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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.

Games and Meaning, or You Have No Idea How Hard It Is To Run a Sweatshop

Soren Johnson  (Design Director, Mohawk Games)

Location: Room 2016, West Hall

Date: Thursday, March 23

Time: 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm

Pass Type: All Access Pass, Core Pass

Topic: Design

Format: Lecture

Vault Recording: Video

Audience Level: All

Can games teach us about our ourselves? Can a game be a statement about the world? Do we design games intentionally or accidentally?

This talk addresses these questions and much more—including Voros McCracken, Ottoman fratricide, fancy hats, Le Corbusier, nuclear holocaust, Mt. Rushmore, and the 1994 Caribbean Cup. Come find out how hard it is to run a sweatstop. Stay for a hopeful and skeptical look at how to make games that say what we want them to say.

Takeaway

Attendees will learn how players understand games better than the developers do, and if they want to know what their games mean, it's important to ask them.

Intended Audience

This is for game developers who care what meaning their players take from their games.