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View, browse and sort the ever-growing list of sessions by day, pass type, topic, and format. With this Session Viewer, you can view GDC 2023 session details and speakers, and share your favorites via social media. You will be able to build your schedule and access it during the show via export or Mobile App, once live. Sessions do fill up and seating is first come, first serve, so arrive early to sessions that you would like to attend.

Rolling with the Punches: Reinventing Fighting Games for Mobile

Charley Price  (Co-Founder & Creative Director, Hidden Variable Studios)

Location: Room 215, South Hall

Date: Thursday, March 23

Time: 10:00 am - 11:00 am

Pass Type: All Access Pass, Core Pass

Topic: Design, Production & Team Leadership

Format: Lecture

Vault Recording: Video

Audience Level: All

Few video game genres are more "admired from afar" than fighting games—but many fighting games are burdened on increasingly complex mechanics designed to appeal to veterans of the genre, at the expense of appealing to newer players.

Drawing upon first-hand experiences from the development of Skullgirls Mobile, this talk takes an in-depth look into the past, present, and future state of "accessible" fighting games that are helping to introduce a new generation of fans to a genre normally reserved for more hardcore audiences. In addition, it examines how those techniques can be applied to other genres that are notoriously more challenging to adapt.

Takeaway

Attendees will walk away with a deeper understanding of the ongoing evolution of the fighting game genre (especially on mobile), along with new perspective on how to reimagine familiar, seemingly "sacrosanct" elements of classic genres with new audiences and platforms in mind.

Intended Audience

This is for developers and fans of fighting games, and anyone developing (or looking to develop) accessible versions of otherwise obtuse, daunting, or more complex genres for more casual audiences.