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Plan for Tom Bentz

Name:	Tom Bentz
Date Posted:	Sep 13, 2005
Rating:	Not Rated
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Im looking into slowly building a small indie team. Not sure what type of game I would like to do yet but I have a couple of concepts/ideas in mind. I am looking for writers and designers to work with first to get an idea of the entire process of planning. I love to write but I haven't written a game script yet. I recently took a PM class and it opened my eyes quite a bit and gave me great confidence in managing a game project. But first things first...

Personal learning progression:
1. Study Aristotle's Poetics with a game in mind. Create ideas, gather notes and concepts for story based games.
2. Study favorite action movies and gather concepts for inspiration and action in games.
3. Study game design books to help determine 'fun' factor in designing games.
3. Learn torquescript by prototyping ideas as an excersise to prepare for a larger game project.

Game progression:
1. Develop prototype with main 'fun' gameplay using available content.
2. Find a writer/designer(s) to work with and flesh out a complete game script.
3. Determine the 'fun' parts of the prototype. Raise it up a few notches.
4. Determine the 'boring' parts of the prototype. Remove them.
5. Rinse and repeat #3 and #4 a couple of times with various gamers in the target audience/community.
6. Interview concept artists.
7. Conceptualize characters/architecture/weapons/vehicles/etc...
8. Interview 3d game artists/2d texture artists/shader artists based on concept art.
9. Create 3d artwork.
10. Create animations for characters/weapons/etc...
11. Update game with new content.
11. Interview music/sound engineers based on game theme.
12. Work with sound engineer to develop required sound.
12. Update game with sound content.
13. Tweak game.
14. Get community feedback.
15. Tweak, tweak, and tweak game.

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Chris Labombard (Sep 13, 2005 at 18:50 GMT)

IMO you have 1 and 2 backwards.

John Rockefeller (Sep 13, 2005 at 23:50 GMT)

It's good to see a commitment to development and an enthusiastic view of game creation, but maybe you should hold off on trying to find a team until you know what you need them to do. Secondly, you need to be able to take charge as the leader to find out what kind of game you need before you hire writers or designers. What exactly are they hiring and designing? What is YOUR job function?

Tom Bentz (Sep 14, 2005 at 00:50 GMT)

@Chris - I see what you're saying. I am on the fence with that. On one hand I want to have the vision before anything is developed, on the other hand I want to see certain gameplay concepts in action before the game design doc. I think you are right though...

@John - This is my first crack at developing a game. I've done interactive scripting before and this is my first time leading a project so there is a lot that is new to me. I'm familiar with the basic development process. I wanted to consult first with a writer/designer because I basically dont know what goes into a design doc. I need to know what they will need from me. Once I know basically all the elements from a high level point of view then I can start conceptualizing and feed the writer the info. If you have any info on this it would be greatly appreciated...

Thanks for the comments!

Anthony Fullmer (Sep 15, 2005 at 00:24 GMT)

@Tom that is the great thing about a design doc, it is an ever evolving document, not a set-in-marble plan for the game. If you write something into your design doc that you found was not fun, then you change the design doc until you find something that IS fun. I have to agree with Chris that you need to write the design doc first. In fact, I would even stress that it is critical, much like writing a flowchart and pseudocode before programming. The design doc will not only give you a clear vision of the game's overall flow, you will have a much better understanding of how all of your game elements will interact with each other. From my experience, it almost eliminates designers block when I have a design doc, because whenever I get stuck, I just look at my doc to see what should be at that point in the game. The doc keeps your focus where it should be so that everything is cohesive. It is an invaluable resource to have before you ever start prototyping...IMO =D

Good luck with your design!

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