In this GDC 2019 classic game mechanic postmortem, veteran dev Jamie Fristrom breaks down how the widely acclaimed web-swinging mechanics in Treyarch's 2004 game Spider-Man 2 were designed and implemented.
Fristrom served as technical director and designer on the game, and in his in-depth talk he walked through the process and compared it to similar systems in games like Bionic Commando and Insomniac's recently-released hit Marvel's Spider-Man.
It was an illuminating talk that offered some interesting perspective on how designers can design traversal systems for open-world games and the ways in which such systems can give players meaningful feedback about where they're going and how they're progressing in the game. If you missed seeing it at GDC, no worries -- you can now watch it for free over on the official GDC YouTube channel!
About the GDC Vault
In addition to this presentation, the GDC Vault and its accompanying 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 or VRDC 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.