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Video: How Pokemon Go was designed to be playable in public

At GDC 2017, Niantic's Dennis Hwang hopped onstage to showcase how Pokemon Go was designed to be intuitive and safe to play in public -- and what other devs can learn from the process.

March 24, 2017

1 Min Read

In the summer of 2016, millions of people playing Niantic and The Pokemon Company's mobile augmented reality game Pokemon Go went outside in search of Pokemon. 

The game was explicitly designed to be played in public, out in the real world, comfortably and safely. At GDC 2017, Niantic's Dennis Hwang hopped onstage to showcase how this was done -- and what fellow game devs can learn from the user interface design of Pokemon Go.

It was interesting because Hwang walked through how (and why) Niantic made various UX and UI design decisions in the course of developing Pokemon Go, and what the company learned about how people of all ages interact with games.

It was a neat talk, one 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.

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