You've been logged out of GDC Vault since the maximum users allowed for this account has been reached. To access Members Only content on GDC Vault, please log out of GDC Vault from the computer which last accessed this account.

Click here to find out about GDC Vault Membership options for more users.

close

The Number One Educational Resource for the Game Industry

Session Name: The Power of the Abstract
Speaker(s): Liz Ryerson
Company Name(s): ella guro
Track / Format: Design

Did you know free users get access to 30% of content from the last 2 years?


Get your team full access to the most up to date GDC content

Overview: There's a pervasive belief in the industry that game design is a craft which has been more-or-less linearly refined and improved upon for the last 30 years. The industry has come to form so deeply around its accepted norms that any games which might work outside of those norms are heavily marginalized or seen as "bad design." This works greatly to marginalize designers who trying to challenge the medium and use their games as tools to express more personal and/or critical ideas. We'll discuss why these abstract, strange and "unprofessional" approaches to design and aesthetics are actually a secret strength of the medium that should be embraced as powerful and progressive communicative tools. We'll also examine why they are, in fact, far more powerful artistic tools than literal representation, or already deeply-entrenched approaches in the game industry and game culture.

GDC 2015

Liz Ryerson

ella guro

free content

Design

Design