Long-time readers of this blog will know that my favourite event at the Game Developers Conference is by far the Game Design Challenge. This seminar talk is so over-subscribed that they really should move it in to Shea Stadium to cope with the numbers turned out to watch top-flight game designers tackle a truly challenging design remit.
This year's entrants, Tetris-creator Alexey Pajitnov, Wizardy designer Brenda Brathwaite and Leather Goddesses of Phobos designer Steve Meretzky, were saddled with a real corker: 'to create an interspecies game, is a "riff on opening up new markets," such as the casual gaming audience,' explains Wired. The results? A dolphin-assisted adventure shooter; BacAttack in which the player, armed with a microscope and a 'TrayStation' creates a ripe culture for a real-time strategy; and 'an interspecies Facebook ARG' called OneHundredDogs.com
Read more here.
But I fear that this year's theme lampoons the original ethos of the challenge, which in times past has included the themes 'unusual controllers' and 'the work of Emily Dickinson'. What would you like to see AAA game designers tackle in next year's Design Challenge?
