GDC 2025 Session Viewer
Grid Topology vs Game Mechanics: Which Grid For You?
Randy Smith (Game Designer, Waves All Day)
Location: Room 2006, West Hall
Date: Thursday, March 20
Time: 2:30 pm - 3:00 pm
Pass Type: All Access Pass, Core Pass - Get your pass now!
Track: Design
Format: Lecture
Vault Recording: TBD
Audience Level: All
Grids are supposed to make life easier for player and developer alike by quantizing space, but they also introduce questions that must be answered and problems that must be solved. They distort space in ways that can create confusion for your players and your game mechanics. They cause UI/UX friction when your camera, controls, and perspective are not in alignment. And they inform your art style and limit what types of spaces and interactions can be depicted easily and believably. This presentation lists these questions and problems and provides the rationale for their most common solutions.
Takeaway
Attendees will receive an organized list of topics and questions useful for determining what type of grid will work best for their game and finding answers for common and important questions about how their grid-based world will function and be depicted.
Intended Audience
This session is intended for video game, tabletop or hybrid designers who are in the design stages of a game that uses a grid representation or who may design such a game in the future. No special knowledge is necessary.