Video: Facing the challenges of making games for new audiences

"When you want to make something that's different, something that's new, it kind of feels like there's no grownups around to tell you what to do." - Veteran game designer Kellee Santiago describes the elation -- and terror -- that comes when you try to make a new kind of game for a whole new audience.

It's easy to poke fun at some parts of the industry for making the same kinds of games over and over, but remember, there's a reason why many studios don't develop new types of games -- that requires finding and satisfying an audience they know nothing about.

And if you do try to make something new and different, your understanding of your new audience will impact every aspect of your development: from your design process, to pipeline development, to your marketing campaign. In this talk from the Independent Games Summit at GDC Europe 2011, Kellee Santiago shares relevant lessons she learned while developing the decidedly unorthodox flOw, Flower , and Journey for the PlayStation 3. She also offers advice on how developers can make effective decisions based on little data to create commercially successful titles that in the beginning -- and maybe even right up until you ship -- no one will think you can sell.

It's a good talk, so we've gone ahead and embedded the free video of "Developing New Audiences: When the Past Can't Predict Your Future" above. You can also watch it hereon the GDC Vault.
About the GDC VaultIn addition to this presentation, the GDC Vaultoffers 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.

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