There are always interesting speeches and sessions at events like the Game Developers Conference, and this year, one of them caught our eye: it's about taking the next step in the industry; in tackling more serious – and perhaps more taboo – issues.
Speakers Eric Zimmerman, Kim Swift, and Sulka Haro will lead a session at this year's GDC entitled, "The Game Design Challenge: My First Time." You can read all about it here; as you can see, it's a real challenge with real winners (last year's winner was Steve Meretzky). Three contestants will pitch concepts that "bring together two unexplored themes for games: sex and autobiography." Both the judges and audience will have a significant impact on the presented concepts, and anyone who attends can expect a "free-wheeling session of brave new game design ideas, along with unpredictable debate and dialog." We assume you have to be pretty creative; you can't just step up there and say, "uh…my idea is for a game called, 'My First Time.'" It may be very difficult to tie sex and autobiography together, but for some reason, we're getting the sense that such a concept is borderline voyeuristic in nature. Anything the public sees – or in this case, plays – that is personally connected to the developer or designer may seem…well, a little strange. After all, we're abandoning fiction and fantasy in favor of something that almost sounds like a reality show, doesn't it? We can't decide if this is good or bad, but it's certainly intriguing.
If you were one of the contestants, what would you come up with? How would you bring the two ideas together in one cohesive, engaging video game? We'd try to think of a few, but we're kinda busy here…
