Over the past decade, the appetite from traditionally underrepresented players to see characters like them in the games they play has grown. As studios and their Ex Dev partners look to meet this need by adapting this diverse reality into their games, they increasingly encounter new barriers and issues to doing so authentically.

This table talk will explore issues and unique considerations that emerge during the development of diverse characters, and discuss potential strategies for how to address and improve development processes for the future. In particular, this discussion will focus on issues specific to Ex Dev and the unique challenges and opportunities within the space – as so far, most discussions on this topic have been limited to processes within studios without considering external partners who handle critical parts of the character pipeline like Localization, VO/Casting, Concept/Character Art, Narrative/Writing, Animation (and more).

Participants will leave this talk with new insights into issues within inclusive character development across a variety of disciplines, and will be better able to adapt their creative and development pipelines to avoid the most common pitfalls. Participants will also learn more about the benefits to an informed and prepared approach, and how it creates a smoother development process as well as characters that truly resonate with players.