Written by Ruby, 2021 Cohort
Not every game begins with a great idea before it is implemented. Many designers find it difficult to come up with an idea and bring it to life. In many situations, designers are assigned specific problems or tasks that need to be addressed with a creative solution. That’s when designers need a systematic method to help themselves develop a conceptualized idea.
Brainstorming
Brainstorming with your teammates is a collaborative result that helps everyone in the team contribute their own creative and innovative thoughts. The first step is to illustrate the challenges and try not to be critical of other team members’ ideas through this process. In the end, everyone should be as creative as possible, and enlighten others on their ideas. Try to combine different methods when brainstorming, for example, mind mapping, idea cards, list creation.
Editing & Refining
One of the key techniques is figuring out the essence of the challenge for that specific problem, and paring back all the possible solutions based on that. Technical feasibility is one of the most important things to consider when the team is trying to rule out infeasible solutions. During the process, the team leader has to think about the intellectual resources, project experiences the team obtained as well as the market, competitors, and cost restrictions, etc.
Turning Idea into Game: Iterative Process
Before diving into the process of prototyping and testing, try to compare your idea with the existing genre or mechanics in the market. It is helpful for building up the idea if the team learns from the existing successful model, and evolves based on their success. Throughout the process, the iterative design would be a powerful tool for refining your concept before it is finalized into a game. Overall, the iterative design will be providing a lot of feedback and keeping the team stick to the core idea.
Reference
Fullerton, T. (2014). Game Design Workshop: A Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games, Third Edition (3rd ed.). CRC Press.