quote:
Anybody on this board can come up with half a dozen wild game designs at the snap of a finger, all of which are seemingly new and innovative. But the devil is in the details.
....The real work isn't coming up with the idea, it's the execution and follow-through.
Very good comments!
I've been approached by a lot of people over the years who want to give me (or sometimes "sell" me) an idea for a game. And they always seem surprised that I don't see much value in an idea.
Almost anyone who's every played a game can come up with an idea for a game. The real challenge is to have the discipline to deal with the detailed planning that is required to "make" that idea a "real" game.
I'm probably over-obsessive with preperation and planning, but I believe that the key to success for a small developer is to not make mistakes. A development team for EA or Sony can survive a few mistakes. For us small guys, a single design mistake - or detail not planned out and thought through in advance - can put us out of business. And the only way to avoid design mistakes - which turn into development disasters - is to know ahead of time exactly where you are going and how you are going to get there.
Personally, I tend to spend about two years on the "early design" phase of a project before I ever write any code. When I roll Power Politics III out the door next month and start my "new" project, I will be "starting" a project that has been in the planning and design phase for over three years.
When I did my Doonesbury project for Mindscape, I _started_ the "design" phase with a working design document that was almost 300 pages.
My approach won't work for everyone. But I've survived quite a few years now as an independent developer, so I guess I must be doing something right. And one of my fundamental rules is that I never talk to anyone (potential publisher, corporate sponsor, team member) until I am confident that no one is ever going to ask me _any_ question about the design or development process for the game that I am not totally prepared to answer. I figure that one question I can't confidentally answer just shot down my whole presentation. That level of preperation and planning takes an enormous amount of time and effort. But in the end, I think its well worth it.
(One "learning experience" I'll share that really influenced my approach to project planning and design. I was brought in to write the docs for the first release of the Front Page Sports: Baseball game. I did the full manual about five months before the game went into beta. I never saw a working copy of the game while working on the documentation. The manual I wrote was based strictly on the design docs and a few screen captures. But the game that was eventually released matched my docs exactly. I've never forgotten how detailed those documents were - and how faithfully they completed the project based on what was planned. I keep a copy of that design document in my office as a reference - and guideline - for how detailed and specific a good design doc should be!)
Just my opinion.... and figure that it's worth what you paid for it.
[edited by - RandyChase on March 25, 2004 6:43:08 AM]
The implication I was trying to make is that Deer Hunter and The Sims come closer to my definition of toy than of game, and that they have a very low barrier to entry but tend to have an accompanying low complexity to the game play.
