The end of the year is just weeks away, and that means the 2017 Game Developers Conference will be upon us before you know it. With that in mind, organizers want to let you know about another great talk taking place during the show about the design of a very interesting game: Ludeon Studios' sci-fi colony sim RimWorld.

In a talk titled "RimWorld: Contrarian, Ridiculous, and Impossible Design Methods," game director Tynan Sylvester will look at how, as a developer, you can find unique value by doing things that are commonly assumed to be wrong, impossible, or ridiculous.

Specific focuses include: How Ludeon Games defined RimWorld not as a game, but as a story generator, and how forcing ourselves into this frame opened up entirely new mechanisms for creating compelling play. How, by strategically leaving out features, they made players engage with features and story elements that aren't actually there.

Attendees can look forward to gaining an understanding of how RimWorld's breakout success was achieved by use of deliberately-contrarian design approaches, and will learn specific methods of breaking unconscious assumptions that may be holding back their own development processes.

So don't miss it, and don't miss the opportunity to save money by registering early -- the deadline to register for passes at a discounted rate is January 18, 2017. GDC 2017 itself will take place February 27th - March 3rd at the Moscone Center in San Francisco.

For more information on GDC 2017, visit the show's official website, or subscribe to regular updates via Facebook, Twitter, or RSS.

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