Your game industry in your words: Week of GDC

[Gamasutra highlights choice quotes from game industry figures such as Deus Ex senior designer Francois Lapikas, Civilization series creator Sid Meier, Super Mario 3D Land director Koichi Hayashida, and many others.] In this special GDC edition of "Your Game Industry in Your Words," we've featured great quotes from a variety of panels on topics like "women in games" initiatives, increasing innovation in games, not trying to please everyone with your game, and seeing games as interesting sets of decisions. This week's noteworthy game industry quotes "These women in games initiatives push us closer to a gender-stratified industry, where we have game developers and 'female game developers'… these designations separate us, emphasize our differences and marginalize one gender while privileging the other." - Metanet's Mare Sheppard on the problem with 'women in games' initiatives "Is making something that risky really that risky? Or is it riskier to create something generic in order to appeal to a 'wider audience?' You really have far less chance of standing out on the platform." - Sword & Sworcery's Nathan Vella warns against making an iOS game for everyone "Start with the damn game mechanic first… and then customize the fiction around it to support what the game mechanic is. Look at things that tried and failed; learn from their mistakes." - Epic Games' Cliff Blezsinski sharing key tips for self-starters "It was risky, everything could have gone horribly wrong, but we felt it was worth the risk to try the new business model." - Valve's Joe Ludwig on how Valve made Team Fortress 2 free-to-play "The Japanese game industry has become very closed-minded." - Ex-Capcom designer Keiji Inafune on how the Japanese industry has 'lost the tenacity to succeed' "They were a big part of the game, and we should have put more effort into them; truly sorry about that." - Deus Ex: Human Revolution senior game designer Francois Lapikas apologizes for the game's boss fights "It's the combination of this wonderful fantasy world that you create and the interesting decisions that the player gets to make in that world that really is the sum total of the quality of your game." - Civilization series creator Sid Meier on how to see games as sets of interesting decisions "I'm not interested in how technology can improve games; I'm interested in how games can improve technology." - Die Gute Fabrik's (Johann Sebastian Joust) Doug Wilson on how simple tech enhances folk play "As game developers, our work is special. All of us here can put smiles on very many people's faces with our work." - Super Mario 3D Land director Koichi Hayashida on enjoying making enjoyable games "Iterate with the willingness to change direction. Milestones are the enemy of innovation. In real invention the goals change." - Spry Fox's Daniel Cook on how designers can increase innovation in their games The complete versions of these in-depth articles, as well as other insightful pieces, are all available in Gamasutra's pages for Exclusive items and Features.