Soren Johnson

Walking with the game dev crowd to the baseball stadium. Reminds me a lot of game days except a lot less Giants gear and a lot more anime backpacks. #GDC26

I've survived 3 different rides on the top point of the triangle, assuming the top point means "independent studio with a dev/pub agreement with publisher". All 3 times we managed to get publisher to also provide some investment capital too, which REALLY improved the picture.

Standing ovation for Steve Meretzky as he announced his retirement and that this will be his last This Year in Games. Happy trails, Steve, and thanks for the games. #GDC26

Hartsman: Check out this launch bump compared to Early Access. It came from many years of actual development during EA. #GDC26

Hartsman: Expectations for success are different depending on who you are. #GDC26

Hartsman: Tradeoffs of the three basic funding models. #GDC26

Rohrl: Puzzles should follow an easy-hard-easy pattern. Very easy to make early moves, then gets harder after obvious moves are done, and then accelerates to an easy finish once you break through. #GDC26

Meretzky: Clash Royale killed their revenue with their late 2025 update that pushed hard towards pay-to-win via Heroes. #GDC26

Rohrl: One reason that NY Times games are high quality is that the audience cannot be bought (not enough value), so it has to be earned. #GDC26

Rohrl: NY Times games benefit from clear human curation. (They are two-player games, between the designer and the player.) #GDC26

Rohrl: Is the New York Times now a games company with a newsroom? (People spend more time on their games than on reading the news.) #GDC26

Meretzky: Tripeak Solitaire has a coin-based economy because it was originally a minigame in a casino game. All of the clones (like Disney Solitaire) have inherited this economy without considering why it was there in the first place. (Know Your Inheritance) #GDC26

Schell: Games will only become meaningful when they learn to listen. #GDC26

Schell: Another problem for AI-driven games is that asking a player to be creative is actually giving them a chore. #GDC26

Schell: Core problem for AI-driven games is the Scribblenauts Conundrum. No limits are the enemy of gameplay. #GDC26

Crasta: NYT doesn't dictate how you should use their sharing texts - it's just a tool for you to use however you like. #GDC2026

Crasta: Connection traps are laid out next to each other. Be careful if they are too obvious. #GDC2026

Crasta: At NY Times Games, we care more about days/week played vs. minutes/day. #GDC2026

Crasta: Pros and cons of making word games. #GDC2026

Margolin: Wanderstop needs inventory limits to reinforce the game's theme - struggling with efficiency/perfectionism. #GDC26

Margolin: The point of downtime ("useless" time) is to appreciate the world around you. #GDC26

Margolin: Alta (and the player?) likes to go fast but the tea leaves drying forces her to go slow creating our goal of tension. We added "useless" features like decorating to fill this time and let players reflect on what "useless" time means. #GDC26

Margolin: Wanderstop added tea leaves to the game loop to stretch out the play pattern. Players needed more to do to pace out the narrative (because tea leaves need to dry!) #GDC26

Margolin: The disconnect between expectation and reality in Wanderstop creates discomfort, and discomfort leads to growth. #GDC26

Margolin: Our players thought that Wanderstop was an open-ended, cozy simulationist game (like Stardew Valley). In fact, we made a very different game and used that disconnect intentionally. #GDC26

Margolin: Wanderstop resets progress after every narrative chapter. This emphasizes the protagonist's tension of wanting to be better but failing. #GDC26

Margolin: Wanderstop is a narrative game, not a cozy game (an aesthetic, not a genre). #GDC26

The Board Game Area at #GDC25 is looking good!

Denance: 30% of players buy during free trial before actually starting the demo. Be sure to give them a way to buy right away. #GDC26

Denance: PoP Lost Crown plan for their free trial. #GDC26