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The Number One Educational Resource for the Game Industry

Session Name: Making Them Care: The Narrative Burden for Creating Empathy
Speaker(s): Heidi McDonald
Company Name(s): iThrive Games
Track / Format: Game Narrative Summit

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Overview: Why did we cry at the end of 'To The Moon'? Why is Undertale so compelling to players? iThrive Games' Senior Creative Director, Heidi McDonald, shares the science behind how empathy is built, and what specific narrative tasks relate to those processes so that writers can craft more meaningful and empathetic narratives. Things that are scientifically required for empathy, such as perspective taking and how seeing something from multiple people's viewpoints, lend themselves naturally to stories in video games. McDonald will share concrete examples of this in video games, and will share information from iThrive's Design Guide for Empathy.

GDC 2018

Heidi McDonald

iThrive Games

free content

Game Narrative Summit

Game Narrative