Things are starting to fall into place for Rise of the Tomb Raider. While there's still over half a year between us and the earliest possible release for this holiday 2015 title, we're finally starting to get whispers of what the game might look like. And by 'whispers', I mean a roaring avalanche of information that came with GameInformer's , which centers entirely on our intrepid lady of tombs.

All this new knowledge, combined with our own exclusive Rise preview session (which you can hear about in the video below) have shed a lot of light on what Lara's new adventure will entail. Secret societies, bigger tombs, a mythical city and the return of old friends - there's a lot to catch up on, and you can find it all packed into the following slides. Onward!

At the start of Rise's E3 trailer, Lara's in therapy, talking through the trauma inflicted by her fun-filled excursion through Yamatai. Or rather she's not. Because explaining what happened to her would sound completely insane, which apparently puts her in an unfortunate spot. "Lara feels like an outsider in the real world," explained creative director Noah Hughes in an interview with GameInformer. "Her next expedition is a way of dealing with the trauma she's been through, but it's also a way of finding peace by chasing any shred of evidence that what she saw was real."

That's suggests there's going to be a big focus on Lara's questionable state of mind in Rise, especially when you consider Crystal Dynamics' handling of her story in the meantime. The currently running both make a big point about how the trauma she experienced at Yamatai is still affecting her. While we can certainly expect Rise to delve more deeply into Lara's PTSD, don't expect her to spend the entire game at the doctor's office. She's got something to prove to herself.

Lara Croft's explored so many exotic locales, racing to beat nondescript bad guys to magical treasure, that 'thwart supernatural scheme' probably shows up right before 'buy milk' on her weekly to-do list. Rise looks to stick with that tradition, sending Lara to the frozen tundra of Siberia to discover the legendary invisible city of Kitezh. An ancient city that supposedly sank to the bottom of a lake when its citizens prayed for salvation from an invading Mongolian army (not sure how much better of an option that is, but all right), Kitezh supposedly contains the secret of immortality, and Lara's ready and raring to raid for it.

A setting like Siberia definitely ups the ante in terms of survival. Say what you will about Yamatai and its population of murderous cultists, at least it was warm. The unforgiving weather Russia's northernmost parts is bad enough, particularly since Rise promises to utilize a dynamic weather system, but throw in hungry bears and wolves intent on having Lara for breakfast, and it seems like everything's going to want her dead. More than normal, even.

Lara already has to deal with horrendous weather, vicious animals, and the trappings of her own psyche, but why not make things interesting and throw in a malevolent secret society? While Lara had to deal with the fanatic exploits of the Solarii cult in her first adventure, this time she's up against a well funded group called Trinity, which is very interested in getting to Kitezh before she does.

This organization was named dropped in the first game, where secret GPS documents referred to them and their interest in supernatural phenomena, so they've technically been in the picture all along. The group showed up in person in the Tomb Raider comic as well, and it's members made a sincere effort to blow up Lara with a rocket launcher when she tried to protect one of their assassination targets. Expect them to take up the mantle of trying to brutally kill Lara at every turn, though probably with more advanced weaponry. Oh boy.

Lara may have been anchored to a single location for her last adventure (for obvious, deeply traumatic reasons), Rise is apparently going to offer a little more variety. GameInformer reports that the game will take place in at least two locations, and though we already know about Siberia, the second spot remains a mystery. However, they're will apparently be stark geographical differences between the places Lara will visit, so wherever she goes next, it won't end up feeling like a rehash.

Most of the images we've seen of Rise so far focus on Lara's romp through a winter wonderhell, with the exception the one above, which looks distinctly desert-like. Given that ominous-looking helicopter overhead, our guess is that Lara's going to go all Amazing Race to find scattered clues about the magical city she's trying to get into before her enemies find it. Or is that too Nick Cage?

We've seen Lara leaping toward sheer rock faces before. By now she's no stranger to the old 'jump at a wall and stab your axe in at the last minute so as to not die' trick. But we haven't seen her do that while hurling herself over what looks like a half-mile deep mountain chasm, after being chased off a cliff by a giant marauding bear. We're still uncertain how much platform jumping will feature in the gameplay itself, but if it's anything like that little stunt, it looks like the platforming genre itself may be getting a gritty reboot.

In addition, Crystal Dynamics has noted its commitment to one more, very important thing. "We'll have more tombs in the game featuring a full spectrum of puzzles," says Hughes. "Some tombs are much larger than in the last game... We want puzzles to make logical sense, so the solutions to the puzzles in this game won't always be some confounding security system of the ancients; it might be that Lara just needs to navigate the space in a way that subverts its original intent." While that may seem a bit vague, it definitely feels like a step in the right direction. Given that one of the main criticisms of the original reboot was that it lacked a proper selection of crypts to plunder, a renewed focus on the thinky-bits Lara's known for is nothing but good news.

While combat was a big (big, big, big) thing in Lara's blood-drenched Yamatai trip, and she had an impression set of scavenged weapons at her disposal, she's since upped her arsenal. While she was previously able to upgrade her arms with random salvage, Rise will use a tricate crafting system, which will let her to alter her weapons for different purposes. Advanced traversal, for example, or choosing whether to give her bow greater ease of use, or greater stopping power. She'll also be able to build things like traps and explosives, which give her all sorts of fun ways to destroy anyone who gets in her way.

This new system is already being compared to the scavenging mechanic in The Last of Us, which seems pretty apt. We can't say we mind though, because that system made collecting even random junk feel important while encouraging us to explore the game world. Hopefully Rise doesn't totally shadow TLOU, since variety's the spice of life, but but we're excited to see what a new team with new thoughts can do with a mechanic that good.

Whether this is a good or bad thing comes down to perspective. While some fans enjoyed the interplay between Lara and her comrades, particularly in her efforts to protect Sam, others felt they were needlessly tacked on and detracted from her badass adventures. Still, depending on how they're used, it's nice for Lara to have a humanizing element that keeps her from looking like an indestructible human pincushion. Either way, we still not sure of their role in the overall game, so the months ahead will tell how that's going to shape up.

As you may remember from the small fan-based nuclear explosion that detonated last August, Rise of the Tomb Raider will be Xbox One and Xbox 360 exclusive when it releases this holiday season. However, , though it's not yet confirmed how long it will last or what other consoles it might touch down on in the future.

While this is a frustrating move for anyone that doesn't have ready access to a box of X's, there is hope yet that the exclusivity window will be short. And hey, who knows? Your patience may be rewarded with a .

So that's everything we know about Rise of the Tomb Raider for now. But expect fo to start pouring out like the brains of so many arrow-perforated mooks very soon indeed. Keep an eye on this article, and we'll update it with every fact that arises as we move towards the game's Holiday 2015 release.

And while you're here and snuffling around for E3 info like a pig looking for video game-scented truffles, check out some of today's other reveals. Like .

When you put a ton of smart, creative people in the same space, good things are bound to happen. That's the idea behind the Game Developers Conference, the annual week-long gathering that invites people from all walks of game industry life to sync up and share ideas. As of today, GDC 2015 is wrapping up, and after five days of attending panels, playing indie gems, and getting a closer look at the VR tech that may very well determine gaming's future, we're feeling thoroughly enriched.

But if you couldn't make it out to San Francisco this year, don't fret. We picked up tons of interesting factoids and behind-the-scenes stories at GDC '15 - the kinds of tidbits that can get overlooked amidst all the news and previews. So here, in one convenient location, is a collection of the most downright interesting things we learned at GDC. Get ready to feel enlightened... or at the very least, feel like you've got a cool new anecdote to share with a friend.

It's probably no surprise to learn that triple-A game developers use a lot of data and focus groups to fine tune their games. Bungie was no different when it came to developing the missions and systems of its open-world shooter, . The dev team used lots of pre-release testers to play early builds of the game and let the creators know which parts of the game were fun and which sucked.

Typically, pause buttons are used to take a break from a game and collect feedback from the test participants, but because pausing isn't possible in an online-only game like Destiny, the developers had to think of some other way to get that precious data. The solution: give players instant access to button combinations that would tell the developers when they felt confused, lost, frustrated, or when something awesome happened. From there, the developers were able to create heatmaps of the awesome spots (as well as the not-so-great areas) and fill out the lame spots with extra awesome stuff. Awesome, right?

At the more technically focused talk titled ‘ Motion Capture Pipeline,’ Naughty Dog’s Damon Shelton talked about what happens with motion-capture data after the actors are done. Basically it takes a lot of programs and developmental elbow grease to craft the people of that dystopian future, including test footage using two of the only complete character models. So, to map out the involved animation of Ellie battling a Clicker, Naughty Dog had to make a ton of test footage featuring Joel’s model attacking the last person you’d expect him to.

Obviously this footage of Joel attacking Ellie would never be used in the game, Naughty Dog dropped the proper models in when all the assets were complete. Still, it must have been odd during development to cycle through hours and hours of footage of Joel attempting to bite Ellie’s face off. Shelton also revealed that Joel’s actor, Troy Baker, is actually a few inches taller than Joel, so they had to shrink the actor down to fit the finalized character model.

Back when first came out, a lot of people were shocked to discover how good it was. Meanwhile, the folks at Telltale Games were just shocked (and incredibly relieved) that so many people liked it. "We were sweating bullets when Walking Dead went out, because it was so weird," Telltale CEO Kevin Bruner said during a panel on the company's narrative approach to gameplay. Specifically, the game was an odd entry in the adventure game genre, since it had very few puzzles and focused almost entirely on player choice and dialogue. Given that standards for the genre were set by the likes of Grim Fandango and The Secret of Monkey Island, The Walking Dead looked like a bit of an odd bird, and no one was really sure how it was going to pan out.

Thankfully, things worked in the game's favor, but that hasn't made the Telltale team less anxious. "Every time something comes out, we are terrified [about] how it's going to be received," Bruner noted, pointing to the skeptical reactions the studio received received after announcing Tales from the Borderlands. Still, the goal remains the same as it did in The Walking Dead's development: "I don't think we were trying to build… the world's greatest anything. We just wanted to build something that we thought was good."

Danganronpa and its sequel got a lot of critical buzz last year, but still stayed under the radar for many mainstream gamers. Those who played it loved the characters and densely written plot, but perhaps the series potential is limited by its platform. The Vita isn’t known for big sales, and Danganronpa's creator wishes things were different.

While clarifying that he wasn’t being paid in any way by Sony, Kazutaka Kodaka began and ended his presentation with funny slides that exclaimed, 'why won’t people buy a Vita!' He didn’t elaborate on those frustrations too much, as he soon dove into the nuts and bolts of writing a game’s story, but the situation is understandable. Kodaka and his fellow developers are certainly invested in the handheld, even if the sales are dwindling worldwide. It's tough to maintain a system on niche titles like Danganronpa, even if they do tell some of the best stories in games.

Much like his most famous games, Japanese developer Hidetaka 'Swery65' Suehiro is so quirky and unassuming that you just can't help but love him. While hosting a panel about the development of the Xbox One episodic mystery D4, Swery hinted that . But that's not all - he also shared a whopping 65 tips pulled from his very own development process, including this valuable bit of wisdom to game makers: don't play the game you're creating every day.

"By leaving a little bit of room [between playtests], it allows for you to not get stale and have the same [recurring] opinions," he said. To ensure that he doesn't miss the forest for the game-development trees, Swery onlys plays the games he's making once a week - on Thursday, to be exact. Some other fun facts about Swery: whenever something bad happens at the office, his solution is to simply hug it out. When developing the characters for his games, he likes to map out a timeline for each of their fictional lives. Also, he owns four Power Gloves.

Stop me if this has happened to you: you're on a prisoner transfer ship, and all of sudden, the ship is attacked. You, the crew, and all the prisoners are rushed onto escape pods and jettisoned down to a mysterious planet. You find yourselves lost in an underground dungeon, and must work together to get out. It's so awkward, right? I hate it when that happens.

Dungeon of the Endless is a little bit dungeon crawler and a little bit tower defense. You explore randomly generated dungeons room by room, collecting new items and leveling up your characters in solo or co-op play. You also earn currency used to build fortifications in the rooms you've visited, in case hordes of enemies spawn when you enter the next area. Once you finally reach an exit, the finale involves running back to your starting point, picking up a special item, and slowly carrying it to the exit, all the while fending off an endless stream of enemies pouring in from all sides. Hope your fortifications are up to snuff in time for this PC-to-Xbox One port.

Magicka 2, a game about mages mixing magic spells to defeat imposing hordes of enemies, . This is new territory for publisher Paradox Interactive, which is known for catering exclusively to the PC market - though apparently not for lack of trying on Sony's part. "Sony asked earlier if we would like to publish our games on PlayStation 3," Paradox studio manager Mattias Wiking noted during a demonstration of Magicka 2. "We said 'No, it's a bit too complicated for us. We need to do regular game updates that our fans are really demanding.' So, it wasn't really a good platform for us."

What happened to change Paradox's mind? The PS4, and serious efforts by Sony to simplify the process of developing for it. "One day Sony came and said, 'Now we have the PlayStation 4... we're gonna make it really easy for everyone to publish their games." Wiking explained. "And we were like, 'Yeah, this will work.'" As Sony and Microsoft vie for ever more exclusive content from third-party developers, it's interesting to hear straight from the creators about how these interactions go. If Paradox's example is any indication, Sony has genuinely upped its game for this generation, with a focus on making its system attractive to a wider range of game makers.

If you're a fan of the ship combat from , but wish there was a lot more to it (and it was set in space), Rebel Galaxy is your space sim. You own a spaceship, with which you can do whatever you want. There is a full, open-world galaxy for you to explore, tons of characters to meet, and plenty of opportunities to rake in the dolla' bills.

There are many ways to approach Rebel Galaxy. Those who are keen on a complex storyline can follow the main quest chain, help or exploit important characters, and make universe-altering decisions. Alternatively, you can just skip all of that and raid merchant ships for their valuable cargo, becoming an infamous space pirate. The choice is yours.

Ever wanted an asymmetrical online multiplayer game about being constantly freaked out? You absolutely need to try , which has a simple setup but horrifying results. Rounds start with everyone controlling one of the Flock: large, skeletal creatures living in the eternal darkness of ancient Earth. Somewhere on the map is the Light Artifact; if you're holding it, you're winning the game. Naturally, the other Flock will try and take it from you, but you can stop them by shining your light in their direction. Should a Flock move while exposed to the light, they'll instantly burn to a crisp.

Imagine it: you're running through a narrow, stone valley. It's completely dark, save for the dim beam emanating from the Light Artifact. All around you are clicks and scrapes from the Flock's talons as they encircle their prey, unseen. Suddenly, a crash! You spin around, coming face to face with one of the hunchbacked beasts, knowing that the moment you look away it will cut you down. But, from behind, you can hear the scratching drawing closer.

To announce that Unreal Engine 4 is now free to everyone, Epic Games showed off a mesmerizing cinematic trailer, which depicts a giant open world that could easily double as the next entry in the Elder Scrolls series. At a subsequent panel, Epic divulged the secrets to developing this stunningly convincing landscape - but the bottom line is that proper lighting plays a huge part in a world's believability.

Hundreds of reference photos of cliffs, plains, and moss-covered rocks were taken to create a scene reminiscent of the Isle of Skye in Scotland for the . But even with high-res textures covering the landscape, the scene still needs to react properly to incoming light sources, or the illusion is shattered when shadows don't line up with their environment. Luckily, Unreal Engine 4 can handle some absurdly complex lighting jobs, able to compute the amount of sunlight that should bounce off the ground onto other objects, or the way light scatters on human skin.

Outside of the meeting rooms and show floor, there were a number of displays in the halls and foyers of the Moscone Center. One of the most interesting had to be the Videogame Museum’s display near the North Hall. The Texas-based organization brought some of its most valuable artifacts from gaming history for all to see.. This display was dedicated exclusively to the history of Atari, the first truly mainstream console maker in the US, and the showing wasn’t limited to mere games.

There were pristine game boxes, countless promotional materials that were kept in very good condition, and working models of every system setup. And the mood was perfectly set by '80s pop hits playing in the background. Check out our for a first-hand look at the loving tribute to a huge part of gaming history - and make it complete by listening to Boy George while you do it.

Are you annoyed at how rare interactive toys like amiibo can get? Do you wish Nintendo would just make a few more? Well, it’s not all that easy, as GDC’s Disney Infinity 2.0 panel attested. The second release in Disney Interactive’s toys-to-life series added a ton of new figures to the world, many from Marvel Comics, and the production took 10 long months.

The amount of pre-planning for figures even afford the Disney Infinity team the lead time to help inspire the comics themselves - the current look of Venom in the comics is informed by his Infinity design. The developers also dodged any questions about Star Wars figures being added to the mix... but if that’s happening in time for December’s new film, then the toys are likely being made at this very moment, right? Unless they somehow shortened the production time since 2014.

Was this look behind the scenes engrossing? Do you want to ask the folks that attended GDC some more questions? Tell us all about it in the comments!

Want to get even more GDC trivia? Check out .

When you put a ton of smart, creative people in the same space, good things are bound to happen. That's the idea behind the Game Developers Conference, the annual week-long gathering that invites people from all walks of game industry life to sync up and share ideas. As of today, GDC 2015 is wrapping up, and after five days of attending panels, playing indie gems, and getting a closer look at the VR tech that may very well determine gaming's future, we're feeling thoroughly enriched.

But if you couldn't make it out to San Francisco this year, don't fret. We picked up tons of interesting factoids and behind-the-scenes stories at GDC '15 - the kinds of tidbits that can get overlooked amidst all the news and previews. So here, in one convenient location, is a collection of the most downright interesting things we learned at GDC. Get ready to feel enlightened... or at the very least, feel like you've got a cool new anecdote to share with a friend.

It's probably no surprise to learn that triple-A game developers use a lot of data and focus groups to fine tune their games. Bungie was no different when it came to developing the missions and systems of its open-world shooter, . The dev team used lots of pre-release testers to play early builds of the game and let the creators know which parts of the game were fun and which sucked.

Typically, pause buttons are used to take a break from a game and collect feedback from the test participants, but because pausing isn't possible in an online-only game like Destiny, the developers had to think of some other way to get that precious data. The solution: give players instant access to button combinations that would tell the developers when they felt confused, lost, frustrated, or when something awesome happened. From there, the developers were able to create heatmaps of the awesome spots (as well as the not-so-great areas) and fill out the lame spots with extra awesome stuff. Awesome, right?

At the more technically focused talk titled ‘ Motion Capture Pipeline,’ Naughty Dog’s Damon Shelton talked about what happens with motion-capture data after the actors are done. Basically it takes a lot of programs and developmental elbow grease to craft the people of that dystopian future, including test footage using two of the only complete character models. So, to map out the involved animation of Ellie battling a Clicker, Naughty Dog had to make a ton of test footage featuring Joel’s model attacking the last person you’d expect him to.

Obviously this footage of Joel attacking Ellie would never be used in the game, Naughty Dog dropped the proper models in when all the assets were complete. Still, it must have been odd during development to cycle through hours and hours of footage of Joel attempting to bite Ellie’s face off. Shelton also revealed that Joel’s actor, Troy Baker, is actually a few inches taller than Joel, so they had to shrink the actor down to fit the finalized character model.

Back when first came out, a lot of people were shocked to discover how good it was. Meanwhile, the folks at Telltale Games were just shocked (and incredibly relieved) that so many people liked it. "We were sweating bullets when Walking Dead went out, because it was so weird," Telltale CEO Kevin Bruner said during a panel on the company's narrative approach to gameplay. Specifically, the game was an odd entry in the adventure game genre, since it had very few puzzles and focused almost entirely on player choice and dialogue. Given that standards for the genre were set by the likes of Grim Fandango and The Secret of Monkey Island, The Walking Dead looked like a bit of an odd bird, and no one was really sure how it was going to pan out.

Thankfully, things worked in the game's favor, but that hasn't made the Telltale team less anxious. "Every time something comes out, we are terrified [about] how it's going to be received," Bruner noted, pointing to the skeptical reactions the studio received received after announcing Tales from the Borderlands. Still, the goal remains the same as it did in The Walking Dead's development: "I don't think we were trying to build… the world's greatest anything. We just wanted to build something that we thought was good."

Danganronpa and its sequel got a lot of critical buzz last year, but still stayed under the radar for many mainstream gamers. Those who played it loved the characters and densely written plot, but perhaps the series potential is limited by its platform. The Vita isn’t known for big sales, and Danganronpa's creator wishes things were different.

While clarifying that he wasn’t being paid in any way by Sony, Kazutaka Kodaka began and ended his presentation with funny slides that exclaimed, 'why won’t people buy a Vita!' He didn’t elaborate on those frustrations too much, as he soon dove into the nuts and bolts of writing a game’s story, but the situation is understandable. Kodaka and his fellow developers are certainly invested in the handheld, even if the sales are dwindling worldwide. It's tough to maintain a system on niche titles like Danganronpa, even if they do tell some of the best stories in games.

Much like his most famous games, Japanese developer Hidetaka 'Swery65' Suehiro is so quirky and unassuming that you just can't help but love him. While hosting a panel about the development of the Xbox One episodic mystery D4, Swery hinted that . But that's not all - he also shared a whopping 65 tips pulled from his very own development process, including this valuable bit of wisdom to game makers: don't play the game you're creating every day.

"By leaving a little bit of room [between playtests], it allows for you to not get stale and have the same [recurring] opinions," he said. To ensure that he doesn't miss the forest for the game-development trees, Swery onlys plays the games he's making once a week - on Thursday, to be exact. Some other fun facts about Swery: whenever something bad happens at the office, his solution is to simply hug it out. When developing the characters for his games, he likes to map out a timeline for each of their fictional lives. Also, he owns four Power Gloves.

Stop me if this has happened to you: you're on a prisoner transfer ship, and all of sudden, the ship is attacked. You, the crew, and all the prisoners are rushed onto escape pods and jettisoned down to a mysterious planet. You find yourselves lost in an underground dungeon, and must work together to get out. It's so awkward, right? I hate it when that happens.

Dungeon of the Endless is a little bit dungeon crawler and a little bit tower defense. You explore randomly generated dungeons room by room, collecting new items and leveling up your characters in solo or co-op play. You also earn currency used to build fortifications in the rooms you've visited, in case hordes of enemies spawn when you enter the next area. Once you finally reach an exit, the finale involves running back to your starting point, picking up a special item, and slowly carrying it to the exit, all the while fending off an endless stream of enemies pouring in from all sides. Hope your fortifications are up to snuff in time for this PC-to-Xbox One port.

Magicka 2, a game about mages mixing magic spells to defeat imposing hordes of enemies, . This is new territory for publisher Paradox Interactive, which is known for catering exclusively to the PC market - though apparently not for lack of trying on Sony's part. "Sony asked earlier if we would like to publish our games on PlayStation 3," Paradox studio manager Mattias Wiking noted during a demonstration of Magicka 2. "We said 'No, it's a bit too complicated for us. We need to do regular game updates that our fans are really demanding.' So, it wasn't really a good platform for us."

What happened to change Paradox's mind? The PS4, and serious efforts by Sony to simplify the process of developing for it. "One day Sony came and said, 'Now we have the PlayStation 4... we're gonna make it really easy for everyone to publish their games." Wiking explained. "And we were like, 'Yeah, this will work.'" As Sony and Microsoft vie for ever more exclusive content from third-party developers, it's interesting to hear straight from the creators about how these interactions go. If Paradox's example is any indication, Sony has genuinely upped its game for this generation, with a focus on making its system attractive to a wider range of game makers.

If you're a fan of the ship combat from , but wish there was a lot more to it (and it was set in space), Rebel Galaxy is your space sim. You own a spaceship, with which you can do whatever you want. There is a full, open-world galaxy for you to explore, tons of characters to meet, and plenty of opportunities to rake in the dolla' bills.

There are many ways to approach Rebel Galaxy. Those who are keen on a complex storyline can follow the main quest chain, help or exploit important characters, and make universe-altering decisions. Alternatively, you can just skip all of that and raid merchant ships for their valuable cargo, becoming an infamous space pirate. The choice is yours.

Ever wanted an asymmetrical online multiplayer game about being constantly freaked out? You absolutely need to try , which has a simple setup but horrifying results. Rounds start with everyone controlling one of the Flock: large, skeletal creatures living in the eternal darkness of ancient Earth. Somewhere on the map is the Light Artifact; if you're holding it, you're winning the game. Naturally, the other Flock will try and take it from you, but you can stop them by shining your light in their direction. Should a Flock move while exposed to the light, they'll instantly burn to a crisp.

Imagine it: you're running through a narrow, stone valley. It's completely dark, save for the dim beam emanating from the Light Artifact. All around you are clicks and scrapes from the Flock's talons as they encircle their prey, unseen. Suddenly, a crash! You spin around, coming face to face with one of the hunchbacked beasts, knowing that the moment you look away it will cut you down. But, from behind, you can hear the scratching drawing closer.

To announce that Unreal Engine 4 is now free to everyone, Epic Games showed off a mesmerizing cinematic trailer, which depicts a giant open world that could easily double as the next entry in the Elder Scrolls series. At a subsequent panel, Epic divulged the secrets to developing this stunningly convincing landscape - but the bottom line is that proper lighting plays a huge part in a world's believability.

Hundreds of reference photos of cliffs, plains, and moss-covered rocks were taken to create a scene reminiscent of the Isle of Skye in Scotland for the . But even with high-res textures covering the landscape, the scene still needs to react properly to incoming light sources, or the illusion is shattered when shadows don't line up with their environment. Luckily, Unreal Engine 4 can handle some absurdly complex lighting jobs, able to compute the amount of sunlight that should bounce off the ground onto other objects, or the way light scatters on human skin.

Outside of the meeting rooms and show floor, there were a number of displays in the halls and foyers of the Moscone Center. One of the most interesting had to be the Videogame Museum’s display near the North Hall. The Texas-based organization brought some of its most valuable artifacts from gaming history for all to see.. This display was dedicated exclusively to the history of Atari, the first truly mainstream console maker in the US, and the showing wasn’t limited to mere games.

There were pristine game boxes, countless promotional materials that were kept in very good condition, and working models of every system setup. And the mood was perfectly set by '80s pop hits playing in the background. Check out our for a first-hand look at the loving tribute to a huge part of gaming history - and make it complete by listening to Boy George while you do it.

Are you annoyed at how rare interactive toys like amiibo can get? Do you wish Nintendo would just make a few more? Well, it’s not all that easy, as GDC’s Disney Infinity 2.0 panel attested. The second release in Disney Interactive’s toys-to-life series added a ton of new figures to the world, many from Marvel Comics, and the production took 10 long months.

The amount of pre-planning for figures even afford the Disney Infinity team the lead time to help inspire the comics themselves - the current look of Venom in the comics is informed by his Infinity design. The developers also dodged any questions about Star Wars figures being added to the mix... but if that’s happening in time for December’s new film, then the toys are likely being made at this very moment, right? Unless they somehow shortened the production time since 2014.

Was this look behind the scenes engrossing? Do you want to ask the folks that attended GDC some more questions? Tell us all about it in the comments!

Want to get even more GDC trivia? Check out .