What is your game idea?

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You’ve decided to make a game. Very exciting! But what is it? You probably have a clear idea in your head, but have you clearly defined it?

Making a game is an exciting and potentially rewarding thing to do, but it requires a huge amount of time and effort. It’s an emotional roller coaster ranging from addictive highs (“Everyone loved the first build!”) to soul destroying lows (“I’m going to have to redo all of that code!”). And that’s just the development which, as we know, is just half the battle.

Having a clear idea of what you want to make before you start building is important for a number of reasons: it keeps you focussed, it give you a clear finish point (so many games have been killed by scope creep), and it gives all of your marketing activity a clear starting point.

Try to answer the following questions:

  1. What is the game mechanic? Is it a platformer, shooter, puzzle, other?
  2. What is the setting/focus? A cowboy, historical war, sweet shop?
  3. What is the tone? Realistic, comical, intellectual, childlike?
  4. What is the goal? How does the player win?

Once you have all of these answered, try to compress them into a couple of sentences to describe your game.You can combine them in any order you think sounds best or makes the most sense. For example:

  1. Puzzle game
  2. Bank robber
  3. Comical
  4. Crack into safes before the time runs out

You can combine these elements in whichever order you like, but make sure you include them all. In our example, we might end up with:”You help a useless bank robber to break into bank safes. You have to quickly solve puzzles before the police show up.“Take your description, write it down, and keep it somewhere safe. You’ll soon find it useful to refer back to!