IMGD 1001 Brainstorming Your Game Outline o Motivation

IMGD 1001: Brainstorming Your Game

Outline o Motivation o Intro to brain storming o Exercises IMGD 1001

Motivation o Building a game (or doing anything interesting) is tough! n That's why you are here? ; -) o Need to wrap your mind around the problem n Divide and conquer: split the problem into manageable parts o Iterate multiple times o Build team ownership n Ownership = commitment o This process is done at multiple levels, usually with different people involved IMGD 1001

High-Level Process: Brainstorming o Start with a vague notion, and go from there o Move towards concreteness o Don't throw away ANYTHING! n There are no bad ideas o Write down every idea (on Post-it notes, a flip- chart, whiteboard, etc. ) o Don't make judgments on quality at this time o MAIN IDEA: o Everyone should feel free to contribute IMGD 1001

High-Level Process: Prune the Tree o Now the group should have all ideas out there on Post-its, a whiteboard, etc. o First, remove anything obviously irrelevant, but be CAREFUL! o Now remove or combine redundant things IMGD 1001

High-Level Process: Draw Relationships o Now draw charts for each of the remaining things o There are many solutions, so you will need to iterate IMGD 1001

High-Level Process: Validate the Design o Go through each object in detail, and verify that it meets all the requirements IMGD 1001

Gamestorming Process o Come up with a one-sentence description of your game n This is tougher than you think! o Use free association to generate ideas n No culling! n Use Post-It notes o Group related ideas together, consolidate n Move the Post-Its around n Set aside unused ideas (might revisit them) o Drill down through iteration IMGD 1001

Gamestorming Drill Down o Perform this process at a high level, then o Same for. . . n. . . the STORY in your game n. . . the STRUCTURE of your game n. . . the ART in your game o Visuals/sound/"look and feel" n. . . the INPUT CONTROLS of your game o Generate a timeline for when each thing will get done n Assign a team member to the task IMGD 1001

Exercise 1: Do Now! o 15 min: Intro/Style/Story o 15 min: Art/Sound/Tech o 10 min: Discussion IMGD 1001

Exercise 2 o Mario Super Smash Bros Brawl n List 6 favorite characters n Group yourselves by favorite characters o Now, you want (or need) to add an additional character! n But consider a 2 d version (like would be made in Flash) o Brainstorm n Phase 1: Think of all possible characters, features, characteristics, needed tasks (5 minutes) n Phase 2: Group/Prune/Tree (5 minutes) n Phase 3: Discuss as a class (5 minutes) IMGD 1001

Do you have. . . o A feeling of how complex this is? o Goals? o Main mode of interaction? n Button-masher, platformer, etc? o Motivation for the player? o Humor? o Violence? IMGD 1001

What Next? o Go home and do the same thing in much more detail for your assignment o This should be fairly formal n Read through the examples n Don't write like you speak n Include appropriate visual support n Be thorough, ITERATE! o Software may help n E. g. checkout xmind, www. xmind. org IMGD 1001