’FTL: Faster Than Light’ Postmortem: Designing Without a Pitch

The creation of FTL: Faster Than Light began with the desire to experience what it would feel like to be the captain of a starship. Many games have focused on space battles, but few games have focused on what happens in the ship itself. By focusing on a high-level goal of experiencing a singular feeling, and developing it with minimal preconceptions about FTL’s gameplay, Subset Games was allowed to frequently alter or abandon aspects of its design, which eventually led to the game we know today. In this 2013 talkMatthew Davis and Justin Ma share their creative process as they take you step by step, from concept to crowdfunding to release. 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 weekday. 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. Follow us on Twitter Checkout our Facebook page for GDC exclusives