Idea Generation

You may have an idea in your head already for what you plan on doing, then again you may not. Either way it is always good to get the ball rolling by throwing ideas around and start thinking in, and out of, the box. By doing this you will be able to come up with more interesting ways to develop your game and also ways that will work around any issues that you may come up against in a creative manner.

The key here is to make sure that your ideas are achievable with the resources you have, mostly skill level, and time. If you are just starting, it is much better to aim stupidly small so that you actually have a project to show at the end. Deciding your first project is an MMO the scale of World of Warcraft is a simple example of not achievable...although this is what one of my early projects years ago actually was...a lot of the examples here are based on what not to do, rather than what you should do.

Problem Solving Exercises

If you have little experience making games then it is sometimes good to practice thinking creatively. Thinking creatively needs to extend beyond the ability to create a character or a game idea. Game Development is actually more about creative problem solving than any other skill you may require.

Coming up with the idea is easy in comparison to realising if that idea is fun and gets your ideas across accurately.

Let's have a quick brainstorming session to get you thinking in a manner that is conducive to problem solving. Here are some activities for you to take on and see what you can come up with! Think of a game that must follow the following limitations :

• Can only use one button (for all input and not based on position of a touch screen).

• Can only use one colour + Black and white.

• The games main concept/story arc is less than 5 minutes.

• The player can not ‘win’ the game.

• Hedgehogs.

• Games you hate.

By setting these quite extreme limitations you are in fact creating a game to specifications that are more within your reach as a small developer. By doing so you are focusing on what you can do, and making that a key factor in the game. This will actually make the game more interesting.

This will start making you think in ways that focus on getting around problems. The problems you face when making your game will range from limitations like the aforementioned, to the very practical such as game engine, money and player base limitations just to name a few.

You can, and should, think outside the square. Some things may be obvious, but then again, they may not! The games industry is supersaturated with in the box games. The top tier games, or AAA titles, have very little innovation as they basically need to rely on tried and trusted gameplay mechanics and ideas that are guaranteed to sell. With the technology and techniques of today we can really push creativity to new heights as small developers while keeping quite a high quality result.

Lets have a look at some of these problems in depth.

One button

One button isn’t a lot to go on. But you can do a lot with one button when you think about it. Pressing the button quickly versus holding the button, you already have two states. Mixing up short presses and long presses and you have combos. Multiplying the possible states significantly. Also think that NOT pressing the button is a state, making three states. You could have a game where you actually hold down the button for most of the level but only take it off in certain circumstances. Once again short versus long releases change the states of not holding the button.

The easy answer would be an Unlimited Runner style game. The first of these goes back to things like Mirabalt, Temple Runner and Flappy Bird. All exceptionally popular games in their time.

One colour + Black and White

This is a graphical limitation, but it can be quite effective if used properly. If I say red, you would probably think blood, paint, slash, etc. This is the obvious choice and of course you could go that way. But that’s been done before. So lets see what else we could do.

What do you think of when I say blue, purple, green, yellow, pink...could you base a game around any of these colours? And I didn’t exactly define if the whole game had to use only one colour, maybe each level could use a different colour? You would have to read the fine print to find that out. But for the sake of our example, each level can have a different colour.

Colour has so much meaning there is an unlimited number of ideas you could run with.

Then there’s the inverse. Bending the rules, messing up the idea. Put purple skies or blue grass. Pink water and gray skies. use the monochrome as silhouettes to make your environment in stark contrast to your colourful character...or vice versa!

5 minute game

How do you make a game that has any meaning and value finish in 5 minutes! Just watch any short movie by Pixar and you can see the power of ideas, even in a short time period. Or even more extreme look at an image and see what feelings and emotions it portrays, times that frame by how many frames in a 5 second animation and you may understand the potential for story.

So here’s an idea! Think of an emotion. ANY emotion. Whatever first comes into your head and then run with that! Why not?! It’s just an exercise to get things going. What did you come up with?

Now as you need to finish the game in 5 minutes, we could reverse engineer the situation. What happens at 5 minutes. Is the goal to achieve said emotion, or is it to stay away from it. Do we apply it to others in a game space or do we apply it to one specific character. Do we make one character feel this emotion for another character, do we try to stop them. Is it a ‘realistic’ example of someone loving someone else, or something a little left of centre with a boy falling in love with the box his birthday present came in or a cat falling in love with an elephant.

Next we have to consider how that situation is to come about. What game mechanic is the best way to convey that emotion. Do we want the player to have some level of empathy for the character in the game, do we want them to stay separate from them and simply ‘control’ the situation...

Don’t forget you could want some level of replayability. Now with this you either want something with different possible endings, or different possible ways to get there. But remember they have to complete it by five minutes, so maybe there is a timer element! Death is an easy choice, but there are many others.

Losing the game

How do you make a player want to lose? Why would they keep playing a game they know they might lose. Maybe you don’t tell them. And they keep playing trying to find the winning combination. Maybe you design the goal of the game so that they need to lose, to win?

Commonly players ‘lose’ by dying. Maybe this is not the answer. Maybe you can think outside death as the only way to lose at a game. It could be all the players money, all the characters friends, all the characters toes, it could be anything really. You lose all your toes you would certainly feel you have lost something. But how do you always lose, yet still have fun. Perhaps keeping your toes as long as possible is the challenge, but in the end you have still lost all your toes. Keeping to the ‘brief’ of the game. Perhaps you don’t want a happy player, in fact you actually want to annoy them. So the first idea of giving them so many potential ways to ‘win’ but never actually having one would mean the completists would constantly try to find the ‘happy ending’ but there isn’t one. The fun is in the story...and annoying people.

Hedgehogs

It’s HEDGEHOGS!!! What game can you not make with hedgehogs!

Thats all I have to say on that one really!

So these are just some ways to get the ideas going. Think of random things, then run with them. Strange or weird limitations make you think creatively. And creativity is the lifeblood of interesting experiences. So it’s a good place to start. You never know, you might even find the perfect game in your brainstorming session.

Games you hate

Another brainstorming idea is to think of a type of game you don’t like. You HATE. Examples of many main genres include the following :

• First Person ( Modern Warfare, Call of Duty, Halo, Bioshock etc.)

• Third Person ( Gears of War, Arkham Asylum, Grand Theft Auto etc)

• Racing ( Shift, Gran Turismo, Forza, Dirt etc.)

• Racing (Top Down) ( Death Rally, Mini Motor Racing etc.)

• 2D Platformer ( Mario Brothers, Sonic, Shadow Complex, Trine etc)

• 3D platformer ( Mario Galaxy, Ratchet and Clank etc)

• Real Time Strategy ( Starcraft, Dawn of War, Company of Heroes etc.)

• Hack n Slash RPG ( Diablo, Torchlight etc.)

• Massive Multiplayer Online ( World of Warcraft, EVE, City of Heroes etc)

• Massive Online Battle Arena ( DotA 2, League of Legends etc)

• 2D / 2.5D Fighter ( Streetfighter, Mortal Kombat, King of Fighters etc.)

• 3D Fighter ( Tekken, Dead or Alive, Virtua Fighter, Soul Calibur etc.)

• Role Playing Game ( Final Fantasy, Fable, Mass Effect, Elder Scrolls etc.)

• Adventure ( Monkey Island, Leisure Suit Larry, King’s Quest etc.)

• Sports ( Fifa, NFL, NHL, UFC, any other acronym etc.)

• Puzzle Game ( Tetris, Portal, Antichamber, Limbo etc.)

Got one? OK. You need to design a game in that genre! Now GO! This exercise has been done previously on game jams before, and it’s another way to think outside your comfort zone.

Things to consider is why do you hate it. How would you change it? How could you make the game better and more to your liking? Is there a particular aspect that annoys you, how could you improve that? What did those games do right? Could those things be applied to other genres?

Could you make that ‘genre’ into another type of genre? An example could be a 2D platformer soccer game, or a creating a 3D fighter that is played over a larger area such as a hack n slash perspective, but with similar controls as a proper fighter.

This also applies to games you like. Why do you like them? What didn’t you like about them and what would you have done better?

Creating the Core

Once you feel your brain is active and ready for anything it’s time to jump in to your game. There are many aspects to creating a game from the things you can’t control such as time, ability and resources through to creative decisions to best communicate your ideas and experience to your audience. I will be trying to cover as many of the main things to consider while designing the core elements of your game.

The following are all things you need to consider while putting your thoughts down as documentation, prototypes and concepts. As these need to always be at the back of your mind, I will lay them all out first before getting to the documentation stage.

Limitations

It is very wise to begin your idea generation within your abilities to succeed. Design the game to your limitations, rather than doing whatever you want to do unless you have the resources to do so. If you have a team of one, then make sure you keep it simple and small with easily creatable assets and code. If it's an entire team then you have a little more room to follow your dream project.

If you design to your limitations your game will actually be better for it. If you aim too big you will find that there are aspects of your game that just don’t make the cut, but you keep them in anyway because it was a cool idea or any number of reasons. Once again, as long as it holds to your goals, keep it in. If the game can do without it, cut it.

The reason that this is so important is because if it is within your limitations you can actually do it. Which, if you have been reading my previous tutorials, will find is extremely important! So, let's start with that!

Time

One of the most important factors of limitations is how much time can you realistically spend on the project. Not only that, but how much time will you realistically spend on the project before losing interest or giving up. You will need to get results before that point to keep up your motivation. The smaller your project, the sooner you get results. Once you have finished a small project you will find that it will be easier to aim bigger, and hold your motivation longer, for the next one as you have gained the experience of effort VS reward.

A simple way to compute this is take an average week, and write down how many free hours you have...as in completely free. This does not include time you spend with friends, unless you are willing to give that up, nor time that is affected by family, but 100% completely free you time. That is your base time. Anything on top of that is simply a bonus. Design your game development time around your base time, the rest can be dedicated to adding feature creep options, polish, promotion or simply releasing earlier.

Do not overestimate your base time. You should underestimate it. This will allow you room to move when you get more. It also keeps your motivation up as you are reaching your goals and not struggling to finish what you would like in the time you have.

Strengths

Design with your strengths in mind. If you are a fantastic storyteller then focus on a game that can tell a great story. A text based choose your own adventure is a simple example of this. If you have fantastic character design skills then make a game that's all about close ups of characters such as a fighter or an interactive comic. If you are a great coder then do some cool code wizard fandangery like a physics or AI based game.

Bringing your strengths to the fore will make your talents look better as a folio piece, and will make the game that much better as an end result. Design your game to push your strength and make it shine.

Weaknesses

The last point also applies to your weaknesses. If you have a clear weakness then you will want to put this in the game as little as possible, or not at all.

If programming is not your thing, find an engine that does most of the hard work for you such as ‘Blueprint’ in the Unreal engine or a number of Assets available in Unity to use node based programming to help you work through the usual structures. Or something as simple as Twine to make a text based adventure and add some amazing art. If your character skills aren’t so good then make a game that doesn’t have any, or make the design so pixelated, minimalist or ‘conceptual’ that the characters are representative.

Or, if you feel like living in the danger zone, use your weakness as a strength! If you can’t draw, make your main characters stick figures. Purposefully represent your weakness rather than trying to hide it. As long as the idea is thoughtful or smart, you might find that it adds character to your game!

Another situation that you would focus on a weakness is if you would like to strengthen that weakness and become more proficient with it. Depending on how many things you know now though, you should keep new skillsets to a minimum perhaps. If you feel you have little skill in any category, then you are currently learning ‘Game Development’...however as you become more proficient in any field, or you already know other sections you can start focusing on areas that you feel you would like to become better at, or simply stick to what you know to get those hours up.

Resources

Resources can be a big hurdle, especially when it comes to cold hard cash. How much cash do you have to invest in this project, if any? Can you afford a programmer or music guy to add polish? Can you afford advertising or web hosting? Can you afford the programs you will need to buy?

Not only that, but is your computer fast enough, do you have the facilities to succeed? Can you afford to eat for the duration of the project, can you afford to survive if it is not successful!? Will you in fact die because your have stretched your resources too thin and you have no support network?!

With the advent of Crowdfunding like Kickstarter and Indieagogo it is possible to get extra funding. You could also use Patreon, Ko-fi, or BuyMeACoffee to get some income if you are offering resources like tutorials, devlogs, or assets. However, it is a very wise choice to go into a monetization situation with a fair amount of the groundwork done. You have to prove to the potential backers you know what you are doing, and that you have the ability to finish the job. If you can’t finish a small game under your own steam or at least a solid prototype, how do you expect someone to believe you can finish a project with their money?

Limitations

Time In my case it will just be me so I have to aim pretty small but I have quite a lot of free time. If I really put my mind to it I can get in about 4-6 hours every week day as a base (more on weekends), 6-8 if I’m focused and can get up in the morning! Which I rarely can, so as noted I’m sticking to the base. Strengths and Weaknesses I am a stronger 3D modeller than concept artist, and I’m alright at animation if I spend time on it. I can program or at least copy code and tweak according to my goals, but it’s definitely not going to be complex! I need to keep the gameplay mechanics pretty simple, unless there are resources out there to help me such as vibe coding. I have little music and FX experience, so I will have to learn as I go along. I could also purchase assets to fulfill the requirements of the experiences I make. Resources I have the programs needed as many are reasonably priced or free except for a couple, and I can save some money if I feel I need to bring someone in, or feel the need to advertise or promote my finished product. I am hoping, however, to finish the whole project myself. If anything just to show you all the steps needed to do so!

Goals

Once you have considered your limitations you can finally get into the meat of the concept and development. It really comes down to this one thing. What is the goal of the game? What is it meant to DO? Is it meant to be simply entertaining, is it meant to educate you or the player, is it meant to tell a story, is it meant to make the player feel or believe something? Is it something that simply needs to make money?

Without a clear goal it is very easy to lose focus along the journey and start wasting time on things you want rather than things you need. Having a fixed goal allows you to come back to this one goal when it comes to cutting down on feature creep.

Feature creep is where your game development starts getting longer due to ‘awesome features’ you think of on the way. At the time it seems like a must have feature, but that feature will take time to implement, and that feature may affect the balance of other factors in the game. Therefore it is actually a very dangerous element of development.

Always ask this one question : Does the feature I want to add get me closer to my goal.

Looking at the whole, and then designing your characters, gameplay and world to best achieve that goal.

Keep your core goals specific but don’t go into too much detail. This will allow you to get back to the main point, but also give you enough leeway when something is not working.

Lets take one example including a very specific example, a general example and a primary and secondary goal set structure :

1 / A fast tactical sci fi shooter set in a apocalyptic dystopian future with a strong male character trying to find his lost sister who has been taken behind enemy lines. There is a large number of customiseable weapons, vehicles and thick story that creates tension and an emotional connection between the main character and his sister as she is used as emotional bait to get him into the enemies hands.

2 / Emotional brother sister war story / fast paced tactical shooter / Apocalyptic Dystopia sci fi

3 / Primary : Emotional brother sister war story / fast paced tactical shooter / Apocalyptic Dystopia sci fi. Secondary : Customiseable weapons / Customiseable vehicles

As you can see, the first example is quite specific and it’s actually more difficult to keep on point in a black and white manner. The second example has the same information, but it is much easier to see what the goals are. It also allows for some room to move if the developers think up more interesting ways to complete a goal after the ideas phase. The game evolves as the developers do. Sticking to a set of specific goals allows less room for improvement whereas the general terms allow a lot of room for constant improvements to suit those goals in the best way possible.

An example would be that maybe the developers decide they want to make a more ‘open minded’ statement about the male/female gender stereotypes and make the main character female trying to save her brother. Perhaps the emotional connection is done through a psychic connection (it is the future after all) and in the first specific example this idea would be harder to come up in the maelstrom of ideas that come forth during the idea phase. Perhaps the ‘emotional bait’ idea doesn’t flesh out so well and needs to be changed to something else that flows better under the rules defined in the world building phase. Leaving out the details allows this to be changed much easier on a psychological level before the concept solidifies in your head.

Most importantly is the fact that when it comes to asking whether something should or shouldn’t be done, the general example is much easier to say yes or no. This saves a lot of time and effort in the long run.

The third example is an extension of the second...but allows ideas that you would like to include, but may not be as important in the grand scheme of things. Customiseable weapons and vehicles is a large task...and after initial testing it may not be deemed a feasible concept worth the time needed to create it. As a secondary goal...it is possible to drop, you may feel sad for a couple of days...but at least you won’t feel as if you have lost the essence of your game. Secondary goals are good for things you are not sure are possible, but if possible you can add them...even as an element of future proofing your design, adding value for customers or DLC.

A lot of these concepts are simple psychological triggers in the end, but they are important when accepting your limitations and moving forward.

If you stray from the main goals you will start losing the airtight nature of the game. You start adding extra stuff that isn’t necessary. You start wasting time and more so the game gets ‘loose’. The goals are everything. So keep them minimal yet solid, make sure they are what you want, and stick to them.

You can change them, but only in the concepting stage. The only reason you would change your main goals after the concepting stage is if you find it simply does not work. This is why they are more general in nature, they are not specifics. You can always change how you achieve these goals, but the goals themselves shouldn’t really change.

Core decisions

Core Idea

We’ve looked at ways to start generating ideas in general but let's have a look at the game you are going to create now. What is the game going to be about?

Design games around things you are passionate about. Remember you might be working on this project anywhere between 6 months to 3 years or more! You need to have the staying power, so you basically must make it something you like or find interesting! You could think of the best idea to make money, following trends and going that direction...but unless your desire for money outweighs your interest in the game itself there is not much reason to go about it this way as you will run out of steam and not finish your game...basically wasting any potential to make money.

Trends also stick around for very short periods of time, so unless you can finish and release your game within that period (such as 2-4 weeks) then there may not be any reason to follow that trend as it will have passed by the time you release your game.

The other side to that however is if you can make a quick game to make money. It gives you experience in making the game and may even give you a leg up to start developing your dream game sooner. But remember that quick usually turns into mid-term, and mid-term usually turns into long-term projects.

Indie developers are in the fortunate position to go bold with their ideas and push as many boundaries as they can (within the limitations they have thrust upon them of course). If it wasn’t for indies, the big developers would have nothing to copy!

So, to the point, make a list of all the stuff you like. Everything you like. Cars, nerf guns, fried potatoes, snowboarding, swimming in the pool on Sunday afternoons, science fiction, teleportation, stem cell research and fluffy bunnies for some random examples. Then look at each, or all, of those things and see if anything would be worth making a game on.

• Fluffy bunnies with nerf guns

• Stem cell puzzle game

• Snowboarding with the ability to teleport

• Racing game rolling potatoes around (fun touch screen game!)

• A snowboarding game with teleporting fluffy bunnies with nerf guns that shoot potatoes with the goal of trying to break into a STEM cell research facility to save the world.

These are just a few random ideas from some random ideas. These are not my favourite things by the way...although fluffy bunnies are pretty cute.

As you can see there are many ways to start coming up with game ideas. There are of course many more, but these are some to get you started!

Core Gameplay

Gameplay is the game, therefore it is the most important thing to get right! Imagine a book without words, or a movie without a screen...it just doesn’t work. Without gameplay, or at least interaction, your experience is no longer a game. Which is fine for other mediums, but as this is the thing that makes the experience it should be amazing, or at least very good! Everything else should be used to add to this base element.

The main things that create the gameplay experience is the four steps between the user wanting to do something and the game doing it. It is constant cycle with the game displaying information in some way, the player reacting to that information, the player using the inputs to interact with the game based on that information, and the game doing the expected actions to the players controls. Wash, rinse and repeat. This is basically what a game is : Output, Reaction, Interaction, Results.

The game experience needs to meet the player's expectation well otherwise the experience will be sub par at best. Meeting player expectations, on every level of your games experience from initial marketing to completing the game, is compulsory to creating a great game experience.

With such control over your users experience you need to really hone in on the things you want them to achieve while playing your game. And once again, this comes back to your goals.

Output

As information is the most important aspect of a game it is wise to spend a significant amount of time to make sure that the information the user receives is to the point, timely and easy to understand. If you can design it in a way that makes it intuitive, without having to look up a tutorial to understand it, then you are onto something good. However with more complicated game types this is not so easy. There are two main elements for giving a player information :

User Interface

The user interface, or UI, is basically the portrayal of information in the game environment. This information could be displayed in the world itself, on the characters or in the Heads Up Display (HUD). The UI is the easiest way to give statistical information like health, ammo, abilities etc. However it has the potential to detract from the game experience. if you want immersion, then the less HUD the better.

The Game World

Gone are the days where you have to use a HUD to show your information clearly. With the high fidelity of today's technology, and a creative mind, it is much better to give the information in other ways that make it part of the world and therefore gameplay. Instead of having a health meter, create a heart beat that gets louder as you are closer to death. Blood starts dripping down the screen, breathing gets heavier, vision gets darker (or lighter if you want to see the light at the end of the tunnel). If you have a sci-fi shield around the player, have it fade, flash or crackle. Instead of how many bullets are left in a gun, put the information on the gun. There is no need for generic HUD information to interesting problems unless you need precise information given to the user such as a Twitch based First Person Shooter where every unit of health matters. Otherwise, let the interface be part of the experience, not a layer to remove the player from it.

Having world based information is even more important in Virtual Reality. Unless your ‘avatar’ has access to a HUD in the environment (eg. a spaceship or their character is wearing a helmet etc.) it is disconcerting to have information hovering over the world space for no reason. If you are going to create something like this, at least apply it to a world surface so it looks like it is a functional interface. Or make the game space look like it can support a holographic HUD in world space somehow. Any other solution removes the player from the experience greatly decreasing the player's immersion factor which is paramount when it comes to the VR experience.

The other element of course is what's going on in the game. An enemy turns up on the screen, you are under attack from an army of invaders, a crate is currently coming at you that you have to jump over. These of course are the basic gameplay elements that the player has to react to.

You want the events in the game world to have enough impact to make the player want to react. If an enemy does not look that dangerous, then the player may not react accordingly. If they don’t feel they are in anger, they will not get the reaction that you are looking for to get the investment from the player to do what you expect them to. This leads to a disconnection between you as a storyteller or world builder and the player experiencing your story or world. Everyone loses in this case, therefore you want to cultivate a predictable response from your players.

Reaction

You want the events in the game to be ‘fun’ and meaningful to interact with. You also want the player to want to react to them. Why is the enemy something you want to destroy. Why should they beat up that guy walking towards them? Zombies, for example, are easy to get a reaction from a player...THEY’RE ZOMBIES!!! Most games have default reasons to work with such as this guy is obviously an enemy I must kill it. It’s usually violent, however if you look at puzzle games you can see that there are other things that players are interested in ‘reacting’ to.

As a developer you want to create a programmable response from your players so you can create an expectation from your players. This makes it easier for you to meet that expectation once they react accordingly.

Let’s take the zombies as an easy example. See zombie > want to kill zombie. This is basically an automatic response. You can then think of interesting ways to allow your player to kill said zombie. Once they accomplish this the player’s expectation has been met and they can move on. However, there are SO MANY ZOMBIE GAMES. So it is becoming more difficult to make a zombie interaction meaningful. Nowadays we are looking at See zombie > roll eyes because another damn zombie. Making the interaction meaningful again is getting more difficult in this case. So don’t make a zombie game…maybe.

Once you have a designed reaction made you can then prepare your interactions accordingly. This will help you create an experience that is satisfying to your player.

Interact

Until this point, you could basically say it’s a passive experience. The interaction is where the game comes in.

How will you interact with your users? Interactive media has an many ways to achieve your goals, however it is very easy to choose the wrong one. Look at ALL possibilities and make sure you choose the medium that allows you to achieve your goals the best. Also make sure that you are comfortable with the medium as you are basically stuck with that until the very end.

Things to consider include what device or devices you will be releasing on :

• How difficult it is to get your game onto the medium in question? It is harder to get games onto consoles than PC for example.

• How much will it cost to get it onto the medium and can you afford that?

• Does it have the best interface for your game (touch screen, joypad, keyboard and/or mouse etc.)?

• Can the medium handle the quality/processing that your game will require?

Your limitations as discussed and target audience play a large part in this. Possibilities include :

• PC / Steam Machine

• Console (Playstation, Xbox, Switch etc.)

• Smart Phone (iPhone / Android etc.)

• Portable gaming device (Steam deck etc.)

• Virtual Reality (Oculus Rift, Steam Frame etc.)

• Mixed Reality (Quest 3 / 3S etc.)

• Augmented Reality (Meta glasses, HoloLens, Magic Leap, etc.)

Note however that maybe you don't actually need to make an interactive experience. Perhaps you could make some machinima instead (a movie using a game engine) as many game engines have fantastic video editing/camera control options such as Unreal. If your strength is storytelling and asset creation, why not just focus purely on those skills? That way you don’t have to worry about programming and interfacing at all!

The medium also defines the control method. The control method is the most integral element of how the gameplay mechanics work. It is how the player controls your character or world. You want to get the actual player as close to the experience as possible in order to actually experience what you are trying to achieve. Think of the controller as the translator of your thoughts into their language, where your language is the game world, story and overall experience. The only thing they know is how to use a controller based on previous experiences, if that. So utilise that to the best of your ability.

The options are continually growing for control options...and this also depends on your medium...but lets have a look at some of the options. Think of your game, consider which ones would integrate best to your game ideas. Is it a tactile experience? Then perhaps a touch screen game would work great. Is it a game of frantic precision? Then a mouse and keyboard game would be the one to go for.

• Controller / Joy pad

• Mouse

• Keyboard

• Mouse AND Keyboard

• Touch Screen

• VR/XR Headsets (Head Tracking only)

• VR/XR Controllers

• Steering Wheel (limited audience)

• Joystick (limited audience)

• Kinect / Motion Capture (limited Audience)

Result

The key idea here is to create gameplay feedback that the user expects and receives. It has to be intuitive. You want to make the process of getting the actions that the user expects to happen in the world you have placed before them, to actually happen.

Think of it from their perspective every step of the way. If you had a character in a world that is in a bird's eye view and you pressed up, you would expect the character to go up. If the character does something else it is extremely jarring to the experience and will significantly affect the enjoyment of the player. They have ‘failed’ as a user, and that feels terrible. If you are going to make a player feel bad then it’s on purpose rather than because something is not communicated well enough.

Luckily for you, gamers have a growing list of expected elements with certain control methods. Pressing left on a joypad will move your character left or the Green Button is Jump as a simple example. You will find that many users will start testing buttons before the game even starts to test what the controls do. Humans are curious. This is what we do! But if you want to introduce a new mechanic then you will have to try and make it make sense as much as possible, then you will need to introduce that correctly.

Basically you want the in game controls to be a natural extension of themselves into your world rather than a separate layer removing them from it.

With the introduction of Virtual reality this is becoming easier and harder as they are closer to your world from the start, however this actually makes it more difficult to create a flawless method of interactivity due to the fact that because they are interfacing with the world visually and aurally on a one to one basis, having a ‘controller’ already starts removing them from the experience rather than immersing them into it. Any controls that don’t suit the environment you create will remove the player from the virtual experience.

A joypad and a TV don’t have the need to hold that connection as you aren’t immersed in the world nearly as much therefore there is much less to remove you from.

Means

This is simply how are you going to make your game. Deciding on the best control scheme should make this easier. Although nowadays many of the main engines can export games to nearly every format. Most indie devs will be looking at game engines unless you actually want to make your own to show off something amazingly new, or you have a deathwish. Each engine has pros and cons and I can only speak from my own experiences and the current trends at the moment. In the end though, choose the means that works best for your goals.

You could use whatever you are comfortable with, or even write your own if you wanted to! Although generally the premade engines are reasonably priced, accessible and has pretty much all the functionality most games would need.

Some of the more popular engines include :

• Unity http://unity3d.com/

• Unreal https://www.unrealengine.com/

• RPGMaker http://www.rpgmakerweb.com/

• Game Maker http://www.yoyogames.com/studio

Emotive Response

Do you want the game to ‘feel’ relaxing? Then design your gameplay to force the player to enjoy the game slowly with low risk and no ‘scares’. Do you want the game to be exciting? Then it’s all speed and thrills. As the developer you have complete control of the experience...and this should carry through to every aspect of the experience to truly make a masterpiece.

Part of this is an extension of getting a reaction from your player. How do we control that reaction though? Why would a player be emotionally invested in your game. And there are many reasons for this to happen, but making it happen well is another matter.

One method is to play on the player's emotions directly. Achievement is a common target. Otherwise the Achievements systems in game would not work nearly as well as they do. Simply getting through the game is sometimes enough to keep the player emotionally attached as they feel a sense of accomplishment. Puzzle games are a prime example of this.

Visual and Audio feedback

Humans have preprogrammed responses to certain stimuli. We can use this to our advantage to create defined responses with players. A negative buzz sound is a prime example of how ‘trained’ we humans are when it comes to feedback. We automatically feel bad when we hear a noise like that. A flash of red is also indicative of a negative response.

Positive response is also possible with audio and visual feedback. Opening a chest in every game known to man always has a positive audio byte that strengthens the positive aspect of opening the chest for a reward. Some games are basically programmed into our very gaming nature such as Link open a chest in Zelda. I can see you playing the sound in your head already!

It’s dangerous to go alone.

Risk VS Reward

A major element of games is risk VS reward. This is where the player needs to make a decision of action based on how much they should risk to get the reward. There is an expected agreement between a player and a developer that the risk and effort to get the reward, should equal the reward itself. If the reward is too small, then the player will be disappointed, disgruntled, possibly angry and feel ripped off. You would have denied them something they feel they are owed.

On the flip side if you give them too much then the ‘value’ of the reward is reduced, especially if it happens several times. An example would be if you get a super powered weapon by jumping over an easy chasm...then the player would feel that something is wrong. They won’t know why perhaps. There is no sense of achievement. Unless the player is a self entitled brat, in which we really shouldn’t be encouraging that behaviour. The value of that gun will also be less, and they may not trust the risk vs reward mechanic until it rights itself.

If there is a super powered weapon that is hard to get, and the player gets it, then there is a feeling of accomplishment, and they have the added bonus of having a super powered weapon that they have earned. Warm fuzzies all round.

Passive VS Active Experiences

Do you want the player to have a relatively passive experience, where they are ‘taken’ on a journey or do you want a truly active experience where the player IS the story. Active and passive can be applied to the overall experience to the methods of interaction to carry out the story. What better way to show what I mean with some Zombie apocalypse examples :

• You follow the lead character in a team in a Zombie apocalypse. You have no choice but to follow their lead in the game.

• You are second in command, helping the lead make decisions in a Zombie apocalypse.

• You are the leader of a team in the Zombie Apocalypse, the survival of the team is completely on you!

• You are on your own. Everything is on you to survive, but you have noone to answer to. The world is yours for the taking...in a Zombie Apocalypse.

These choices will affect the gameplay. So, they should be looked at early on. How would you control your team in an active environment (if there is one)? How could you make offering suggestions to your leader interesting and useful while at the same time being intuitive to the player so it doesn’t feel ‘strange’?

As you can probably guess with these zombie examples, each type of Passive to Active element can completely change the game feel. If it was completely active, you would have a fast paced, action game. Probably with lots of violence, hardly any ‘slow’ periods of gameplay and having the player constantly on the edge of their seat. On the other hand you could have a thought provoking experience that could explore what it means to be human and everything in between. Having a fast paced real time game will most likely not allow time to be thinking about what it means to be human. Nor will a slow game with simple interaction be exciting for the player. Once again, look at your goals and shape the experience to suit that as best you can.

Story

If your goal is to tell a story then you will need to make a good one. The time for crappy stories in games is done. Think of the story, and then how the game can best tell that story...if it is even a game. Rather than think of a game mechanic, and then tack the story on at the end. In some cases you may want the story to shape the gameplay, style and all other aspects of the game.

In many cases you don’t even need a story for a game that is mostly about the gameplay or the world. But most games are based around the story...so make sure your gameplay, goals, controls, music, sound effects and every other aspect of the game feeds into and adds to the story.

Passive to Active Storytelling

As noted previously you can have different levels of interactivity from your user. In regards to story, you could have the following :

• One of many final humans in a zombie apocalypse. If you die, then it’s just another death.

• One of a few final humans in a zombie apocalypse. If you die, there is less chance of humanity surviving.

• You are the final human in a zombie apocalypse. If you die, then humankind is finished.

The level of passivity affects how the player interacts with the story and their investment in it. If the story is more passive, you can focus on other things like action, or focus solely on the gameplay. This would make it a ‘fun’ experience’ but a less ‘involved’ one probably. If it is more active then you can add a lot more to the story as you are the story. Therefore it would be wise to focus more on the story telling aspect of the game if your character is an integral, active part of it.

Pacing

Pacing is important to every medium. Making a player shift pace makes an experience interesting. Most media from books, movies, music and of course games will have different pace to make it interesting.

The average movie will have three main arcs. It is known. It has been clinically proven (I guess) that this is the only way that movies can be. Who knows why this is the case. Here is an example of the average movie story arc.

As you can see the prologue is exciting enough to get you invested. Otherwise your audience may get bored , not buy into the world or story, or at worst walk out (or turn it off in the case of games). After you have their attention though, you need to take it down so you can build them up to the climax. Each act is a development of intensity that prepares the audience for the final scene.

Game pacing

Game pacing is similar, but it still needs to run on the same basic premise. That, or we haven’t found the sweet spot for game pacing yet. The main thing you have to know, and get right, is that you cannot have a sustained thrill ride as it will tire out your player to the point of actually getting boring no matter how amazing that thrill ride is. The opposite is also true, unless you are making a game based on Yoga perhaps...but even then you would create times of slightly faster pacing versus slow pacing. It is important to keep your player immersed by holding their attention by spacing out the pace from slower to faster.

One element is it depends on how long your game is going to be. If it is open world then you would need to consider each quest and side quests as it’s own story. Quests have 2-3 arcs whereas side quests may have 1-2.

A linear story however may have a much more linear approach like the following.

If the game is aimed to go for 2-3 hours then you could probably pace it similar to a movie. Any longer and you would have to pace it out accordingly. Either way you always want the general feel of the game to be always on the up. This is what keep players playing. If you cannot hold your gamers attention then they will not see your grand finale, no matter how exciting it may be. So you might as well get the hook in while you can and then keep them on the line.

Balancing the pace out is important. It is very similar to risk VS reward in that the fast paced sections of the game have to be countered by the slower paced sections. This is not exact physics however, as speed of pace is not the only thing controlling the result of the complete pacing. How exciting/thrilling is the section for example. Is it excitement or fear that is pushing the player forward? And each emotion has a different effect on each player. Some players are impervious to fear and they find the ‘scares’ boring perhaps, but they are enjoying the ‘thrill’ sections of the game...these two different players would react differently to the slow section trying to balance that out.

Unfortunately there is no scientific equation to figure this out. Playtesting your target audience and writing down their opinions to further balance out the sections/levels and overall pacing is the only way to solve the equation we don’t actually know!

...Until technology figures it out. Then we’re good to go!

Style

The style of the game gives an immediate emotional response to the game. It is also what will sell the game initially for the most part. Find a style that compliments your goal and your strengths and also applies to your target audience.

There are an exceptional number of styles out there, many of them are completely untapped. Due to the advances in technology we can now start exploring some of the more obscure styles of art and design for game worlds or interactive experiences.

Imagine a game that uses the style of Van Gogh, or rendered in the style of an MC Escher print. Recently there has been an increase in different art styles made more popular by the likes of Enter the Spiderverse and Arcane. As well as some that try to imitate whole other mediums such as Tearaway with its torn paper aesthetic. It all depends on what you are interested in and what kind of access you have to the artists that can create the required assets.

Make sure the style aligns with the experience you are making. Having a light hearted, pastel based experience that has a very dark story will not meet player expectation, unless you are trying to surprise your audience in some way. There are ways to do misalignment, but its a much harder path to walk.

Experiences and Empowerment

Most games are designed to empower the player in some way. Be it to make a player actually feel powerful, through to letting them feel things they may not otherwise have a chance to, like what it feels like to be a slice of toast.

What do you want the player to experience at the core? Do you want them to experience something you have personally experienced? Do you want them to experience something you want to experience? Perhaps you want them to consider a different perspective or see the world you have created and be able to experience that in the same way you do...there are many reasons to empower someone. The trick is how do you do it well. The main things to consider for this is how do you get that core idea into the head of the user. How do you make them feel that feeling? How do you get your vision across as close as possible to what is in your head, into their head?

Until Virtual reality, empowerment has still mostly been a secondary experience. You can show what it is like to be a hero through a game on a pc or a console. With virtual reality however we are certainly closer to literally experiencing what it’s like to be in somebody else's shoes.

That said we can definitely look at all the mediums to best get our experience across.

Escape

A large element of games is to let people escape from their everyday life. Everyday life is boring or stressful. Your goal is to take them away from it, just for a time. I introduce Escape at this point as this is a key element to a games experience and in a way underlines all other aspects. The more into a game a player is the better the experience can be. Although that’s not a given of course.

The main way to achieve this is through immersion. And true immersion is difficult to get, let alone keep. Let's start with a simpler example however. Think of a movie that allowed you to get truly immersed in the world or story. As soon as the opening title showed up to the closing credits, you were taken away to that world and story. it could be a drama, a sci fi, even an animation, but as most people have a lot of experiences with movies there is probably at least one where you felt as if you were part of that world, even though you technically were not.

Now, hold onto the memory of that experience and consider the following :

• How did they pull you into the world or story?

• Why did you believe it?

• How did they keep you believing in it?

• Why did the real world matter less than the world you were watching?

• How did it feel coming out of that world or story?

All of these questions could apply to a game, novel or comic of course. You need to pull apart the things that make a world a place where you can escape to, and believe in while you are there. There are many different reasons for how this works, and some only apply to certain people as every person's experiences and perspectives are different, but we should have a look at some of the common elements.

Believability

If a player doesn’t believe in the world, nothing will work...at all. If you are building a real world, then you cannot have things that cannot be found in the real world. People have to act ‘normal’, places have to look ‘normal’ according to what the player expects.

The World

If you are branching into fantasy or sci fi you get to stretch the reality somewhat, but it still has to make sense, rather than be believable. And this is a hard line to walk. A world with hoverboards is fine, as long as there is evidence that that technology can be supported within the constraints of the universe. eg.can hover technology be seen elsewhere in the world (cars etc.), is the technology realistic enough that we can relate to it in some way (the machines/tech to power hover ability etc.) and how does it look. That tech should look the same across similar tech in your world.

The Characters

Most games will have a number of characters, or at least one. Even if you don’t have a character per se, whatever you are interacting with in the game becomes the character. And this has it’s own behaviours and personality that the player will need to relate to in one way or another be it joy, empathy, excitement, frustration, competitiveness or any one of the endless traits that games bring out in people.

Creating believable characters is integral to letting the player become immersed in your world. If they cannot relate to your character there is no reason for them to play. However this relateability could be from many things from being someone or something they can actually relate to, through to just being ‘cute’. A player can relate to cute as this triggers a protective state in ‘most’ people, and therefore people will want to fulfill that role. If you are going down this route, and only this route, you better make sure your creature is ridiculously cute as your game is basically riding on that. Although there have certainly been successful games on this premise alone.

Concern and Drama

In many stories the character or world is entangled in certain elements of drama. There are many reasons that a player will care about the characters and world that you have created.

By creating a character and/or world that a player feels for due to the very nature or design of that character and/or world you can create a dynamic where the player removes themselves from their reality in order to help a character or world with theirs. There are many standard tropes that developers use to make players care. Damsels in distress, evil villain taking over the world, people dying, end of humanity, you name it. These are pretty generic, but they are continually used not because the player actually cares (especially as these are generally getting overused nowadays) but because they know what is expected of them. Players will buy into that, simply because that's what they need to do to experience the game. And that's fine, but it’s not a moving experience.

By pushing the character, the animation, the world design or any other element with enough skill you can develop a need in the player to help that character or world to help that player or world. It’s not just another zombie apocalypse, it’s his/her zombie apocalypse. It’s not another empire being taken over by an overzealous, evil tyrant, it’s the players world empire being taken over by an overzealous, evil tyrant. By adding life to your creations, you give players reason to want to protect it from whatever drama that may befall them. It is not enough to save a planet anymore, or even a galaxy. You have to give the players a reason as to why this planet or galaxy is actually worth saving.

If you can create a character or world, on their own merits, that the players feels that should be saved or they deserve to be saved. Then you are onto something bigger than a generic story with get player from A to B. You have the character invested in the characters and world and there is no A to B anymore, but more that you are experiencing the journey with, or for, the character and world.

Relatability

Making connections between the player, characters and world is extremely important. If you can create a situation where the player can relate to the situation, or drama at hand, then you have a head start in creating this connection. This element is a little harder to do unless the intended connection is a very common thing that many people experience such as the loss of a loved one, being attacked in some way or similar situation. By relating to this character and what they are going through players want to help and support that character. If you can get a connection with the player that experience can be much more meaningful to them. I think this area is relatively untapped in that there aren’t any games based on specific demographics that have certain common characteristics in regards to experiences and perspective.

Stereotypes

Stereotypes can be very useful in creating an instant connection with the player, at the expense of perhaps not being very innovative. You see it everywhere and is generally viewed with disdain the more and more that the same stereotypes turn up. But there is a reason they constantly turn up and that is because as soon as you see the character you understand his/her/it’s back story. The expectations are already set and you can get on with the game. This is great, if you need generic NPC’s in the background that have no opportunity for a backstory. But if your main character falls on such generic stereotypes for no other reason than you can’t think of a better reason for them to be one, then you may need to reconsider your character and/or design.

The only other exception is if you are using a stereotype to throw it on it’s head at a later time. Knowingly using stereotypes to tell a story is a reasonable approach but this is a difficult approach as many players will simply say that you are using a cheap ‘twist’ or even still that you aren’t creative enough to make your own characters and having to use stereotypes as a crutch to get your story across. Do you want to use crutches? Do you want to be seen as someone with a broken leg?! I thought not.

In summary...yes you can use stereotypes. Personally I think they have their uses. Just know why and how you are using them. And make sure to shake things up a bit while you’re at it.

Physical Immersion

Physical Input

A keyboard and mouse, and even a joypad, is somewhat of a limited immersive experience. There are very few situations in real life where we use such devices. Even the actions that relate to them are very rare. We use them simply because we are used to them. And they do what they do well enough. But when it comes to game experiences you want to get the player as close to the experience as you can.

With the introduction of VR/XR motion controls it is possible to have nearly 1:1 experiences and interactions with your game world. We aren’t at PowerGlove levels yet, but we are certainly getting closer.

Virtual Reality

Virtual reality makes experiences easier to get immersed in due to their ability to replace your visual and auditory senses completely (well pretty much). Because of this however, it is much harder to keep them immersed as any element that is out of place will shatter the whole illusion. One must work harder to make sure there are no cracks in the reality to pull them away from their new reality as that can be very disconcerting to the player.

If you are walking through a realistic world, and you are that much closer to believing in it due to the visceral nature of VR, then any wall clipping where the character can go through a wall, or graphical glitch or any thing that is out of place will bring the virtual world crashing around them. They are once again in a game rather than having an experience.

‘World’ breaking issues, be it actual graphical bugs and glitches to elements that simply don’t ‘fit’ with the world should be avoided as much as possible as it truly destroys the experience. It’s not just slightly annoying as it is with other mediums. In the case of VR, it has a serious effect on everything.

If you want to support VR moving forward, then make sure your experience is the best it can be so new users to the medium can experience the true potential of VR, rather than writing it off once again because a bad experience that could have been avoided. This is in your hands now...don’t mess it up!

Mixed / Augmented Reality

With the introduction of Mixed and Augmented Reality and it’s increasing use in technology and games we will see new developments in how to create immersive experiences using this technology.

Replayability

Replayability is very important to some games, but not so important for others. An engrossing linear story that has only one ending will probably be pretty hard to make replayable (although it is possible). A highly repetitive game like a racing game or simple deathmatch has to be highly replayable as you will basically be doing the same gameplay forever! So make sure to make it fun.

Interesting and/or Fun Core Gameplay

When it really comes down to it the game has to be fun! Without this the player won’t even boot the game up a second time, let alone a 20th time.

Achievements

The introduction of Achievements in most if not all games for players who have the ‘Gotta’ Catch ‘em All’ mentality.

Variation

If a game has multiple endings, with different ways to get there, then many players will play it through again (as long as the game is fun enough to do so) to experience the different endings. The catch with this is that if the game itself is not so fun, and/or the journey to get there is not so different from the first story, then the player will get bored and move on.

Scalability

In this day and age it is common to expand on your game over time in order to keep your players coming back for more. Things like Downloadable Content (DLC) and expansions, or even just patches that add game elements to your creation. If you game is a success, then you should probably take it to the next level to get the most out of your ideas. If it doesn’t do so well, maybe look at improving the core, or scrapping it and starting with your next big idea.

There are many ways to scale your game up. But just remember to keep your base game small in order to achieve it in a respectable time frame. Keep a list of all the great ideas you have and add them to your Feature Creep section in your documentation. The best of these ideas can be added later if you feel strongly enough about them. Bigger does not necessarily mean better. A tighter, more optimised experience can create a much more streamlined experience for the player. Only add elements that enhance you game and scrap everything else that is neutral.

Reference

Reference is always important in regards to getting information quickly and giving you a jumping board to get into your ideas. Look at the competition (if you have something similar). Find what works and what doesn’t and then add your own personal twist to make sure it stands out as your own.

Reference doesn’t have to come from other apps and games. It could be an art style, a sense of humour, a type of story, a culture, a real world location...the possible forms of reference for ideas is basically infinite. Use the world around you to enhance your game experience. Work with things that the user can relate to as a method to communicate things they may not be used to. This is a very important step in getting your user immersed in your world without alienating them.

After you have collected images, stories, ideas, and general reference keep them handy. Put them all in a folder you can access easily, or make them your desktop background. Print them out and put them up on a board that you can see at all times. Whatever you do, always use reference if you feel it adds to your world which, generally speaking, it should.

Alternatives

If your game is all about graphics and/or story and less about gameplay, or you can’t get the gameplay working as well as you’d like...then make a fantastic looking machinema instead. If it’s all about an awesome soundtrack but you can’t get the gameplay ‘feeling’ right, then release a soundtrack based on a written work or visuals. Interactive experiences are interactive experiences. So if the interactivity is not the best aspect of your experience, you have (probably) not chosen the right medium. Rethink your strategy and look at all other options, and if you still think a game is your best medium then go for it.

If you are focusing on one element of game creation in order to be a specialist then making a game from scratch is not for you. If you want to specialise use any of the following sources to find the people you need to help fill in the gaps, or use their work (and give credit) for something you would like to develop :

• Join a Game Jam!

• Ask other artists to use their art as reference (get concept or 3D art to model or texture etc.)

• Ask other artists to use their assets (get a 3D character to use for rigging, animation etc.)

• Collaborate with others on portions of game assets

• Join a modding team as a specialist

• Start modifying a pre made game yourself

• Simply create assets and make a folio to show off your skills

• And many more!

The Business

Reality

The reality of it is that any game needs a business model to succeed and keep the money rolling in to pay the bills if this is what you want to do full time. It’s not all fun and games, and the game industry is always changing making it imperative that you are always on the dial in order to maximise your audience, your income and your company's ability to survive.

There are two main elements to being ‘realistic’ when it comes to making games. Money and time. If it is a side project and you aren’t worried about finishing the game...ever...then neither of these apply to you. But if you aren’t part of that fantasy world then one, or both, will. And that will affect your decision making ability.

Difficult Decision Making

The decisions you make at any point affect every aspect of your game development in both terms of time and/or money. You may need to reel back your amazing enemy AI to something more standard in order to release the game in a reasonable timeframe. You may need to cut back on the graphical fidelity on your creations as it takes too long to make hyper realistic characters with a team of one. You may need to drop all the extra characters you want to make simply because they will take too long to make.

Unless you have basically unlimited resources you should be constantly vigilant towards wasting time and resources for no gain. You need to look at every decision with the mind of an accountant where time and money needs to be kept to a minimum, or at least a caring, albeit vocal, friend who looks over your shoulder making sure you aren’t wasting your life away. Will the element you want to add to your game make the experience better, and enough to warrant the work put into it? If so, sure. Go for it. But seven and a half times out of ten you can probably cut the option and keep your game to the core until release.

This is doubly important when talking about feature creep. The never ending ‘What If’s’ that you will no doubt come up with during the development process. Write them down if they are good enough, but stick to the base goals and brief for the most part. If you have extra time at the end, then revisit some of the best ideas and put them in, but even then it’s usually better to release your game. Get some serious feedback and test the waters first. If your game doesn’t work on it’s own merits, the feature creep will rarely save a game. Addressing your customers needs directly, might however. So best dedicate your time to that first and then look at adding extra features to win back your customer base.

If something isn’t working, cut it. Do not get attached to your creations to the point that you refuse to drop something because you simply put too much time into it. If you continue working on it and you finally give in to the fact it’s not going to work, you will be even more frustrated when you realise that you could have saved that time for something that was working or another feature that is much better. Just remember, if you love something, set it free...with the delete key...and emptying the recycle bin.

Basically, for everything you do...is the benefit of that feature equal to, or better than the amount of time you will need to put it in? Consider this as objectively as possible. One approach is to think about a review of your game. If it is something they will praise in the review, then it may be worth adding. If it is something they will not say anything about, then consider that at length in regards to does it make other elements of the game better, or the overall experience better. If there is a fair chance that the review might rip it to shreds because it wasn’t implemented properly, or the reality of it is that it actually doesn’t add to the game...then kill it! Kill it with fire!!

Funding Methods

In many cases you will need money first in order to make your game as good as it can be. Unless you are doing your project completely on the side of your day job or what have you, getting funding is an important resource allowing you to pay for programs that you will use, paying the people you may get on board, finishing the areas that you aren’t so comfortable with or simply paying for the rent and bills while you make the game full time.

There are now countless business models ranging from the old fashioned publisher or crowdfunding through to free 2 play with microtransactions. Choosing the right model for you is vital to turning a profit. Finding the best source of initial investment for you is an important part of finding the best deal in the long run for your project and in many ways, your future.

Publishers and Investors

Back in the day the only method of getting ‘serious’ startup money was by finding a publisher or investor to back you. This is a difficult and frustrating process unless you get pretty lucky. Generally speaking ‘suits’ and ‘devs’ rarely speak the same language, and what is important to you may not be very important to them. From their perspective, it usually comes down to releasing on time by using as little money as possible to make as much money as possible. As you can guess this is nigh on impossible (but there’s always the odd games that do manage to be the exception...I’m looking at you Flappy Bird!).

If you are getting funding from external sources such as a publisher, many of these decisions will be made for you either directly or indirectly. Tight deadlines will affect your ability to put in all the features you’d like. Possibly forcing you to release a buggy mess because you haven’t had the time to fully refine the code. Whole gametypes may be dropped, or decisions against your better judgement will be made that you unfortunately have to go along with as it’s in the contract. Finding a publisher that gels with your ideals is very difficult and rare. Finding one that gives you free reign on your ideas even more so. You will most probably have to shift your views in order to get the dollars.

Publishers

A publisher is an organisation that may front up the cash but also have the network and infrastructure to get your game out to the masses. This is becoming less important with the increase of digital sales and distribution, but most publishers also have access to international marketing teams and solid distribution channels that would otherwise be closed to you. Their knowledge in releasing games would be significant and therefore would take a lot of the hard work out of the somewhat more boring aspects of game development...at a price!

The price varies considerably and in many cases many publishers offer pretty terrible contracts. If you get an offer make sure to read the contract, between the lines as much as the contract itself. Try to get other eyes on the contract as well as the money might be good, or even great, but the cost is significantly greater.

Angel Investors

An angel investor or angel is an individual with a fair amount of loose change who provides capital for a business start-up, usually in exchange for a return in investment of some sort such as part ownership, stock, or whatever else their lawyers decide to run with. This method would have a higher chance of being able to run your own ideas if you can find an investor that believes in your ability and your ideas. But generally an Angel Investor may not have access to as many resources as a publisher and more will fall on your plate once you need to get into Marketing and creating a social/online presence.

Crowdfunding

Getting initial investment is a very difficult task however there has been an increase in new methods of funding projects such as crowdfunding.

Kickstarter revolutionised many industries and opened up the option of development to many people who would otherwise not be able to. However, as there has been a huge increase in people vying for customers hard earned cash it is getting more and more difficult to stand out from the crowd. That said though it is still definitely possible for you to get funding through this method...with a little forward planning and a lot of work.

If you already have a name behind you then things are much easier, as this will get you a fair bit of the way when considering getting backing from crowdfunding. People have heard of you before, have seen your completed works, and therefore have more confidence in your ability to finish your goals. Due to the number of backers being burned from previous kickstarter campaigns, a lot of potential customers are quite hesitant to back everything they are interested in...and rightly so.

If you are coming into the game from absolutely nowhere then you have your work cut out for you. I’m not saying it is impossible, but you certainly have a lot more heavy lifting to do in regards to convincing your potential backers that 1/ your idea is as awesome as you think it is and 2/ you can actually do it. This in itself is quite the task, but with a good video, professional crowdfunding page, a lot of social networking, and a fair bit of luck you could indeed be rolling in the millions to make your first game.

Improving your Funding chances

It is extremely important for you to build up a following before you setup your kickstarter page. This requires a fair few things in place that you can build up from.

Slice of game

There is a much higher chance of funding your game if the game is nearly finished. At the least, have a solid slice of your game that you can display on your Kickstarter game. If you are asking for money with an idea and some character concepts there is very little reason for anyone to believe you can finish the game. If you already have the game, or at least some of the game, then there is more chance you can do what you propose.

Website

This is your main virtual hub. Everything you post needs to have a link to this site. This is where you can show your potential customers your amazing work. They can get information to it, they can share it (extremely important), and they can find out news about any developments you may have. This site means you exist, and apart from having the feeling of existence yourself it truly is the beginning of you as a developer.

Initially you don’t need a forum or Discord, and unless you can moderate it reasonably well and/or you want direct contact with your fans then maybe it’s best not to include one at all. If you open a forum and hardly ever talk to your user base they may get disgruntled due to the poor ‘support’ and the fact you don’t ‘listen to your fans’. If you can do it right then it can add a lot to your empire, however if you cannot it can do a lot more damage than good.

Social Media

The second element is posting on Social Media. This is basically your advertising and can be done from day 1 if needed and for free (if you are willing to make the content yourself). Showing your work early allows your customer base to grow slowly if your idea is interesting enough, that said...if you take 5 years to finish the one game it is unlikely that people will stick around that long. Again, small projects that can be done in shorter periods of time is better.

Choose the platform that aligns with the customers you would like, or use all of them and hope for the best : Twitter, Bluesky, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram.

Email List

Creating an Email list that you can add potential customers to is extremely important. Find ways to get people on that list, be it offering beta tests, unique cosmetics in game, access to your discord, opportunities to help decide on game mechanics, or a weekly/monthly newsletter to update people on how your game is coming along. The more people you have on this list the higher chance people will buy your game, and games you make afterwards.

Continued Funding

Once your game has been released and is accepted en masse by the billions you will need to take advantage of this by offering more of your game for people to purchase. If done right downloadable content and expansions can really add to the game and experience for your users for years to come. If done wrong however it can really come and bite you in the butt and make you lose customers. So be careful with how you go about moving forward.

So here are some of the things that I, personally, think should or shouldn’t be done when trying to get the extra dollar from your audience. Remember that without them, you would not be able to make your game further, so don’t treat them as money bags and consider them as partners in achieving the best game possible.

Things not to do, in my personal opinion :

• Do not have the content that will be purchased as DLC already on your physical media. This is not DLC, this is a scam and should be avoided because if and when you get caught, and you probably will, your customers will start to hate you. They may still love the game...but they will start to distrust you. Losing any goodwill you may have had which is difficult to gain, but easy to lose.

• ‘Pay to Win’ is not as popular as your accountant says it is. It may, in fact ‘work’ when it comes to getting money, but if you are willing to sell your soul...then by all means. But there are better methods to get money from your customers without being unfair about it. You are alienating many of your potential players simply because of your love for money.

• Don’t charge ridiculous prices! By charging ridiculous prices you may find that some of your players will pay that price, but you will lose the goodwill of many players therefore making them choose not to pay for any of your assets. Any new assets can be a little above average, but paying $15 for ONE character is insane in my opinion (although not trying to point any fingers...maybe). Personally the best approach for this is to look at the entire game and all the assets therein, divide that up by the value of each asset on that game and how much a full price game would be, then divide that by the number of people that would ‘probably’ pay for that item. eg. In an imaginary Massive Online Battle Arena type game you have a hero that could be one of 40 characters. There are 6 levels to play on. And there are 2 game types with an average high end game being about $70. Putting all that into the calculator the ‘value’ of one character would be worth say $4 at most. So charge $6 for the first two weeks, and then reduce it from there. I realise there is a lot of work in characters, or maps...but if you look at the whole game, and how many individual sales of that one item you expect to make, overcharging for items doesn’t make sense. Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. The other method is simply look at how much time did it make to create the asset, divide that by a little less than the expected purchases (just to play it safe), make sure it’s a realistic price (see above) and then charge that.

Things to do :

• Focus more on cosmetic items in free to play gametypes. This is much easier to ‘balance’ and can be very popular. Customisation is another option that allows players to make the game and the experience more ‘theirs’.

• Make DLC and expansions for full price games worthwhile. If not, just add features in patches. Things like extra complete characters, maps, and gametypes are perfect for DLC. Things like whole new areas, game modes and systems are good for expansions. Anything less than that is best added for good will in a patch along with all the bug fixes.

Conclusion

With all that done you should have a pretty solid idea in your head of where to start and where you are headed. The main thing to remember, for the whole of the project, is that your main goals are key. Always come back to those points and make sure you are keeping to them at all times. Those main points will keep you focused, reduce wasted time and also allow what could be difficult choices become quite easy such as decisions regarding feature creep. The goals will make sure that everything you do will be used to make the experience better and complete those goals in a shorter period of time. Which in turn will allow you to stay motivated as you should get closer to your goals sooner, therefore feeling that rewarding rush you get when something goes right. This will give you the energy to continue going, even when you may not want to, so it is important to get to these checkpoints as often as possible.

So, with overall game idea and your base gameplay model in mind...let's make some magic!