GDC 2016 Lecture Resources

On tuesday next week I will be giving a lecture named "SOMA - Crafting Existential Dread" at GDC. This post will serve as a repository for more in-depth information on the information presented in that talk. I will also try and write a text version of the talk some time after GDC and if/when I do so, I will put a link to that here. Now for some info:

Heavy Rain
Link: http://frictionalgames.blogspot.se/2011/11/thoughts-on-heavy-rain.html
An overview of the failings and successes of Heavy Rain which spawned a lot of design thinking,

Self, Presence and StorytellingLink: http://unbirthgame.com/TheSelfPresenceStorytelling.pdf
This essay goes over some basics of what presence means and how to achieve it in a game. Many of the concepts and rules presented in here was a foundational part of SOMA.

The Scene Approach
Link: http://frictionalgames.blogspot.se/2012/12/introduction-i-recently-started-to-play.html
A description of the scene approach which was intended to be a cornerstone of SOMA, but ended up not working.

Puzzles, What Are They Good For?
Link: http://frictionalgames.blogspot.se/2013/02/puzzles-what-are-good-for.html
Here I describe the reasoning behind using puzzles in SOMA, instead of the more open-ended Scene Approach.

4 Layers
Link: http://frictionalgames.blogspot.se/2014/04/4-layers-narrative-design-approach.html
An in-depth description of the 4-layers design approach that proved to be a crucial element of SOMA's design.