Stage 1: Concept

The first stage of game development focuses on figuring out what the game is going to be. Unlike other software development, where the users' set of tasks is already known or can be discovered, in game development the first thing you have to do is create these tasks out of thin air. This is the core of game design, and in far too many projects is left until much later in the process. It's important to resolve this as early as possible, so that at every step you know what kinds of things the player will be thinking about and doing and why the game is fun. Losing sight of this, especially during the long haul of production, is a main reason why so many games fail.

Timing and Participants

The conceptualization process should begin long before the project team is assembled, or even before anyone else knows that the project exists. Typically, one or two or three senior people—a designer, producer, and/or publisher representative—get together to hammer out the game concept. The concept might arrive in a flash in the first hour, but more likely it's going to take time to emerge. It's important to allow this kind of time; don't try to schedule inspiration. That's one reason why the concept formation should begin before there's a team waiting around for something to do—you need to be able to take the time needed to explore the concept without a project clock ticking loudly in your ears. That said, it's reasonable to assume that this stage will take one to three months to complete, although it might take much longer.

Process and Deliverables

The conceptual design process is critical to successful game development, and has been detailed in [Onder02]. This is necessarily a highly iterative process where the participants look at their ideas from different angles, searching for the most engaging gameplay experience.

When you're finished with the conceptual phase, you should have a clear (if high-level) understanding of what the game is and why it's so incredibly great that you just have to develop it. The primary deliverable from this stage is a clear, concise statement of what the game is. This doesn't mean that you need to create a hefty design bible. On the contrary, you should be able to boil down the essence of the game into two or three sentences. This statement will be the touchstone for you and your team throughout development, so it's important that it's understandable, memorable, and believable. In addition, a brief design document, as described in [Laram e02] and discussed as the Game Overview Document in [Onder02], serves as the basis for pre-production work. This typically includes several paper and electronic mockups depicting key moments in gameplay to give the feel of the game and the player's interactions.