The Game Developers Conference is two months away, and organizers want to be make sure you don't overlook some of the fantastic talks from indie devs, for indie devs that are happening at the March event.
Each of these talks is part of the GDC Game Independent Games Summit, one of eight that will take place Monday, March 19th and Tuesday, March 20th at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, CA -- the first two days of the conference.
The GDC Summits are each designed to give you a comprehensive overview of a specific game industry discipline, and the Indie Summit is consistently one of the most popular -- in large part because the content is always so good.
For example, in their Independent Games Summit talk "Partnership on 'Darkest Dungeon': The Double-Edged Sword", Red Hook cofounders Tyler Sigman and Chris Bourassa will speak frankly about how sharing almost every major decision, from business strategy to staffing to product development, can be alternately wonderful and maddening!
According to them, co-running a company in this way has unique benefits, challenges, and risks. With an unwavering commitment to (often brutal) honesty, together they will share crucial lessons learned throughout the development of Darkest Dungeon, illustrated through real examples. You won't want to miss it!
Also speaking at the Summit will be Thomas O'Connor, a seasoned engineer and director of his own indie studio PlayEveryWare. O'Connor knows a lot about porting games, and in his GDC 2018 Independent Games Summit talk "Your Indie Game on Console: A Practical Guide to Porting" he'll share what he's learned so other devs can make better decisions about shipping games on consoles.
Drawing from the work O'Connor has done porting indie games to consoles for other studios, and as a developer support engineer at Nintendo, he'll show you how you can prepare your own games to be ready for releasing on any console.
Using examples from recently released console versions of games like Hello Neighbor (pictured) he'll cover numerous issues that developers run into throughout the process, from onboarding and development to submissions and release. If you think a console port might be in the cards for you, or if you want to refine your porting processes, this is a talk you'll want to see!
And in "'A Mortician's Tale': A Different View on How Games Treat Death" A Mortician's Tale creator Gabby DaRienzo will look at the history of death in video games, discuss how A Mortician's Tale and other independent games are innovating on death mechanics, and share strategies on how game developers can best explore death in their own games.
You'll learn how to navigate challenges behind designing experiences on personal subjects like mortality, and learn how death is used in video games, and how it could be used by you in your next one.
It promises to be fascinating, so don't skip it! For more details on these and all other announced talks head over to the online GDC 2018 Session Scheduler, where you can begin to build your conference week.
For more information on GDC 2018, visit the show's official website, or subscribe to regular updates via Facebook, Twitter, or RSS.
