GDC Vault picks for 2015!

dislekcia

The GDC Vault has gone live for the 2015 GDC, it's not as good as being there, but you get to watch a bunch of stuff and learn, so everyone should be doing that if possible.

Post your links here for your favorite talks from this year. (And I totally expect someone to link to Alex Bruce's epic talk from last year again, just because it's amazing)

Here's Erin Robinson's design postmortem of Gravity Ghost, pay special attention to how she used different media to solve problems in the game as she encountered them. Budding designers take note, this is a great way to think about your games.

Unfortunately Zoe's talk about humor in games isn't free, but maybe I should link it anyway? How many people have Vault access this year?

Also, because someone will undoubtedly link it (and it may as well be me) here's @Aequitas and I talking about open development and stuff. Watch it if you're curious about open dev, I guess ;)

TheFuntastic

Definitely this one by the Race the Sun Creators.

Not only did it come at the perfect time when I was feeling down about my own prospects for Cadence but it really shows how important tenacity is in success, and that you don't have to be an indie darling to make a successful game:
http://gdcvault.com/play/1022271/Success-Through-Stubbornness-The-Race

damousey

The hearthstone interface and juiciness stuff was incredibly valuable to me, I'll look up the links when I get a proper gap. two I found so far:

if you have access to vault access:
7 habits of highly effective art directors
http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1021803/Art-Direction-Bootcamp-7-Habits

if not:
Hearthstone: How to Create an Immersive User Interface.
http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1022036/Hearthstone-How-to-Create-an

Squidcor

The best sessions I went to were probably the system design round-tables, which don't seem to have been recorded, sadly. I can however add a few more recommendations to the list.

Practical talks:

Scroll Back: The Theory and Practice of Cameras in Side-Scrollers
The definitive resource if you need to make a game with a scrolling camera window.

Constructing the Catacombs
This talk didn't finish in the allocated time, but I found it fascinating. Highly recommended if you've ever wondered about procedural platformer levels.

Designing with Physics: Bend the Physics Engine to Your Will
This is a great primer on how physics engines actually work under the hood. It covers all the basics on how to make a physics game feel good. Plus, Foddy is the original physics game master.

Interesting/entertaining talks:

Experimental Gameplay Workshop
It's the EGW! Great if you want to see things that push the boundaries and blur the lines. A whole lot of interesting and different ideas in here.

Indie Soapbox
Some rants are better than others, but the soapbox is definitely worth it.

How to Make Your Game Just Completely Hilarious: The Stanley Parable
Will is a funny guy and this is a funny talk. Some good points about incorporating jokes in your games too.

More academic talks:

The Play of Stillness
All about game pacing and excitement curves. I got at least one big takeaway from this talk.

Infinite Play
This one is long and requires a lot of thinking. But Richard Lemarchard is brilliant and we should all listen when he has things to say.

Useful talks:

A Year of Constraints: How Limitations Improved My Development Process
Some excellent points in here about how constraints can lead to creativity and focus.

Failure Workshop
We should all talk about our failures a bit more. Adam and Ben in particular provide excellent lessons from theirs.

Comedy Games: An Underexplored Genre
A great talk on how comedy games work and why we should make them.

Designing Procedural Stealth for Invisible Inc.
Big takeaway here on how to approach seemingly impossible design problems.

Fengol

I've downloaded a bunch of the free and sponsored talks if people want to get them from me at the next community night in JHB. It's pretty large though, over 10GB so far