A talk given at Montreal International Games Summit 2016 on creativity, creativity management, design of new game IP.

1. PRODUCING A NEW GAME IP
Sergei Savchenko
Exec. Producer
WB Games Montréal

2. WHY?
 Players desire better entertainment experiences
 Strong business need
 It is rewarding for the creators
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3. MOST REWARDING:
 Creatively
 Peer and audience acceptance
 $$$
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4. MOST RISKY:
 $$$
 Technologically
 In terms of pain and stress for
the creators
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5. REALLY, REALLY DIFFICULT…
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6. 3DO
Skwork Studio
EA
Sava Transmedia
WB Games
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?

7. WHAT NOT TO DO…
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8. PRODUCING A NEW GAME IP 8

9. PRODUCER’S ROLE IN TERMS OF
 Helping Creativity
 Leading Teams
 Managing Process
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10. PRODUCING A NEW GAME IP
 New gameplay?
 New characters?
 New visuals?
 New tech?
New type of VALUE PROPOSITION for the player
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11. VALUE PROPOSITION ELEMENTS
 Projected entertainment time
 Venue for Relatedness/Social comparison
 Venue for Autonomy/Self-expression
 Pleasure
 Novelty or Legacy Appeal
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12. MAN PLAY AND GAMES
Pleasure Types:
 Agon: Confrontation, victory
 Alea: Chance, hope
 Mimicry: Role play
 Ilinx: High perceptual experiences
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Roger Coillois

13. PRODUCING A NEW GAME IP 13

14. PRODUCING A NEW GAME IP 14

15. BLUE OCEAN STRATEGY
What to focus and not to focus on
when building a new product or
service
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W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne

16. PRODUCING A NEW GAME IP 16

17. PRODUCING A NEW GAME IP 17

18. TRENDS
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VR
3D TV

19. PRODUCING A NEW GAME IP
 Finding budget?
 Hiring Team?
 Leading?
 Managing?
 Planning?
Guarding PLAYER’S ROI
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20. Not the one to take the credit if it is successful…
The one to be fired if it fails…
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21. MANAGING CREATIVITY AND
INNOVATION
Basic Principles and the
conventional view
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22. IDEAS -- PRODUCTS OF ASSOCIATIONS
 Divergent Associations
 Convergent Associations
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23. DIVERGENT ASSOCIATIONS
 Combine different unusual elements from
worldview
 Reformat an element through the prism of another
element
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24. IDEA CONVERGENCE
 Deduce implications
 Fit the constraints
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25. PRODUCING A NEW GAME IP 25

26. PRODUCING A NEW GAME IP 26

27. PRODUCING A NEW GAME IP 27
Designing Your Design Team, Richard Carrillo, GDC’15

28. VISIONARY ≠ DIVERGENT THINKER
ANALYST ≠ CONVERGENT THINKER
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29. NEUROSCIENCE
 No left Brain vs.
Right Brain
 Default Mode
Network vs. Executive
Control Network
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30. PRODUCING A NEW GAME IP 30

31. TYPICAL CREATIVE ISSUES
 Indecision – Creative Block
 Frequent Divergent Ideas with lack of Convergence
 Creative Vision doesn’t translate into Player Value
 Game lack’s Accessibility to the Player
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32. INDECISION – CREATIVE BLOCK
 Suggest a starting point
 Safety and stress?
 Broaden worldview
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33. PRODUCING A NEW GAME IP 33

34. LACK OF CONVERGENCE
 Help establish constraints and intensions
 Switch attention to MVPs
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35. CREATIVE VISION DOESN'T TRANSLATE INTO
PLAYER VALUE
 Always question player value of all Ideas
 Need an analyst and empath on your team
 Make sure game-makers and not specialists are in
charge
 Organize a Braintrust
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36. CREATIVITY, INC.
Overcoming the unforeseen forces
that stand in the way of true
inspiration.
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Ed Catmull

37. GAME LACKS ACCESSIBILITY TO THE PLAYER
 Need an empath designer
 Help establish Braintrust
 Culture of player testing
 Analytics!
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38. PRODUCING A NEW GAME IP 38

39. BUILDING NEW IP TEAM
 Structure vs. Organization
 Process vs. Culture
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40. TYPICAL TEAM ISSUES
 Inability to Hire the Team
 Lack of Experience on the team
 Lack of Cohesion or Infighting
 Lack of Motivation
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41. INABILITY TO HIRE THE TEAM
 Need a salesmen on your team
 Need to build an employment brand
 Communicate!
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42. LACK OF EXPERIENCE ON THE TEAM
 Start with experienced core
 Training
 Internal Game Jams or focus efforts
 Give talent a chance
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43. PRODUCING A NEW GAME IP 43

44. LACK OF COHESION OR INFIGHTING
 Reduce the number of
games being built to One
 Identify common end
 Team empathy training
 Patiently build
organization and culture
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45. PRODUCING A NEW GAME IP 45

46. LEGO MINDSTORMS
 Role empathy training
 Switch roles (producers
code, coders produce)
 Build a Lego Mindstorms
robot to navigate and claim
reward
 Iterate
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47. LACK OF MOTIVATION
 Regular Q&A with the team
 Give autonomy
 Provide Learning opportunities
 Give outlets for social comparison with peers
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48. PSYCHOLOGY OF MOTIVATION
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49. DRIVE
 Autonomy
 Mastery
 Purpose/Relatedness
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Daniel H. Pink

50. LEADERSHIP VS. MANAGEMENT
 Leadership is about people
 Management is about planning
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51. TYPICAL PROCESS ISSUES
 Over-Scoped
 Demo to Demo to Demo
 Chaotic Process
 Overly Inflexible Process
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52. OVER-SCOPED
 The amount of content ≠ More playing time
 Quality ≠ High Fidelity
 What not to re-invent
 Delay production planning until MVP is built
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53. PRODUCING A NEW GAME IP 53

54. THINKING FAST AND SLOW
Intuition, logic and cognitive biases
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Daniel Kahneman

55. DEMO TO DEMO TO DEMO
 Maintain trust and transparency with your
publisher
 Find a champion
 Simplify your message
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56. PRODUCING A NEW GAME IP 56
1. The Skunk Works manager must be delegated practically complete control of
his program in all aspects. He should report to a division president or higher.
#1 of Kelly Johnson’s 14 Rules of Skunkworks

57. CHAOTIC PROCESS
 Establish minimal process
 Set 3-5 clear key goals per milestone
 Change the process when needed
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58. OVERLY INFLEXIBLE PROCESS
 Change it!
 You won’t be able to make it on
budget/time/scope and quality anyway…
 Fire the inflexible producer 
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59. PRODUCING A NEW IP THE ART OF
 Understanding and Patience
 Asking Right Questions
 Intentional Underinvestment
 Focused Investment and Support
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60. THANK YOU!
QUESTIONS?
Sergei Savchenko
sergei.savchenko@wbgames.com
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