It is good to start with an idea of a gesture game featuring a very minimalistic plot: a name, few abstract rules, and score statistics at the end. There is no need to create some narrative structures, characters, dialogues, and so on. But the minimalistic approach needs an appropriate objectification. All elements of the game: media, artwork, GUI, and icons, have to be laconic too. If everything is done correctly, the game can look nice and elegant, especially from a graphic designer's point of view. The game can be truly digital and modernistic, along with flat graphics, clear colors, minimum ornamentation, large and light sans serif fonts, and well-balanced graphic compositions. Let's give that game a code name, Clear gesture.

The following are the advantages of the design and idea concept:

The following are the disadvantages of the design and idea concept:

The minimalistic style is amazing but it almost has no emotions. It is pretty cold and is not funny, so the game is unable to make the player smile. Most commonly, you need a more traditional, skeuomorphic graphic style for your game. Hence you need a small plot to express the main idea of the game. It has to explain to the players why they should make those gestures on the screen and why it is so dramatically important to play carefully. Sometimes, the idea of a game plot comes from a sudden afflatus and can even precede the game itself. But in our case, we already have well-written game principles and mechanics; in other words, we have a prototype. We only need some ideas to decorate it properly and build a connection between the game elements and the player. Sometimes, there is a trick to find the right idea for a game. You only need to look attentively at your game prototype, rather, at the elements it uses. Sometimes, you only need to find the right ornamentation for them. Please look at the special icons that represent the gesture combinations in this book: a circle with some holes in it. What does the circle look like? Correct, it looks like a button from your shirt or jacket! That is amazing! That is the idea we are looking for. And here's our plot: the player has to sew on the buttons, drawing the contours of threads on fabrics. If the player makes a mistake and the buttons are falling down, the game can be finished, in which case the player would collect a lot of fallen buttons. The game can utilize several designs of the buttons and few types of backgrounds to create a unique decoration for each game mode. This game may be code named Buttons.

The following are the advantages of the Button game idea:

The following are the disadvantages of the Button game idea:

Most people love kittens (and those who don't are simply afraid to admit that). People like to touch and caress them because kittens are so extremely cute and can sing peerless purr-purr songs. Many people also like to play and interact with their mobile devices as well. Let's combine these two passions and make a game about a kitten dreaming to be stroked. There will be a cute little face of a kitten with big lovely eyes on the screen and a speech balloon with a gesture symbol. The player will reply by drawing a gesture. If their input is correct, they will be rewarded with the purr-purr sound and several points. It would be great to apply a system of emotion for the main character; he would smile and become happy if the player is successful and would become sad otherwise. Instead of a kitten, another small and cute character can be used (for example, a puppy), or you can invent a fictional animal. The game modes should be renamed so that they can fit the more cartoony style of the game story. For example, the standard game mode may be called stroking, lights may become titillate, but intuition, on its turn, may be renamed into guess what I want. Here we have an ideal game for small kids. Let's give it a code name Purr.

The following are the advantages of the Purr game idea:

The following are the disadvantages of the Purr game idea:

The most capricious elements of the gesture games are the spells and lights modes. They can be incorporated in many of the decoration styles we've talked about, but it is interesting to invent something special. Both of them need a bright effect of light that looks wonderful against a very contrasting and dark background. It is important to remember that the most spectacular photos of lighting or fireworks are made at night. The idea is to use a dark sky as a background. Stars will become grid dots in the lights mode or trajectory nodes for the spells. An image of a comet (or a glowworm) will be used for the source of the light in the lights mode; it will be flying above the stars drawing a gesture symbol. Some spells (bonus ones) may become interactive, being called the spells of elements. Their mission is to start certain animation sequences playing in the background: a lighting strike, rain, snowfall, and so on. This has nothing to do with the gameplay process itself, but it looks great, and the player will love it and will try to repeat such a game situation in the future. Let's give this variant of game a code name Magic sky.

The following are the advantages of the Magic sky game idea:

The following are the disadvantages of the Magic sky game idea: