If You Choose Not to Decide, You Still Have Made a Choice

So often producers , programmers, artists , and designers fail to consider the limitations of the game idea they are planning to develop. Whether it springs from notions of gameplay, suggestions of technology, or thoughts about a story, as soon as a game idea takes on form it begins limiting what the game can be if it is to be successful. Game developers need to understand that not every technology will work with every game design, nor every design with every story, nor even every story with every technology.

Often developers will try to take a bunch of compelling concepts and attempt to stuff them all into one game. The lead programmer may be interested in developing a cutting-edge human body physics system. The lead game designer might have wanted to try a real-time strategy game ever since she played Age of Empires for the first time. The game s writer may think there s entirely too much violence in computer games and therefore wants to write a tale of romance. If the producer is a fool, she may even be thrilled that the members of her team are so excited about what they are developing and that, by combining physics, RTS, and romance, the result will be a breakthrough game.

Of course anyone with a whit of sense knows this game is doomed to fail. Without a consistent and unified vision, no game will have a fighting chance. Though each member of the team may have a valid case for pursuing her idea, if the ideas do not work together, at some point the group will need to pick one and go with it. If, at the brainstorming session, the team decides which idea they want to concentrate on, the team can work to make the game as a whole as good as possible. Suppose they choose physics as their most promising strength. Then the designer can mull it over and realize an RTS is probably not ideal but a circus-themed game could be an inventive use of the human body physics simulator. It could include launching performers out of cannons, having acrobats create human pyramids , and allowing players to perform complex trapeze stunts. From there, the writer could come up with a love story about two aerialists whose relationship is tested by the arrival at the circus of a stunning new strong man, with everything coming to a climax during a complex high-wire act where the safety net has been removed. This game has a fighting chance of being fun to play because all of the components are working together. In the end, you do not want your game to consist only of an excellent technology or a compelling story or a brilliant game design. If none of these components support each other and you lack a unified vision, your game will be just as bad as if you were working with a hackneyed story, a thin game design, and an incomplete technology.