Idea Generation and Conceptualization

Prof. Pier Luca Lanzi

Idea Generation & Conceptualization Videogame Design and Programming


Homework #3

submit two game concepts by October 11 @ 23:59


Concept #1

any game you’d like to create!


Concept #2

cannot contain violence or sex J

must have an experimental gameplay


experimental?


Guidelines for the Game Concept

•  The game-concept document expresses the core idea of the game

•  Brief and simple to encourage a flow of ideas (one page).

•  The target audience is the people responsible for advancing the idea to the next step: a formal game proposal

•  Typically, all concepts are presented to the director of product development (or executive producer) before they get outside of the product development department

•  The director will determine whether or not the idea has merit and will either toss it or dedicate some resources to developing the game proposal.

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Tim Ryan, The Anatomy of a Design Document, Part 1 http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3384/the_anatomy_of_a_design_document_.php?page=1


The One Sheet

•  It is probably the most important document

•  It is a tool to get people excited about your project (management, marketing, sales, licensors).

•  It also brings the team and the management “on the same page” with the project objectives and priorities.

•  Style does not matter (see the two examples)

•  Be short and informative

•  Reiterate the points on the one-sheet every time you talk about your game

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Designers should not be distracted by the “dramatic” elements.

Story and characters are important but they should not obscure the view of the gameplay

They should remain in the designer’s mind,

but secondary until the main elements have been pin down


Elements of the Game Concept

•  Game title

•  Introduction

•  Background (optional)

•  Description

•  Key features/Unique selling points

•  Analysis of the market

•  Genre

•  Platform(s)

•  Concept art (optional)

•  For concept #2 you need to include also a short sentence to explain why your concept has an experimental gameplay

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Structure of the Game-Concept Document

•  Introduction

§ These words will sell the document to the reader.

§ One sentence to describe the game in an excited manner.

§  Include the title, genre, platform, and any other meaningful bits of information that cannot wait until the next sentence.

§ Should be brief, the longer it is, the more your vision will seem diluted

§ Example: "Man or Machine is a first-person shooter for the PC that uses the proven Quake II engine to thrust players into the role of an android space marine caught up in the epic saga of the interstellar techno-wars of the thirty-seventh century."

•  Description

§  In a few paragraphs or a page, describes the game to the readers as if they are the players. Use the second-person perspective -- "you."

§ Must avoid specifics (e.g., mouse-clicks), but must not be too vague.

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•  Key Features

§ Bullet point list of items that will set this game apart from others

§ For instance, "Advanced Artificial Intelligence (AI): Man or Machine will recreate and advance the challenging and realistic AI that made Half-Life game of the year.“

§ Carefully determine the number of features to include (too few will sell the game short, too many will water down the strongest features)

•  Genre

§  In a few words, define the type of game or flavor (puzzle, FPS, etc.)

§  In case, refine the genre with additional words (e.g., WWII FPS)

•  Platform

§  In a few words, list the target platform(s).

§  f you think the game concept is applicable to multiple platforms, you should also indicate which platform is preferred or initial.

§  If you intend multiplayer support on the Internet, indicate that as well.

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•  Analysis of the Competitors

§ List at least 3-5 games that are your competitors

§ In one sentence tell why yours is special

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very important!

game concept must be anonymous J

your concept must occupy one page at most.

name must be on the other side J so that we can scan the concepts leaving out the names

art should be included on extra sheets (using one side)


Your Homework

• Write down the game-concept document for the game you wish to propose to the class

•  The firm deadline is October 11 @ 23:59

•  The game-concept document must be delivered in class or scanned and sent to [email protected]

•  The game-concept document must be well-written and accurately proof read.

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gamestorming


Coming up with ideas is difficult

Coming up with excellent ideas is even more difficult

And coming up with ideas is just the beginning…

Game design is about generating layers and iterations of ideas that help to refine and evolve your original concept


Creativity

•  Great ideas come from great input into your mind and senses

•  Not only playing games, but living a curious life, full of curiosity people, places, thoughts and events

•  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi describes the stages of creativity as

§ Preparation – becoming immerse in a topic or domain of interest, a set of problematic issues

§  Incubations – when ideas “churn around”

§  Insight – the “aha!” moment, when the pieces of the puzzles, or an idea, fall together

§ Evaluation – when the person decides whether the insight is valuable and worth pursuing. Is it really original?

§ Elaboration – the longest part of the creativity process; it takes the most time and is the hardest (Edison, 99% perspiration 1% inspiration).

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Ideas also come from analyzing existing games and activities

Develop your critical skills (not just think “cool!”)

Pay close attention to your emotional responses, to your cycle of frustration, exhilaration, confidence, etc.

Discuss games with friends, deconstruct games, etc.

Begin a game journal


Readings

•  Dave Gray e Sunni Brown. Gamestorming: A Playbook for Innovators, Rulebreakers, and Changemakers

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Opening

•  It is all about opening up people’s mind

•  It is about getting the people in the room putting down the card on the table the information and ideas flowing

•  The more idea you can get out in the open the more material you have to work in the next stage

•  The opening must be divergent, your goal is the widest possible spread of perspectives

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Exploring

•  Once you have collected many ideas, you need some exploration and experimentation

•  Look for patterns and analogies, try to see old things in new ways

•  Sift and sort through ideas

•  The keyword for this stage is “emergent”, you want to create the conditions for unexpected, surprising and delightful things to emerge

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Closing

•  Time to move toward the conclusions, decisions, actions, and next steps

•  Assess ideas, look at them with a critical or realistic eye

• Which ones are the most promising?

• Where should you invest your energy?

•  The keyword for this phase is “convergent”, you need to narrow the field to select the most promising things of what come next

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10 essentials for gamestorming


Essentials for Gamestorming (1&2)

•  Opening and Closing

§ It is the way you orchestrate the gamestorming activities

§ It is like breathing, expand and collapse, giving rhythm and life

§ Don’t open and close at the same time

§ Close everything you open

•  Fire Starting

§ The spark that ignites the process, it is typically a question

§ Another fire starter is “fill-in-the-blank”: you craft a short phrase and you ask the other people to complete

§ For example, if the goals is to explore, the fire starter could be “I want ______”

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Essentials for Gamestorming (3&4)

•  Artifacts

§ Objects to hold the information during the process

§ They might be sticky notes, index cards, etc.

§ Artifacts are carriers of meaning

•  Node Generation

§ During the opening phase, you need to generate as many artifacts (or node) as possible

§ This is called “node generation”

§  It can be silent or involve callouts

§ Ask everybody to write ideas on sticky notes and then, when the process is finished, each one reads a note out loud and put it on the board

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Essentials for Gamestorming (5, 6, 7, 8)

•  Meaningful Space

§  It is the place where nodes can be displayed/organized

§ For instance, you can ask people to organize the sticky nodes in three columns on a board so that “things that might belong together” are put in the same column

§ Don’t name the columns though!

•  Sketching and model making

•  Randomness, Reversal, and Reframing

§ Rearrange, recombine, reposition nodes in the meaningful space

•  Improvisation

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Essential for Gamestorming (9&10)

•  Selection

§ You cannot do everything so there will come a time when you need to winnow down a large set of ideas down to a smaller damageable set

§ One way is to give 10 sticky notes to everybody and ask them to vote for the thing they like most

§ Another way is to force a ranking

•  Try Something New

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Education

Idea Generation and Conceptualization