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View, browse and sort the ever-growing list of sessions by day, time, pass type, topic, and format. With this Session Viewer, you can view session and speaker details for Game Developers Conference 2024.

You will be able to build your schedule with the GDC Mobile App. The GDC 2024 app will be available for download in Apple Apps and Google Play late February 2024.

Sessions do fill up and seating is first come, first serve, so arrive early to sessions that you would like to attend. Adding a session to your schedule does not guarantee you a seat.

Lore, Don't Tell: A Guide for Telling Culturally Rooted Stories Like 'Venba'

Abhi Swami  (Creative Director, Visai Games)

Location: Room 3016, West Hall

Date: Thursday, March 21

Time: 2:00 pm - 2:30 pm

Pass Type: All Access Pass, Core Pass - Get your pass now!

Topic: Design

Format: Session

Vault Recording: Video

Audience Level: All

When players are unfamiliar with a culture, how do we tell a story that's rooted in it? It's a responsibility to ensure players who play the game leave with a deeper understanding of the culture, society, heritage and traditions we're showcasing. But the game we make has its own story to tell, and there might not be the space to be educating all players. It might also be tempting to explain and point out every aspect of the culture to ensure a player misses nothing, but this can do more harm than good. Thankfully, "Lore" is a very powerful tool that video games are great at that we can leverage to solve this problem. In this talk, Creative Director Abhi outlines various techniques used to follow a "Lore, don't tell" approach that let him not only be laser focused on the story he wanted to tell in Venba but also helped him shine a light on the culture he loves with all its details

Takeaway

The talk highlights different techniques and design philosophies that were used in the production of Venba to use Lore as a tool to showcase the culture it portrays.

Intended Audience

The intended audience for this talk is game designers and narrative designers who are interested in telling culturally rooted stories



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