Games Design: Game Concepts

“This is the earliest stage of game design: getting and refining an idea for a game.” Ernest Adams

Game Concepts Your goal, once this stage is complete, is to be able to write a ‘high-concept document’. Not all details need to be worked out by the end of this stage but you should have a clear understanding of what your game is about.

Game Concepts A high concept document should communicate rapidly and clearly the idea of the game. A high concept document should be two to four pages long and should take no more than 10 minutes to read.

Game Concepts A high concept document is made to describe the game to help persuade someone to give the designer(s) a lot of money to produce it. Today's games cost a lot to produce i.e. wages to develop prototype.

Getting an Idea Ideas can be sparked from anywhere. However, creativity is active not passive. One idea is not enough for a game title to be created. Ideas are free, so think about new ones constantly. Many larger, richer game ideas begin as daydreams.

Generating the Game Concept To turn your game idea into a fully fledged game concept, you need to think about and answer for yourself some general questions about your idea. You don’t have to be precise or detailed, but you should have an answer for them all.

Question 1 What is the nature of the game play? That is, what challenges will the player face? What actions will the player take to overcome them? Challenges, together with the actions the players can take to meet them, make up the game play.

Question 2 What is the victory condition for the game, if any? What is the player trying to achieve? Most, but not all, games have a special rule that defines the ‘victory condition’: a state of affairs in which one or more players are said to be the winner.

Question 3 What is the player’s role? Is the player pretending to be someone or something, and if so, what? How does the player’s role help to define the game play? Defining the players role in the game world is a key part of defining your game’s concept. If the players role is difficult to describe, it might be difficult for the player to grasp as well. This usually indicates a conceptual problem with the game.

Question 4 What is the game’s setting? Where does it take place? Every game has a setting. Even simple card and dice games are played on a tabletop with player agreed playing areas!

Question 5 What is the player’s interaction model? Omnipresent? Through an avatar? Something else? Some combination? The ‘interaction model’ describes the rules for how a player interacts with the game world. Models where the player’s interactions are localised around a single character are called ‘avatar’ based. Models where the player can interact with different parts of the world are called ‘omnipresent’.

Question 6 What is the game’s primary perspective? How will the player view the game’s world on the screen? Will there be more than one perspective? Perspective describes how the player actually sees the world on screen. There are several perspectives including: Top-down Side-on Isometric 3D

Question 7 What is the general structure of the game? What is going on in each mode, and what function does each fulfil? Some games work the same way from beginning to end. Other games have distinct ‘modes’ in which the nature of the game play changes significantly from one mode to the next. The relationships between the ‘modes’ and the rules for switching collectively form the ‘structure’ of the game.

Question 8 Is the game competitive, cooperative, team-based, or single-player? If multiplayer players are allowed, are they using the same machine with separate controls or different machines over a network? If the game features single and multiplayer aspects combined, do any of the game rules change accordingly? Are multiplayer game worlds the same as in the single player experience?

Question 9 Does the game have a narrative or story as it goes along? Summarise the plot in a sentence or two. Whether a game contains a great deal of story or not, the player must ultimately live his/her own story through playing the game. The fundamental principal of gaming is interactivity: providing the players with something entertaining to do. Stories and narratives are often important for certain types of game.

Question 10 Does the game fall into an existing genre? If so, which one? Each genre displays a common pattern of challenges. Crossing genres is possible and is usually the result of either a design compromise or an effort to appeal to a larger audience.

Question 11 Why would anyone want to play this game? What sort of people would be attracted to this game? If you can not answer this question then your game will struggle if released on the market. In fact you may not get it published. The answer needs to be a conclusion of some market research in the area.

Question 12 What platform is the game going to be designed for? Is every element above suitable for a game delivered on this platform? There are several platforms to produce a game on, each with its own characteristics and restrictions. The decision to choose one platform over the other could come from a combination of issues such as market saturation, input device or cost. Your game concept needs to be able to actually work on your chosen platform. This may require research into every aspect of the platform.