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.
6

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
8

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
12

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.
13

•  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.
14

•  Analysis of the Competitors
§ List at least 3-5 games that are your competitors
§ In one sentence tell why yours is special
15
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 pierluca.lanzi@polimi.it
•  The game-concept document must be well-written and
accurately proof read.
16

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).
22

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
24

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
28

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
29

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
30

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 ______”
33

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
34

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
35

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
39

http://www.facebook.com/polimigamecollective
https://twitter.com/@POLIMIGC
http://www.youtube.com/PierLucaLanzi
http://www.polimigamecollective.org

Idea Generation and Conceptualization

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