GDC 2025 Session Viewer
Game Design Workshop Day 1
Marc LeBlanc (Principal Software Engineer, Riot Games)
Eleanor Todd (Founder, Fablegate)
Kellee Santiago (Executive VP, Game Development (PC/Console), E-Line Media)
Geoffrey Marsi (Sr. Manager, Technical Game Design, Riot Games)
Samuel Villanueva (Game Design Consultant, Villains Creative)
Jeb Havens (Game Designer, Brainium)
Stone Librande (Sr. Game Designer, Riot Games)
Andy Ashcraft (Game Designer / Instructor, Giantsdance Games / New York Film Academy)
Frank Lantz (Game Designer, Everybody House Games)
Marcus Montgomery (Design Director, Microsoft)
Lauren Scott (Senior Systems Designer, Double Fine)
Eben Myers (Game Director, Level Ex Games)
Location: Room 207, South Hall
Date: Monday, March 17
Time: 10:00 am - 6:00 pm
Pass Type: All Access Pass, Summits Pass - Get your pass now!
Track: Design
Format: Workshop
Vault Recording: Not Recorded
Audience Level: All
Dive into a practical, two-day workshop dedicated to honing your game design craft. Working in small groups, you’ll tackle a series of focused design challenges - each exploring a different aspect of creating better games. Using the Mechanics, Dynamics, Aesthetics (MDA) framework as a guide, you’ll brainstorm new concepts, build quick physical prototypes, iterate on your ideas, and evaluate the results together. Expect lively discussions, creative problem-solving, and hands-on experimentation that push you to sharpen your skills and broaden your approach to design.
Topics explored include: designing for ludonarrative harmony, capturing play aesthetics in a paper prototype, creating emergent dramatic structure through systems design, and designing games with ethical decision-making.
Takeaway
By the end of the workshop, you will expand your design toolkit, refine your rapid-prototyping techniques, and gain practical strategies for weaving harmonious narrative, aesthetic, and systemic elements into your games. You will leave better equipped to tackle complex design challenges, foster more effective collaboration, and elevate the player experience in your current and future projects.
Intended Audience
Practicing game designers and those who collaborate with them.
