Brainstorming a Game Idea (Game Design: Theory & Practice)

Game Design – Theory and Practice (Book's Summary: Part 3)

Book’s Author: Richard Rouse III

Summarized by Samuel Coelho

2. Brainstorming a Game Idea: Gameplay, Technology, and Story

Almost all of the challenge in game development is not coming up with a good idea, but in following through and being able to craft a compelling game around that idea.

The process of coming up with a game idea that will work is complicated by a number of factors fiction authors do not need to worry about. In part this is because computer game ideas can come from three distinct, unrelated areas of the form: gameplay, technology, and story. These different origins are interconnected in interesting ways, with the origin of the game’s idea limiting what one will be able to accomplish in the other two areas.

2.1 Starting Points

For each decision the designer makes about the game she is hoping to create, she needs to understand how that limits what the game will be. If the parts do not work together, it does not matter how many markets the concept covers – no gamers will be interested in playing the final game.

2.1.1 Starting with Gameplay

With a more specific idea of what type of gameplay she wants to create, the designer should start thinking about how that will impact the technology the game will require and what sort of story, if any, the game will be able to have.

Technological feasibility may end up limiting the scope of your gameplay. If you find that you need to adapt your gameplay to match the engine, you really are not starting out with gameplay as the origin of your idea, but instead with technology.

The type of gameplay your game will employ similarly limits what type of story can be told. Certain types of story just will not fit with certain types of gameplay, such as the Greek mythology in a flight simulator gameplay.

2.1.2 Starting with Technology

Sometimes the designer is presented with a new technology and tasked with coming up with a game story and gameplay that will exploit the sophisticated technology to full effect. Of course, the designer does not need to use every piece of technology that a programmer feels compelled to create, but it’s always better to have your gameplay work with the engine instead of fighting against it.

Other times its predetermined that the project will be using an engine licensed from some source, either another game developer or a technology-only company, and many lincensed engines are still developed with one game genre in mind.

When technology is handed to a game designer who is told to make a game out of it, it makes the most sense for the designer to embrace the limitations of that technology and turn them into strengths in her game.

For the greater good of the game, the story and the technology must be compatible with each other.

As a game designer, it is possible to get stuck in a rut of how a game “needs to be done” and forget the potential implementations that may be a better fit for the technology.

2.1.3 Starting with Story

The story can be the jumping-off point, the central vision from which all other aspects of the game are determined.

Frequently, a particular setting may inspire a game designer. Any good game designer who thinks up a story or a setting will have a tendency to think of it in therms of how it would translate into a game, how the player can interact with that story, and how the story may unfold in different ways depending on the player’s actions in the game-world.

Not all stories will translate very well into games, mainly if we consider today’s genres, and thinking of gameplay possibilities early can help you rule out settings that simply will not work out for today’s possible gameplay styles.

The designer MUST find the gameplay that will allow the player to experience the most important elements of whatever story she is trying to tell. Of course, the technology will have to match up the story as well, primarily in order to support the gameplay the designer decides is best suited to telling that story.

2.2 Working with Limitations

Experienced game designers already understand the limitations placed on the creation of games by technology, gameplay, and story. When they take part in brainstorming sessions, these game designers have a gut sense of how making certain choices about the game in question will limit its creation further down the road.

2.3 Embrace Your Limitations

In many ways, developing a game is all about understanding your limitations and then turning those limitations into advantages. It’s the designer’s job to establish what constraints the project has, find the perfect parts that fit within those limitations, and finally make all the pieces fit together in a compeling game.

2.3.1 Established Technology

Often a designer at a larger company is required to work with whatever technology that company has, and even if the designer is fortunate enough to be able to seek out a technology to license for a project, that designer will still be limited by the quality of the engines that are available for licensing and the amount of money she has to spend.

Working solo as both designer and programmer no a project, one might think the designer could make whatever she wants. It’s not always like that. Functioning as the sole programmer and designer on a project has many benefits, but it certainly limits what one will be able to accomplish.

Sometimes it is better to shelve an idea that is incompatible with your technology and come up with a design better suited to the tools you have. Once you have identified the limitations that the engine saddles you with, it’s best to embrace those limitations instead of fighting them. This is not to suggest that a designer should always design the simplest game that she can think of or that sophisticated, experimental designs should not be attempted.

Therefore, a designer should consider what the technology lends itself to and use that as the basis for the game she designs and the story she sets ouy to tell.

2.3.2 The Time Alloted

Though time, and consequently budget, are primarily the concern and responsibility of the project’s producer, the game designer needs to know how these factors will limit the project just as the technology, gameplay, or story may.

For example, if development is running six months late with no end in sight and as a result the publisher pulls the plug, it does not matter how brilliant your game design may have been in theory. No one will get to play your game because you failed to fully consider the logistics of implementing it.

2.4 If You Choose Not to Decide, You Still Have Made a Choice

Without a consistent and unified vision, no game will have a fighting chance. Though each member of the team may have a valid case for pursuing her idea, if the ideas do not work together, at some point the group will need to pick one and go with it.

In the end, you do not want your game to consist only of an excellent technology or a compelling story or a brilliant game design. If none of these components support each other and you lack unified vision, your game will be just as bad as if you were working with a hackneyed story, a thin game design, and an incomplete technology.