If E3 is about looking forward, then GDC is about looking back – a place where game developers take stock, share the secrets of their successes and analyse the faults in their failures.
Here are the games that changed the industry in 2016.
It’s the place where the fire is lit under new ideas that go on to change the medium, and more of it’s open to the public than you might think. The show’s organisers have uploaded a bunch of talks to their site for free viewing.
More than 500 of this year’s sessions can now be found in the GDC Vault – though a good portion of them are locked away behind a seriously hefty $495 annual subscription.
The freely available talks amount to around 100, however, and include some genuine heavyweights. There’s id composer Mick Gordon on his exquisitely noisy Doom soundtrack. There’s Ubisoft Paris on the tools behind Wildlands’ terrain, undoubtedly the best aspect of that game.
And there are the slides from Deus Ex: Mankind Divided’s absurdly detailed Prague city hub, which nerds like me might be planning on perusing with a cup of tea later on today. Anything else catch your eye?
Many will be added to YouTube soon too, which is always nice.