The Beginning

This isn't my first time designing a idea that could be build upon to make into a game. I mean most days i have ideas that i would love to implement into already made games or place into my own. But this project i am now undergoing is going have a better and stronger approach that the ideas i normally throw around my sketch books.

My project is to create a game idea that can be pitched to game’s designers. This means that I will have to have a strong fundamental idea, but a well researched, documented and explored concept. The pitch will last 10 minutes, and put across a full idea of a game in 10 minutes will be a challenge in more ways than one. My first thoughts are that i will either struggle to get enough information that is both relevant and will help sell the idea or that i will struggle to fit every detail that i have into the time frame. I feel that this is more than just a project but a beginning to understand the structure of the games industry.

I have already now come across my first problem of the project and that is how do i start and create a idea for a game that is good enough to be pitched? Do i start by creating a story or do i start with a function of a game that is different and what i want to build?

Luckily i just come across this article on www.gamasutra.com that has been written by Tim Ryan. After looking at Tim Ryan’s Website http://firemuseconsulting.blogspot.com i can see that he has a fairly impressive games design background. This means this article is written by someone who is in the current games industry.

The full website link to the article is:
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3384/the_anatomy_of_a_design_document_.php?page=1

Reading this article has giving me a good clear idea of what is now expected of me when developing a game concept and i even feel that i can now structure what is needed of me in the next couple of weeks. Dispite this article explaining a game document for proposal, It will help me for designing my idea in a structor and reminding me of what is needed of me to produce a concept. In this article i have found that there are 7 points that i will need to explain in both my document and my pitch, these are :

Introduction
Background
Description
Key features
Genre
Platform(s)
Concept art

In the article it further explains what is needed for each of these points thus allowing me to know what i should be placing in my game document for the best results possible but with out a good fundament original idea no matter how well i pitch or document my idea. I have to find something that will be my selling point of my idea and game concept. For this i will have to find something that makes my game concept better that whats to come out and what is out now.

This means i will have to research different areas of games, what people want and what i think is needed in the games industry . I believe there are a couple ways to do this and they are:

- Playing games and taking down notes and ideas of what i think are good and bad points
- Researching the current games market, i.e. Finding out what are the top games out there? And for what reasons? Is there a lack of type of game at the moment and what the game market looking for?
- Finding weaknesses in game types, i.e. is there something that is missing from all RPGS or FPS's ?

This game is also being created by me so it will be a large part of my thoughts of the game industry and what i think is needed in a game and what a good game should be. I'm could begin by placing ideas in a brainstorm and see how i can place them together then once my research has been done i can then combine my ideas with what i have found out to find something that could be poetically great game or a game that fits the needs of the current market.