Game Specifications

Along with 3D modelling, we are also being taught about the design process in the games industry. This will cover everything from coming up with basic ideas to creating a GDD with enough information to build the game from. An effective design process is essential to creating the best project possible. Knowing how to generate ideas, refine them and implement them is key to success. In general, the stages are:

• Specification - Clarify the specification/requirements
• Analysis - Break down the specification into component parts
• Research - Gather information on these components
• Conceptualisation - Experiment and filter ideas from analysis and research
• Prototyping - Develop prototype solutions based on concepts
• Iteration - Refine prototypes to a final level product

Following these steps will allow you to create a far greater product than if you simply pluck and idea or concept out of thin air then try and build it straight away. In order to practice the process I've started designing a game and will follow the steps to make it as successful as possible.

As I'm coming up with my own idea rather than creating one from a specification, this step is replaced with creating a brainstorm to generate as many ideas as possible, very quickly, that can be inspected later on. To start with I had to generate an idea/name to branch from, effectively a concept to start working from. The concept I chose was a western style shooter, which I scribbled down and added anything and everything that came into my head from there. The entire point of this is to generate as many possibilities as you can which can be tweaked later of when needed. The result looks messy and uncoordinated but that's the desired result, the next step is where we tidy up these ideas.

Brainstorm

When we have a brainstorm we're happy with, we can start to organise what we've written into more comprehensible sections that are easy to read and understand. This is the conversion of a brainstorm into a mind map. Rather than have many messy sections dotted all over a page a mind map orders these into components such as UI, objectives, settings and game play. From these larger generalised terms we branch into the finer details of them but in a neater more readable way. This is also the time to remove anything that was generated during the brainstorming that, on second thought, doesn't seem right or may not be needed for the game. This entire process organises the thought process and slightly refines it.

Mind map