Many game makers relish lovingly poking fun at the many, many ways they quietly support or subvert players in order to make games feel challenging and exciting — but not punishing.

For example, at GDC 2018 game designer Jennifer Scheurle took to the stage to share some of her favorite examples of the ways games “trick” players, cherry-picking from the responses she got on Twitter when asking about the topic last year.

It was a fun talk with some intriguing insights into the development and fine-tuning of everything from Mario Kart to Gears of War to Assassin’s Creed. 

The whole thing felt like a celebration of how game makers elegantly combine complicated systems and technologies to evoke very specific feelings in players, and now you can watch the talk completely free via the official GDC YouTube channel!

About the GDC Vault

In addition to this presentation, the GDC Vault and its accompanying YouTube channel offers numerous other free videos, audio recordings, and slides from many of the recent Game Developers Conference events, and the service offers even more members-only content for GDC Vault subscribers.Those who purchased All Access passes to recent events like GDC or VRDC already have full access to GDC Vault, and interested parties can apply for the individual subscription via a GDC Vault subscription page. Group subscriptions are also available: game-related schools and development studios who sign up for GDC Vault Studio Subscriptions can receive access for their entire office or company by contacting staff via the GDC Vault group subscription page. Finally, current subscribers with access issues can contact GDC Vault technical support.Gamasutra and GDC are sibling organizations under parent UBM Americas.