Overview:

Our daily job as developers is driven by immediacy, keeping us focused on the now. This, in turn, makes it difficult for us to grasp our role in shaping the future of games. Having had the chance to step away from the development machine, I created an emotional journey, Papo & Yo, which unknowingly helped shape what is known as empathetic games. Today, our Montreal-based studio, Minority Media, is dedicated to developing games that take players on a transformative journey by making them empathize through gameplay mechanics. What's more, other industry successes like Papers, Please and That Dragon, Cancer show that empathetic games are here to stay. At Minority, we continue to push this concept through our upcoming games by exploring bullying and traumatic love relationships. Our creative roadmap is lined with flags that guide us through the uncharted territory of empathetic games development. In this talk, I want to share some of these flags and help developers set their course through the complex and fascinating landscape of empathetic games.