Thanks to new analytics tools, we have more information about our games than ever before. But instead of empowering our designs, we can easily become paralyzed by the power of metrics.

Former Halfbrick designer Luke Muscat (Fruit Ninja, Jetpack Joyride) contends that's exactly what happened during the soft launch of Halfbrick's recent mobile release Bears vs. Art (pictured.) 

At GDC 2015, Muscat explained how -- after stumbling with small iterative changes -- the Halfbrick team adopted a new approach: rapidly disrupt all aspects of the game and test the results.

With a new perspective, analytics gave the team huge creative freedom to make bold, experimental changes to the game, and learn some surprising and counterintuitive lessons about our design.

The full story of how it happened is worth watching, and now you can do just that for free via the official GDC YouTube channel.

About the GDC Vault

In addition to this presentation, the GDC Vault and its new YouTube channel offers numerous other free videos, audio recordings, and slides from many of the recent Game Developers Conference events, and the service offers even more members-only content for GDC Vault subscribers.

Those who purchased All Access passes to recent events like GDC, GDC Europe, and GDC Next already have full access to GDC Vault, and interested parties can apply for the individual subscription via a GDC Vault subscription page. Group subscriptions are also available: game-related schools and development studios who sign up for GDC Vault Studio Subscriptions can receive access for their entire office or company by contacting staff via the GDC Vault group subscription page. Finally, current subscribers with access issues can contact GDC Vault technical support.

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