From Concept to Completion
by Jay Barnson · in General Discussion · 12/29/2005 (2:01 pm) · 1 replies
If there was an academic course on "Creating Indie Games," this article would be required reading:
http://www.philsteinmeyer.com/30/from-concept-to-completion/
Key points:
* Phil discarded two game concepts / mechanics before finalizing on the core gameplay for Bonnie's Bookstore. RAPID PROTOTYPING to test ideas is really, really important.
* There's a TON of experimentation and "play" that takes place in the MIDDLE of development, even after the "design" is done. This is a Good Thing, but it's a lot of work.
* Phil submitted ideas for the game title and theme to a panel of of people to find out which ideas seemed to have the greatest mass appeal. His favorite concepts weren't the crowd favorites - which was okay. In the end, rather than having the single best concept dictated to him by his focus group, he synthesized several of the best ideas.
* His idea was further modified by the talented efforts of his artists, who suggested through their artwork new concepts (and a better way of finishing the planned number of screens).
* He had to switch artists in mid-stream. This wasn't a case of one artist being bad, it was simply a case of one artist's technique being more scaleable to the completion of the game.
* This shows how much work can go into just a "simple" casual game. Market research, experimentation, staffing / contracting, and content requirements --- and hardly ANYTHING is mentioned about the coding & design phase. Just so you know where we programmers and game designers sit in the whole scheme of things...
* He pulled it all off in a 4-month development cycle. It CAN be done, and done QUICKLY.
http://www.philsteinmeyer.com/30/from-concept-to-completion/
Key points:
* Phil discarded two game concepts / mechanics before finalizing on the core gameplay for Bonnie's Bookstore. RAPID PROTOTYPING to test ideas is really, really important.
* There's a TON of experimentation and "play" that takes place in the MIDDLE of development, even after the "design" is done. This is a Good Thing, but it's a lot of work.
* Phil submitted ideas for the game title and theme to a panel of of people to find out which ideas seemed to have the greatest mass appeal. His favorite concepts weren't the crowd favorites - which was okay. In the end, rather than having the single best concept dictated to him by his focus group, he synthesized several of the best ideas.
* His idea was further modified by the talented efforts of his artists, who suggested through their artwork new concepts (and a better way of finishing the planned number of screens).
* He had to switch artists in mid-stream. This wasn't a case of one artist being bad, it was simply a case of one artist's technique being more scaleable to the completion of the game.
* This shows how much work can go into just a "simple" casual game. Market research, experimentation, staffing / contracting, and content requirements --- and hardly ANYTHING is mentioned about the coding & design phase. Just so you know where we programmers and game designers sit in the whole scheme of things...
* He pulled it all off in a 4-month development cycle. It CAN be done, and done QUICKLY.
About the author
Jay has been a mainstream and indie game developer for a... uh, long time. His professional start came in 1994 developing titles for the then-unknown and upcoming Sony Playstation. He runs Rampant Games and blogs at Tales of the Rampant Coyote.
Associate David Montgomery-Blake
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