Stirring our Emotions
by Jason Della Rocca (December 2003)
About one hundred enthusiastic developers came out to hear what David Freeman had to say about creating emotion in games. While most games are not known for their emotional impact on the player, David is pushing to see games take on more emotional depth - much like we see in film and other forms of art/entertainment. Bubbling with ideas and examples, David was barely able to contain himself, jumping from the 30-foot projected Powerpoint slides, the 30+ page hand-out he prepared for everyone and his own notes. Everyone was paying attention. And for good reason - adding emotional depth to the game playing experience, in many ways, is the future of the medium of games.
For those who missed the lecture, or want more info, the following links are highly recommended:
- Website: FreemanGames.com
- Book: "Creating Emotion in Games"
- GDC 2004 lecture: "14 Ways of Drawing Players in with an Opening Cinematic"
- Gamasutra article: "Four Ways to Use Symbols to Add Emotional Depth to Games"
- Gamasutra article: "Agitating for Dramatic Change"
- GDC 2003 report:" 34 Ways to Put Emotions Into Games"
- Course: Beyond Structure
- Wired article: "The Love Machine"
In true holiday spirit, after the inspiring lecture, we raffled off a bunch of cool stuff to IGDA members (eg, games from Ubisoft, copies of David's book, t-shirts and hats from Softimage, books from Francois Dominic Laramee, etc). Following the raffle, everyone headed to the bar for our customary socializing.
Big thanks to our sponsor
Also, special thanks to Ubisoft who directly assisted in bringing David up to Montreal. And, of course, thanks to our volunteers who helped out: Eric Ballandras (LOR-Tech), Jason Lacroix (A2M) and Ahmad Saad.
December Gathering Pictorial
...here are just a few shots I took during the December gathering of the Montreal Chapter. (all persons are identified from left to right)
David Freeman lectures on making a BIG emotional impact.
Attendees rush David after the lecture to get a "present"...
Back in Action: Jean Carrieres (A2M) chats with Isabelle
Marazanni (NAD) during her first night out since her return maternity
leave. Nice to have you back, Isabelle!
Clint Hocking (Ubisoft) gets all emotional with David ;)
Gareth Morgan (Softimage) on hand to demo the latest
rev of XSI and show
cool snippets from the Half-Life 2 art pipeline!
These guys just wanted to have their picture on the site...