something i struggle with a lot when watching design talks is understanding which ones are broadly popular/talked about. so, here are 5 mechanics-focused talks i see often-discussed among designers in AAA, to the point where i'm like "don't you dare link that damn talk again":

(worth noting that the speaker pool here is extremely non diverse. please don't take this as an endorsement of the current state of game design as a discipline and talk circuit, i don't get to pick and choose the state of popular AAA design discourse) (yet)

this Path of Exile talk. a lot of game companies have to do live content or post-launch content. if you want to work at a company doing live content, this is one you should watch.

this talk about making micro adjustments on a single weapon in Halo 3. useful as a primer for understanding how small balance changes can have rippling repercussions, as well as evaluating decisions you make in big design systems.

the art of screenshake. i have been sent this talk one billion times. it's an incredible talk to understand how to make basically everything in a game feel really nice. please never link it to me again. i will scream.

this camera talk. if you're working in any kind of game without a fixed camera (even, yes, in VR) this is a great primer on fundamentals.

this talk about level design in the context of Disneyland. a really easy entry level talk for learning level design fundamentals in a way that's fun. https://gdcvault.com/play/1305/Everything-I-Learned-About-Level