Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
CONCEPT VERSUS PREPRODUCTION
Be sure that you don't confuse the concept stage of
design
with the preproduction stage
of game development
.Preproduction
is a process borrowed from filmmaking. It's a plan-
ning stage of game development during which a developer is deciding what sort of game
to make, testing some of those ideas, and figuring out the budget, schedule, and staff
requirements. Preproduction ends when the funding agency, usually a publisher, gives
the game the green light to proceed to full production. By that time, the concept stage of
design is already over and the elaboration stage has begun. In fact, quite a lot of design
work gets done during preproduction because that's how the team decides what the
game will be. The concept stage of design usually requires only a few weeks; the prepro-
duction stage of development can go on for several months.
GETTING A CONCEPT
All game designs must begin with a game concept; that is, a general idea of how
you intend to entertain someone through gameplay and, at a deeper level,
why
you
believe it will be a compelling experience. Many different considerations influence
your plans for the game concept. Part of creating a game concept includes deciding
what genre your game fits into, if any. Defining and refining a game concept is
described in detail in Chapter 3.
DEFINING AN AUDIENCE
Once you know what kind of experience you want to present, you have to think
about who would enjoy that experience. In a commercial environment, publishers
sometimes define their audience—a “target market”—and
then
think of a concept
for a game to sell to them. In any case, the choices you make here have important
consequences for your game because, in player-centric design, you test every design
decision against your hypothetical representative player to be sure that the decision
helps to entertain your target audience.
DETERMINING THE PLAYER'S ROLE
In an abstract video game, the player doesn't get immersed in a fictional game
world and so doesn't have much of a role. He is simply a player playing the game
for its own sake. But in a representational game, the player does a lot more pretend-
ing. He pretends to believe in the game world, the avatar, and the situations the
game puts him in. In such games, the player plays a role, and as a designer it is up
to you to define what that role is. It could be an athlete, a general, a dancer, an
explorer, a business tycoon, or any of a million other things that people fantasize
about doing. Sometimes the roles in a game are multifaceted: In a sports game, the
player often changes roles from an athlete on the field, to the coach planning strat-
egy, to the general manager hiring and trading players. You must be able to explain
