Video: What's next for empathetic games?

"Metaphor is so crucial -- it helps [players] connect to your story, and not be afraid of it."

- Minority Media co-founder Vander Caballero explains the value of using metaphor when designing games about very personal, very emotional subjects. Papa & Yo creator Vander Caballero gave an impassioned hour-long presentation during the Game Narrative Summit at GDC 2014 earlier this year about the state of empathy games -- titles like Gone Home, That Dragon, Cancer, Beyond: Two Souls and Papa & Yo that are designed explicitly to challenge the player on an emotional level. During his talk Caballero laments the industry's tendency to group these games into broad categories like "indie" that diminish the value of empathetic games, offers suggestions and advice earned from his own experience making Papa & Yo to other empathetic game developers, and expounds upon the value of exploring how games can evoke emotions beyond satisfaction, fear and excitement. We've taken the liberty of embedding the free video of "Empathetic Games Are Here to Stay! What's Next?" above, but you can also watch it here on the GDC Vault.

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