At GDC 2017, Yutaka “Yoot” Saito spoke at length about his work creating Seaman, a game that left an indelible mark on the fabric of both the game industry and pop culture at large.

At the start of his classic game postmortem, Saito explained that when given the choice between creating a Dungeons and Dragons styled game, a game with famous characters, or a “rare beast” of a game unlike anything released before, he opted to go for the third option.

“For a creator, it’s better to choose the option that seems to fit the best, rather than the one you think is correct,” said Saito. “Option three differs from one and two because putting it into practice requires inventiveness and courage.”

Saito goes on to talk about how the idea for human-faced fish of Seaman came to be and how the game eventually would attract a large ratio of female fans, set sales records, and attract new Dreamcast owners all by being something creative and completely new. Saito’s full, hour-long postmortem can be found on GDC’s 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.Gamasutra and GDC are sibling organizations under parent UBM Americas