GAME CONCEPT
In This Chapter
• Beginning the Process
• Define Concept
• Prototyping
• Risk Analysis
• Pitch Idea
• Project Kick-off
14.1 I
NTRODUCTION
P
re-production starts with defining the game’s concept. After all, you can’t
start working on a game until you have some idea of what the game’s goal
is and what the final game will look like when it is completed. Initial con-
cept starts with a broad idea—what would it be like to race concept cars against
each other—and then more details are added to narrow the concept and create
a vision for the game. Elements such as the hardware platform, genre, and key
features are defined, along with more specifics on what the game world is like,
the character designs, and the gameplay mechanics. After all this is defined,
anyone presented with the game information should understand the goals of the
game’s concept.
Rarely does the producer alone determine the initial game concept and the
general game design, unless he is funding a game development team and has final
authority over all game design decisions. In reality, game design is a collaborative
Chapter 14
220 THE GAME PRODUCTION HANDBOOK, 2/E
process, and the producer’s main role is to manage the development process and
make sure that all the key elements of the design are completed. A lead designer
or creative director usually manages the creative process to ensure that all the
game’s elements support the initial concept. In some cases, if you try to manage
both the creative and production process, you can find yourself in a dilemma
when you have an idea for a cool feature but need to cut it for production rea-
sons. Additionally, if you assume some of the lead design responsibilities without
strictly defining this in your role as producer, the other team members—par-
ticularly the lead designer—might be frustrated if they do not understand the
reasoning behind your creative authority on the project.
Of course, there are instances where the producer is also the main creative
leader, and this can be a successful way to structure as team, as long as everyone
understands what your role as producer-director entails. The key is to define
the creative and production management responsibilities clearly on the project,
so that people are assured that both aspects of these areas are being expertly
handled in the game development cycle. After the roles are clearly defined for
pre-production tasks, you can start working on the game’s concept.
Remember that when a team collaborates on a creative project, people are
never in 100 percent agreement. If you spend your time trying to get everyone
to agree on everything about the game, then little progress is made. People can
spend too much time disagreeing with decisions and so no final decisions are
made. If people are in disagreement on how a certain element functions in the
game, don’t waste time trying to convince the dissenter that the idea is good.
Instead, spend the time prototyping the idea, get some actual gameplay feed-
back on the fun factor, and make adjustments or change the functionality based
on this information.
This chapter presents an overview of what game elements are defined in the
concept phase. In order to demonstrate some of the key points, a sample game
will be used throughout this chapter and subsequent chapters discussing the
game development process.
14.2 BEGINNING THE PROCESS
At the beginning of the game development process, the team will likely consist
of a producer, lead designer, lead engineer, and lead artist. This core team is
responsible for taking a concept and turning it into a game design. This means
determining the concept, platform, genre, gameplay mechanics, character de-
signs, and any other key game elements.
If you are working for a publisher-owned developer, the publisher will likely
assign your team specific games to work on, including the platform, genre, and
initial concept. With this basic information, the core team needs to define all
GAME CONCEPT 221
the other elements of the game. If you are working for an independent devel-
oper, your core team will come up with the initial concept and further define it.
Regardless of where the initial concept originates, there is still plenty of creative
work for the team to do.
The work on the initial concept should not take more than a few weeks. Any
longer than that and you will lose valuable pre-production time and any creative
momentum the team has built up in anticipation of working on a new project.
One of the first things the team will participate in is a brainstorming session.
Brainstorming
Brainstorming sessions are an opportunity to involve the team in generating a
large number of ideas about the game. You can brainstorm about the initial game
concept, the basic gameplay mechanics, the game’s setting, or what the charac-
ters will look like in the game. Well-managed brainstorming sessions are also a
great team-building exercise because it allows everyone to offer their opinions
about what makes a fun game. The core team is involved in the brainstorming
session, or you can open it up to other people within the studio; it depends on
how many ideas you want to generate in the sessions.
Before organizing a brainstorming session, familiarize yourself with guide-
lines for how to effectively manage one. If the session is not managed properly,
it will not yield useful information, and the participants might feel frustrated by
their experience. Some common complaints of an unsuccessful brainstorming
session are as follows:
■
The session lost focus and did not provide useful information.
■
Participants’ ideas were not listened to.
■
No new ideas were generated.
■
Participants felt used when the final decisions had no relationship to their
initial input.
These mistakes can be avoided if a few guidelines are followed when setting
up and conducting the session. Prepare for the session beforehand:
Clearly define the purpose of the session: If the purpose is to think of names
for the game’s main character, make sure that everyone involved in the session
knows this. Also, define who’s running the session and who’s taking notes.
Get the right group of people involved in the session: In some cases, it
isn’t conducive to have 50 people involved. You might need to have several
smaller sessions on different topics or be selective about who is invited. For
example, if you are brainstorming on what graphics features to include in the
game, you will need to have more artists and engineers and less designers.
222 THE GAME PRODUCTION HANDBOOK, 2/E
Have everyone prepare for the session beforehand: Let people know
what topic they will be discussing so they can do some preliminary research.
They might want to find out what the competition did, what technologies are
available, or sketch out some ideas. This way, everyone is already thinking
about the topic before the session, which makes the time spent brainstorm-
ing more productive.
During the actual session, establish a set of norms to follow during the ses-
sion. The purpose of these norms is to create an environment in which people
feel comfortable throwing out their ideas. Some basic norms are as follows:
Do not criticize anyone or his idea during the session: When someone
throws out an idea, don’t start picking it apart right away. The purpose of the
session is to generate information, not to eliminate it.
Do not start discussing an idea during the session: Write each idea on
the board and then move on to the next one. The session will quickly lose
focus after people start discussing an idea in detail, and you will miss oppor-
tunities to generate other great ideas.
When ideas stop flowing, be prepared to generate more: If people start
running out of ideas in the session, look at the ideas already generated and
start expanding on them or prepare some thought-provoking questions to ask
to get the conversation started again. For example, what does our competition
do that we aren’t doing? How can we avoid the problem of __________?
After the ideas are generated, spend some time with the team grouping them
together into like-minded ideas and then prioritize them. From this, generate
a report of the results of the brainstorming session and add it to the meeting
notes. The higher priority ideas are assigned to specific people for follow up and
research. Be very clear about the action items generated in each brainstorming
session and include these in the meeting notes. If you don’t follow up on any of
the ideas generated, people will feel that their participation was a waste of time.
Some of the topics to be brainstormed might include the genre, platform, and
initial game concept.
Schedule the brainstorming session as one of the first tasks for pre-production,
so you can get everyone’s ideas out in the open. Try to get as many brainstorming
sessions completed and documented as possible in the first week of the project. The
longer you put off the brainstorming session, the longer it will take to determine the
game’s initial concept. Ideally, each brainstorming session is managed by someone
who has a neutral stance on the topic addressed. This way, his attention can be
focused on running the session effectively and taking notes. When each session
is completed, publish the notes within 24 hours. Also, each action item generated
should take no more than a few days for the assigned person to complete.
GAME CONCEPT 223
Initial Concept
The initial concept can be generated by anyone—the publisher, the producer,
the lead designer, or any other team member. The initial concept does not
need to be detailed but does need to present a compelling goal for the game to
achieve. This is also sometimes referred to as the game’s hook. This hook pro-
vides the basis for all game decisions and is something the marketing department
can communicate easily to the target audience when the time comes.
Initial concepts usually start off as a question to be answered—what if zom-
bies existed and were living in outer space? What if animals had humans as pets?
After the initial concept is determined, decisions are made that shape what the
final version of the game will be like.
Here is an example of the initial concept for a game called Justice Unit:
Can a group of misfits come together as the Justice Unit, and save the world
from super villains?
Genre
Genre refers to the type of game, such as fighting, role-playing, or first-person
shooter. By categorizing games into genres, developers and publishers have a
better understanding of what the gameplay is like. For example, the genre of
first-person shooters (FPS) involves a first-person perspective where the player
shoots things in the game world and is positioned behind the weapon, seeing
only his weapon and his avatar’s hand. Doom and Half-life are examples of classic
first-person shooters. Other game genres include fighting, sports, simulations,
role-playing, strategy, and third-person shooters.
The genre affects the design of the game. Here is an example of how the
genre shapes the game, using The Justice Unit as an example:
Fighting game: If Justice Unit were a two-player fighting game, it might
feature a roster of superheroes and villains from which to choose. Selling
points could include unlockable characters, combination moves, and possibly
a crossover with a licensed property, such as an existing comic book hero.
Real-time strategy: As an RTS, the game would feature an army of super-
heroes fighting against waves of alien invaders.
Role-playing game. As a first-person RPG, the player takes on the role of a
single character, fighting evil in a superhero universe of masked villains and
crime fighters.
At some point during the concept phase, the game genre will be defined.
The designer might combine several genres, improve on an existing genre, or
even try to create new genre. Also, ideas for genre are something that be dis-
cussed in the brainstorming session.
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