2015.

Proceedings are well underway for the jurying phase of the 2015 Independent Games Festival, in which discipline-specific experts play and discuss the merits of the nearly 650 games entered in the 2015 Festival Main Competition, all of which continue to push the boundaries of video game development and design.
As in prior years, an extraordinary group of game development notables are evaluating IGF 2015's standout entries. Today we're happy to begin to announce members of some of these discipline-specific jury panels.
After first-round IGF judging from more than 200 helpers, these panels -- composed of creators from studios both large and small -- will ultimately determine the finalists and winners of the various IGF 2015 awards at Game Developers Conference 2015.
Below are the jurors who have volunteered their time and talent for the Excellence in Design Award, and Excellence in Audio Award, in alphabetical order:

Free-to-play and premium games may have different business models, but that doesn't mean they can't share similar aspirations when it comes to exemplifying excellent design or telling great stories.
F2P game makers can learn much from their compatriots in the premium game business; veteran free-to-play creative directors Kenny Shea Dinkin (Diner Dash) and Ray Holmes (Farmville, League of War [pictured]) seem to agree, because at GDC 2015 they're delivering a great talk on the topic titled "What Are We Missing? What F2P Games Can Learn From Innovative P2P Game Design."

Hot on the heels of last week's announcement of a Star Control Classic Game Postmortem, Game Developers Conference officials are excited to announce another industry luminary is coming to the show next March to deliver what promises to be a revealing postmortem look at the development of a groundbreaking game.
Howard Scott Warshaw, the veteran programmer, author, filmmaker and therapist best known in the game industry for his pioneering work at Atari on titles like Raiders of the Lost Ark and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, will be delivering a Classic Game Postmortem on the seminal Atari 2600 title Yars' Revenge at GDC 2015.

The independent game scene has changed dramatically over the last five years. It's easier than ever to self-publish a game on a variety of platforms -- but it's also arguably more difficult to get players to actually pick your game out from the crowd.
New platforms have arisen, while some mainstay sales avenues have drastically evolved. For hard data on exactly how the state of indie game sales has changed, look no further than the "The Turning Tide: Independent Game Sales in 2015" session at GDC 2015.