How do you keep your game's style relevant over the course of developent?
D-Pad Studio might have a good answer, given that its 2016 hit Owlboy was in development nearly 10 years, outliving an entire console generation. At GDC 2017, D-Pad's Jo-Remi Madsen and Simon Stafsnes Andersen took the stage during the Independent Games Summit to break down how, in order to to keep the game relevant, the Owlboy team had to re-design the game several times, redraw art assets and spend years and years on polish.
That's important because Owlboy's pixel art aesthetic seems, on its face, to be timeless -- but in the course of their talk Madsen and Andersen explained why that wasn't necessarily true and how, despite being a decade old, Owlboy was designed to look like it was ten years' worth of work, rather than ten years out of date.
It was a great presentation, one that you can now watch entirely for free over on the official GDC YouTube channel!
About the GDC Vault
In addition to this presentation, the GDC Vault and its new YouTube channel offers numerous other free videos, audio recordings, and slides from many of the recent Game Developers Conference events, and the service offers even more members-only content for GDC Vault subscribers.
Those who purchased All Access passes to recent events like GDC, GDC Europe, and GDC Next already have full access to GDC Vault, and interested parties can apply for the individual subscription via a GDC Vault subscription page. Group subscriptions are also available: game-related schools and development studios who sign up for GDC Vault Studio Subscriptions can receive access for their entire office or company by contacting staff via the GDC Vault group subscription page. Finally, current subscribers with access issues can contact GDC Vault technical support.
Gamasutra and GDC are sibling organizations under parent UBM Americas