Design Lecture for Session 1 of The Los Angeles Film School's Game PreProduction course.

1. Session 1
David Mullich
Concept Workshop - Game PreProduction
The Los Angeles Film School

2. Ideas
All games start out as ideas.
Some games come from one
powerful idea, but most are
formed by combining many
ideas to create a unique
whole. It’s very possible that
initial ideas will be (or should
be) abandoned, and lots of
new ideas will be considered
during the process.

3. Inspiration
Ideas don’t come out of thing air. Game designers are
influenced by personal interests an hobbies.
Spend a significant part of every day doing something
other than playing games:
 Read a book
 Go see a play
 Listen to music
 Exercise, draw or sketch
 Study a new language
 Volunteer at a neighborhood organization

4. Game Designer’s Notebook
Many designers carry a notebook for jotting down their
ideas.

5. Game Idea Sources
 Brilliant Inspiration
 Licensing Hook
 Technology Hook
 Filling A Gap
 Following Coattails
 Orders From Above
 Sequels

6. Brainstorming
A group creativity technique
to find a conclusion to a
specific problem by
gathering a list of ideas
spontaneously contributed
by its members. In games,
brainstorming is used to
generate a large number of
ideas about game's concept,
mechanics, setting,
characters, etc.

7. Brainstorming
Osborn’s method of
brainstorming has four
general rules:
 Focus on quantity
 Withhold criticism
 Welcome unusual ideas
 Combine and improve
ideasAlex F. Osborn

8. Advice About Ideas
 Come up with more ideas than you’ll need
 Never rule out an idea as bad until you’ve
tested it
 Never accept an idea as good until you’ve
tested it
 Do not get emotionally attached to ideas

9. Pitch Presentation
A pitch is a concise verbal
(and sometimes visual)
presentation for a film, TV
series, or game, made by
the producer to an executive
in the hope of getting the
financing to do
development. "Pitch" is a
contraction of "sales pitch."

10. Stages of Creativity
Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi describes
the classic stages of creativity:
 Preparation: Becoming interested in a topic
 Incubation: Period where ideas “churn around”
in your subconcious
 Insight: The “aha!” moment, where an idea
comes together
 Evaluation: Deciding whether the insight is
worth pursuing
 Elaboration: Fleshing out the idea

11. Elevator Pitch
An elevator pitch is a short summary used
to quickly and simply define a product and
its value. The name "elevator pitch"
reflects the idea that it should be possible
to deliver the summary in the time span of
an elevator ride, or approximately thirty
seconds to two minutes.
The term itself comes from the scenario of
accidentally meeting someone important in
an elevator. If the conversation inside the
elevator in those few seconds is
interesting and value adding, then the
conversation will continue after the
elevator ride or end in the exchange of a
business card or a scheduled meeting.

12. Elevator Pitch Structure for Games
Game Title is a game genre
for target player. It features
game mechanics that bring
play value. Unlike
competition, this game
unique differentiation.

13. Example Pitch
Somehow it always falls to
Mustachio to rally his friends for
their many adventures. Run and
jump through a side-
scrolling world made of and
inhabited by blocks. With
mustaches. A world full of
action, puzzles and arbitrary
danger that Mustachio faces
boldly with his mustache-fueled
power to make block duplicates of
himself. What? Cloning AND
mustaches?! You betcha!

14.  Receive 3 game mechanics from your instructor
 Brainstorm a game using these three mechanics.
 Present an elevator pitch for your game, including:
 Game Title
 Target Player
 Game Genre
 3 Game Mechanics
 What Makes It Fun (Play Value)
 Competition
 What Makes It Unique

15. Concept Pitch vs. Design Doc
Concept Proposal Game Design Documents
PowerPoint Slideshow Wikispaces Wiki
Summary Details
Sizzle Steak

16. Greenlighting
To green-light is to give permission
to go ahead to move forward with
a project. The term is a reference
to a green traffic signal, indicating
"go ahead". In the context of the
game industry, to green-light
something is to formally approve
its production finance, and to
commit to this financing, thereby
allowing the project to move
forward from pre-production to
production.

17.  Create Game Design Document Wiki pages
 Overview
 Ideal Play Session
 Inspirational Media
 Game Play
 Systems
 User Interface
 Narrative and World
 Game Levels
 Create Technical Design Document Wiki pages
 Controls
 Camera
 Character
 Main Game Loop
 Staff
 Risks
 Create Art Document Wiki Pages
 Color Palette
 Mood Board
 Environments
 Characters
 Props
 Music
 Art Assets
 Audio Assets

18.  Find 3 games to use as inspiration
 Create Inspirational Media Page Wiki Page
 For each of the 3 games
1. Screenshot
2. Link
3. Genre
4. Game Mechanics
5. Goals
6. Resources
7. Obstacles
8. Play Value (What Makes It Fun)
9. What Inspires You About This Game