- Game designer Erin Robinson reminds developers to focus on creating games that are memorable enough to withstand the ravages of time. The GDC Microtalks presentation is one of the most perennially popular sessions of the conference, and the 2012 iteration proved especially thought-provoking thanks to great speeches from folks like Amy Hennig and Cliff Bleszinski. The Microtalk concept is simple: a theme is chosen and each speaker gets 20 slides to address it, each of which will be displayed for exactly 16 seconds before automatically advancing. Thus, every speaker has exactly five minutes and 20 seconds to speak about subjects that they might not otherwise get to address onstage at GDC. In 2012, the speaker lineup included industry veterans like Alice Taylor, Brandon Sheffield, Dan Pinchbeck, David Sirlin, Erin Robinson, Heather Kelley and Mary Flanagan, as well session curator and host Richard Lemarchand. The theme was "Playing for Time," and in the course of addressing it the speakers shared a lot of thought-provoking criticism and contemporary industry analysis that's still applicable today. We've taken the liberty of embedding the free video of "GDC Microtalks 2012: One Hour, Ten Voices, Countless Ideas" above, but you can also watch it here on the GDC Vault.

About the GDC Vault

In addition to this presentation, the GDC Vault 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 Tech