Some of the world's best game developers briefly played by my rules

At GDC, with just a few minutes to chat with the makers of Baldur's Gate III, Hi-Fi Rush, Venba and more, I made a game of it

Baldur’s Gate III described in 14 words, as written in my notebook by Larian Studios’ Swen Vincke. Photo: Game File

Twelve years ago, I challenged some of the planet’s top video game makers to tic-tac-toe, in the hopes they could tell me if it’s a good game or not (Result: a mixed verdict.)

A dozen years later, at the same venue—backstage at the annual Game Developers Choice Awards and Independent Games Festival (IGF) Awards in San Francisco—and with the same time constraint of having only a minute or two for each interview, I went with a different gimmick.

I asked each award winner to describe their game to me.

The catch: They had to pick a die to roll (from 4-sided to 20-sided), and then describe the game using only as many words as the number they rolled.

I’ll start at the end, with Larian Studios’ boss Swen Vincke, fresh off his team winning GDC Game of the Year for Baldur’s Gate III.

He did not hesitate when picking his dice.

“It’s got to be a 20,” he said. “I have no choice.”

He rolled a 14.