True Fictions & Real Feelings

Shortly after DICE, I gave another in-depth design and production talk about feeling-focused development at the GameDev Conference in Umea, Sweden. I really enjoyed visiting with the game development community in Sweden, speaking at the conference, and especially talking with the students and researchers at the universtity's amazing and creative HUMLab. There is a lot of great stuff happening up there in the snow! :D

At the conference, I was particularly inspired by a very well constructed talk on "True Fictions" in games given by Berlin-based artist, developer and game scholar Anjin Anhut. In his talk, Anjin spoke about the ways in which representation (in the construction of characters, the motivating fiction, and mechanics themselves) is so important to consider as you develop your game.

Making games that include the true fictions of a wide variety of lifestyles, approaches and values is essential for making games broader, more inclusive and ultimately, more meaningful to society. Anjin has been thinking and writing on this topic for a long time now - and knows his stuff. A pleasure to meet and hear him speak in person!