Creating a game

Steps

•Idea•Objective(s)•Purpose•Gameplay•Gameflow•Aesthetic

Idea• What is interesting? What isn’t?• What hasn’t been done? What has?• What interests you?• Think creatively. Think rhetorically.

• Audience▫Age▫Gender▫Type of gamer (hardcore? casual?)▫Education▫ Income

Objective(s) or Premise

•Summary of game▫Premise▫Story▫Characters▫Major challenges▫Minor challenges

Purpose• Rhetorical (persuade somebody to do/believe)• Argumentative (make a case with evidence)

• Advergame (demonstrative, illustrative, associative

• Edugame (behaviorist, constructivist)• Ideological game (activism, belief)• Entertain

Remember, all games have these principles; you need to select the PRIMARY purpose.

Gameplay

•What is the player doing in this game? •Genre?

▫Management game?▫Hidden Object Game?▫Mini-games?▫FPS?▫RTS?▫Other?

•Setting?•Platform?

Gameflow

•Create a decision tree for your game. All games have a gameflow.

•Some games have narrative (progression) elements and open-world (emergent) elements

•How does the player win, score, finish, not lose in the game?

Progression (Narrative) Gameflow

Begin

CliffForest

Ocean

Cave Inside Cave

Emergent (open-world games)

Begin

Stage 2

Side Quests

Side 1

Side 2

Main Quest

Quest 2

Quest 1

Roam

Aesthetic

•Visuals•Sound•Text

Remember to match your game’s aesthetic with its purpose.

Game Proof of Concept Tools

Video

•What?▫Gameplay representation▫Cutscenes/narrative elements

•Media?▫Live-action (checkout video cameras from

library)▫Text-to-speech animation (xtranorml)▫Static/zoom-pan images with voiceover and

music (comics, photographs)

Decision-tree hyperlinking

•What?▫Gameplay representation▫Cutscenes/narrative elements

•Media?▫HTML (web-based hyperlink game)▫PowerPoint

Progression (Narrative) Gameflow

Begin

CliffForest

Ocean

Cave Inside Cave

Cliff

Cliff

Cave

Cave

Programmed

•What?▫Gameplay representation▫Mini-games within a larger game▫Cutscenes/narrative elements

•Media?▫Scratch▫GameMaker▫Alice▫Sploder

Storyboarding

•What?▫Gameplay representation▫Cutscenes/narrative elements

•Media?