How Players Will Shape Video Games’ Next Big Thing

ign.com:

Despite economic concerns and considerable worry about the enormous scope of contemporary big-budget projects, game developers seem more hopeful and ambitious than ever. This is possible thanks to a healthier and more collaborative relationship with players along with some cautious optimism about artificial intelligence.

This enthusiasm for working with the audience means much more than just reacting to feedback and suggestions on Discord. I spoke to multiple developers that have put not just early code, but game-making tools into the hands of passionate players at a very early stage and invited them to help shape the experience – sometimes hiring them to work on it full time as a result.

Now in its 26th year, the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences hosted its DICE (Design, Innovate, Communicate, Entertain) Summit in Las Vegas last week. The event attracts developers and leaders from across the games business to get together and discuss the biggest challenges of the moment while celebrating the top achievements of the past year at a peer-judged awards ceremony that we partner with the Academy on to live stream. This year IGN’s Stella Chung joined Kinda Funny’s Greg Miller to host the awards, and you can watch the full thing here.

DICE is unlike a lot of other events that we cover because the information we can bring you from it is less about announcements and more about spotting trends and getting a feel for what’s going on in game developers’ heads. Every year the Academy sets an overarching theme that establishes the general tone, but it’s usually pretty spot-on in terms of nailing what’s on everyone’s mind. In the past this has sometimes meant that there’s been an element of buzzword-compliance to the