Concept Development

Concept development is the fuzzy front end of game design. It lasts from the moment someone first comes up with a game idea until the day the game goes into preproduction.

The team is very small during this period. It typically consists of the designer, the tech lead, a concept artist, and a producer (who may only spend part of his time on the project).

The main goal of concept development is to decide what your game is about and to write this down so clearly that anyone can understand it instantly. During this phase you decide on your major gameplay elements, create concept art to show what the game will look like on the screen, and flesh out the story (if there is one).

If you work for an independent developer, this phase will probably not be funded by another company. Unless your studio has an amazing track record, it's unlikely that you will find a publisher willing to pay you to sit around and think up new ideas.

The documents that come out of concept development are the high concept, the game proposal (or "pitch doc"), and the concept document.

The High Concept

The high concept is a one-or two- sentence description of what your game is about. It's the "hook" that makes your game exciting and sets it apart from the competition.

A strong high concept is also valuable during the development phase because it helps you decide which features to include and which to leave out. If game development is like trying to find your way through a jungle of possibilities, the high concept is a path that has already been cleared so that you don't get lost. Any feature that doesn't contribute to the game's main focus is a direction you don't need to explore.

The high concept should have some of the following elements, adapted from Bonnie Orr's list at screentalk.biz ^{[ 1]} :

1. The player must be dealing with a BIG PROBLEM. If your game has a story line, it should have both internal and external conflict.

2. Some of the visual scenes are huge. We don't see a couple of fighter planes in the sky. We see dozens or hundreds!

3. The player is an ordinary hero in an extraordinary world or an extraordinary hero in an ordinary world. The Metal Gear Solid series is about an extraordinary man. Final Fantasy Tactics Advance uses an ordinary boy.

4. The concept must be original. There may be several games about fighting off an alien invasion, but what if the story is from the alien's perspective (for example, Alien Hominid )?

5. The concept is a twist on a well-known successful game title.

The Game Proposal ("Pitch Doc")

The game proposal is a two-page handout you speak from during pitch meetings to seek funding for your game. In just a few pages, you must summarize what your game is about, why it will be successful, and how it will make money. This document covers the same territory as the concept document, but in abbreviated form.

The Concept Document

The concept document is the fleshed-out version of the pitch doc. It is a 10 ‚ 20 page "leave-behind" that members of the publishing team will not have time to review during a pitch meeting, but will want to peruse afterward to gain a more detailed understanding of your game.

The concept doc should be presented in a professional binder, on good paper stock, with an eye-catching cover and excellent game art throughout. It should contain the following sections.

The High Concept

The concept document leads off with the high concept. Write it as a quick description you would give to an executive if you only had thirty seconds to pitch your game.

Genre

Explain which genre your game belongs to, along with crossover elements to other genres if applicable .

Gameplay

Describe what the player will do while he is playing the game. Emphasize any new twists to the genre that your game provides.

Features

This is the list of the features that will make your game exceptional. It can include anything from an unusual graphical style to advanced engine technology. Write this section as if you are writing copy for the back of the game box.

Setting

Describe the world in which your game is set. Include concept art if you have any. If it is a story game, highlight the most interesting features of the setting and explain how they affect the plot. Figure 5.1 shows a piece of concept art used for the game James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing .

Figure 5.1: Train chase concept art from Everything or Nothing .

Story

If your game has a story, take a page or so to summarize the plot. Introduce the main character, identify his problem, describe the villain, and explain how the hero will ultimately defeat him. This part may also include a story diagram. Figure 5.2 shows various patterns that might be used to tell your game's story.

Figure 5.2: Story patterns of varying length and complexity.

Target Audience

Explain who you are developing the game for and why you think it will appeal to them. You can also specify which ESRB (Entertainment Software Rating Board) rating you are expecting to receive for the game: Early Childhood, Everyone, Teen, Mature, or Adults Only.

Hardware Platforms

List the devices the game will be played on: PC, consoles, handhelds, mobile phones, and so on.

Estimated Schedule, Budget, and P&L

Break out the major phases of development and the level of effort associated with each to show how you arrived at the estimates in the pitch doc.

If you work for a publisher, he or she is likely to require a P&L (Profit and Loss) estimate at this stage. This is an estimate of all the costs of bringing a game to market, along with estimates of all its anticipated income. Your business division will have templates for these calculations, usually in the form of plug-in spreadsheets that have cells for wholesale costs, sales estimates, license royalties, and so on.

If you are an independent developer making a proposal to a publisher, you won't know his or her cost structures and your royalties have yet to be negotiated. Instead of a P&L, simply include your development budget. Make sure to break out the amount you want to charge for the preproduction phase, however, because getting that funded is the whole point of this project proposal.

You can't come up with all the numbers on the P&L by yourself. Work with several divisions of the company to come up with reliable estimates:

• The development group supplies the direct costs of creating the game. This is derived by multiplying the man-month estimate by the group's salaries, then adding in equipment costs, overhead costs, and any external costs (technology license fees, voice recording, Full Motion Video (FMV) shoots, and so on).

• From the production group comes the Cost of Goods (COGS) estimate. These are the costs of the physical materials that go into the game box ‚ the media, the jewel case, the manual, the box itself, and so on.

• From the marketing department comes the estimate of how much it will spend to promote the game in magazine ads, TV ads, point-of-purchase displays, sell-sheets, and so on.

• From the sales group come the Market Development Fund (MDF) costs that the publisher pays stores in the retail channel for prime shelf space, end caps, shelf talkers, and ads in their circulars.

• The sales group is also the source for income estimates. Most companies do not give credence to a P&L statement until the sales department indicates that it believes the unit sales estimates to be achievable.

• From the business group come allowances for returns, corporate overhead, and calculations for royalty payments if your game is based on an external license.

The bottom line of the P&L is the Return on Investment (ROI) number. This must show that the company can make more money investing in your game than in some less risky venture, such as putting the money in the bank and drawing interest for two years . Companies are in business to make money. If you can't convince them that your game will be profitable enough to justify the risk, it will never be approved.

Competitive Analysis

Make a list of the games that will be competing with yours for sales and explain the ways in which your game will be better. If you believe the game is similar to past successful games, explain the similarities to those hits and present their sales numbers.

Team

Summarize the credentials of your team and its key individuals, with an emphasis on how their experience shows they have the ability to deliver the game. Publishers frequently put as much weight on people and their track records as they do on the actual proposal in front of them. The goal of this section is to instill confidence that your group can get the job done.

Risk Analysis

Lay out all the things that can go wrong and how you plan to deal with problems that might arise. Some common risks that threaten projects are

• Difficulties recruiting personnel

• Late delivery of console dev-kits

• Reliance on external sources for key technology components

• Changes in the installed base of the target platform

• Competitive technology developments

This section should also include your comments on which parts of the project are relatively safe. If you have any of the traditional risks covered (for example, having a full team already in place or being able to re-use an existing game engine), then say so.

Summary

The goal of concept development is to produce a game proposal and a concept document. These should emphasize the high points of your game and the ability of your team to deliver a quality product, on time and on budget. As a tester or test lead, provide estimates for the schedule, estimate test equipment costs for the budget, and identify test risks for the risk analysis.

^{[ 1]} Orr, Bonnie. (2002). "High Concept." SCREENTALK. <http://www.screentalk.biz/art043.htm> (19 January 2005).