Emmy-winning composer Nainita Desai (Tales of Kenzera: Zau, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II, Immortality, Telling Lies) takes us inside her creative process for crafting music that moves with the player. Through stories, sound, and examples from her recent games, she explores how music can express emotion, shape narrative, and connect players to the heart of a story – turning every score into a living, breathing part of the game world.
Over 18,000 new games were released in 2024. More than 90% of these new products failed – the reason is more often than not a lack of understanding of product / market fit and specific consumer needs. The essential truth is that it’s easier to make the right product for the market than it is to find a market for your product. To do so, the creative efforts need to align with a commercially viable outcome from the earliest stage of production.
This session looks step by step at what questions you should ask at what time in the lifecycle, and how research and data provide actionable insights to game design to ensure it has the right player segment focus. This will build a firm foundation for your commercial strategy, enabling direction for your go-to-market plan, and help optimise your live service roadmap.
Session Takeaway
* Alignment of Creative Vision & Commercial Realities
* A unified brand perception unites all teams behind one vision/ direction
* The game and marketing communication are aligned on the same audience and address key player motivations and benefits
When game designers get together to talk about their craft, conversation tends to focus on what’s happening inside the game. But what about what happens beyond the screen? In the real world, our players might be sitting in their bedroom, holding a controller while on voice chat with their friends around the world. They might be wearing a VR headset while trying to avoid hitting the furniture in their cramped living room. They might be standing in crowded public transport, holding on to their smartphone with one hand and keeping half an eye out for their stop. They might be holding on to their portable console with the sound off to avoid waking their sleeping baby, ready to drop the game at a moment’s notice. These are a few examples of what we can call the context for play.
In this talk, Sofia Romualdo will draw on her experience designing videogames across platforms, from PC and console to VR and location-based games, to consider how the context of play impacts game design, from considerations, to limitations and opportunities.