Designing beautiful, visually stimulating games is no easy feat, and as a developer there's no better way (other than years of experience) to sharpen your aesthetic design skills than swapping stories and techniques with your peers.
With that in mind, Game Developers Conference 2015 officials are excited to highlight another great set of sessions on the process of art design that you'll want to keep on your radar.
First, don't miss Hello Games art director Grant Duncan leading a "Do Artists Dream Of Electric Sheep?" talk at the conference about how a tiny indie team went about crafting the visual aesthetic of No Man's Sky (pictured), from early concept to finalised art. Duncan will cover inspirations, pre-production and the complicated, rewarding (and sometimes messy) union between programmers and artists, replete with plenty of pictures illustrating the process.
Also, make time in your schedule to see the "Don't Just Dream It, Do It: Disney Infinity 2.0 Postmortem" roundtable discussion at GDC 2015. There, a panel of Disney Infinity 2.0 developers and decision-makers will dig into how Disney Interactive and developer Avalanche Software navigated the challenges of evolving the Disney Infinity franchise by, among other things widening its scope by including Marvel characters and expanding the fan-favorite Toy Box mode.
They'll also offer practical advice on how to plan and scale development when dealing with different studios, the importance of evolving your business and studio, best practices for healthy collaboration across development studios and business units, and how to best operate outside your comfort zone.
Finally, catch Feng Zhu Design founder Feng Zhu talking about and demonstrating (live!) his approach to visual design in his "Creating Worlds Through Design Thinking" session. Feng will explore a variety of quick and efficient design thinking techniques to help expand your imagination, then jump into Photoshop and demonstrate the first few stages of concept design right in front of you, using feedback shouted from the audience. You're invited to bring your sketchbook and draw along!
Of course, there's also a bunch of other great talks available for your perusal via the online GDC 2015 Session Scheduler. There you can start planning your conference schedule and export it to the up-to-the-minute GDC Mobile App to get the most from your GDC experience.
For more information on GDC 2015, visit the show's official website, or subscribe to regular updates via Facebook, Twitter, or RSS.
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