This year’s Game Developers Conference has been a tense one. International travel anxiety, panels full of AI tech talks, and an emphasis on consumers over creators have all cast a shadow over what’s supposed to be an important annual watering hole for developers to gather at. But even in that mess, the industry’s best qualities have still found a way to poke through. This year’s conference came with countless demos for upcoming games that show just how much creativity real humans still have in the tank.

