'The Looker': The Art of Parody Against the Menace of Goofiness

Video Description

Why would anyone care about the parody of a game that came out seven years prior? As it turns out, there are some solid reasons why. In this GDC 2023 talk, Bradley Lovell, developer of 2022's The Looker, a parody of the 2015 open-world puzzle game The Witness, discusses what it takes to make a high-bandwidth parody that goes beyond obvious audio-visual gags to tell jokes through gameplay, as well as engage deeply with the source material. This discussion touches on the core appeals of parody games, as well as the unique opportunities for humor that games afford. Bradley also discusses the importance of maintaining internal consistency so a game's humor and subversion of expectations do not cause unintentional damage to its core design. GDC returns to San Francisco this March 18-22, 2024! For more information, be sure to visit our website and follow the #GDC2024 hashtag on social media. Subscribe to the GDC newsletter and get regular updates via Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or RSS. Join the GDC mailing list: http://www.gdconf.com/subscribe Follow GDC on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Official_GDC GDC talks cover a range of developmental topics including game design, programming, audio, visual arts, business management, production, online games, and much more. We post a fresh GDC video every day. Subscribe to the channel to stay on top of regular updates, and check out GDC Vault for thousands of more in-depth talks from our archives.