Efficiently managing the scope and implementation of procedural systems is tricky business, but Insomniac Games did just that during development of its 2018 open-world hit Marvel's Spider-Man.
At GDC 2019 earlier this year, Insomniac's David Santiago gave attendees a behind-the-scenes look at the open world pipeline of Marvel's Spider-Man, showcasing how each procedural system was originally designed to support iterations and dependencies.
Of course, the reality of producing a "procedurally-authored open world" that also looks like real-life Manhattan provided a larger set of tasks than the team had anticipated. Insomniac's resulting procedural systems were used to author, modify and monitor much more content than planned, and in his talk (now available to watch for free on the official GDC YouTube channel) Santiago explained how the anticipated and unforeseen challenges became success stories and have laid a road-map for future projects.
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.