"I think we have a good lesson to learn from indie games: you don't need the best graphics or the best art to create something that's memorable."- 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.
Video: Diverse voices sharing countless ideas in GDC 2012 Microtalks
Industry veterans like Amy Hennig, Cliff Bleszinski, and Richard Lemarchand give great, rapid-fire presentations on the theme of "Playing for Time" during the Microtalks session at GDC 2012.