In his book The Game Inventor’s Handbook (published by Betterway Books, 1993), game designer and publisher Steve Peek, a folksy Southerner if there ever was one, tells it like it is on the board gaming side of the business. Steve’s thoughts and my comments about a game’s theme, timing, and devices are expressed to help you better focus your ideas and resources.
The sections in non-italic type are the words of Steve Peek. My commentary follows in italic type. –Alan Emrich
Novice inventors almost always resist changing a game’s theme at first. Many don’t believe it can be done successfully. They are wrong on both counts.
The theme is often used as part of the hook in packaging and promotion of the product. If the theme does not possess mass-market appeal, game company acquisition people are going to yawn and say, “Pass… next item” about one minute into your presentation.
Trendy themes (movies, songs, current events), like games themselves, come from societal conditions and changes. What is popular this year probably will be out of style two years from now.
Many a hit Christmas toy disappears from the shelves by next Christmas. “Trendy” games often follow the same path. They might be a ‘hit’ for a while, but when the trend ends, so does the game. That’s why games based upon TV Game Shows last only as long as the Game Show itself.
It is generally safer to pick an ‘evergreen’ theme. That is, a theme that is always popular among your target audience. This could be science-fiction, fantasy, history, trading or business, clever card-play, shooting anything that moves, or whatever - things that are always in vogue. -AE
If you’re going to try to go with a ‘trendy’ game theme, then consider the following:
Sometimes, Timing is Everything
The trick is to tie your game into a theme that is on the rise, not one that is cresting. A good example of this is what happened at the start of the Persian Gulf War. When Operation Desert Shield began sending troops to Saudi Arabia, one company [Game Designers Workshop] got lucky. They were about to release a game about a war in the Middle East. When they saw what was happening, they added United Nations military forces to their unreleased game and had it on the market in thirty days. It received tons of free publicity and sold like hot cakes - for a while.
The other side of the same coin showed itself when a number of companies brought out similar products, but only after Desert Shield became Desert Storm. Savvy retailers saw the end of the marketing potential for Desert Storm products and simply refused to buy enough quantity to make the late games viable. It turned out they were right. A month after Desert Storm was over you couldn’t give product away.
Catching a fad with a trendy-themed game can work if you get the timing right. It’s a gamble. That’s why it is generally safer to pick an evergreen theme for your game. Remember, most ‘hit’ board games have been in print for three or more years. Trendy-themed games seldom live that long and have to make all their profit up front with little hope of long-term sales.
Of course, computer games are seldom on the shelves for a year or more. So, you would think that you could hit that ‘trendy’ window and rack up some impressive sales while the sales last (because software is generally doomed to a short shelf life anyway). Unfortunately, the long creation period for a computer game (averaging over a year at least) largely prohibits nailing the timing for catching a trend for all but the more prescient among us.
That’s why most computer games are based upon evergreen themes. When the publishers are gambling hundreds of thousands of dollars (sometime millions), they want to make sure that money is safe, and they do that by not gambling it on something they think might be trendy a year-and-a-half from now when the game is supposed to ship. (And thus it misses the ship date by six months and thereby completely misses the trend’s window of opportunity!) -AE
A more positive example is about an inventor who was interested in airlines. He created an airline-themed card game with some very interesting mechanics and gameplay features. The idea was that each player represented an airline company. By playing sets of cards, he could establish routes and score points or hamper other players. The player with the most routes won the game.
The way the game play worked is what made the game interesting [e.g., it was The Hook for the game and did a good job setting it apart from the competition]. The fact that it was about airline companies had nothing to do with it. When the inventor finally was convinced that no one was interested in a game about the airline industry, he accepted a suggestion to re-theme the game. When you see someone playing a card game about dinosaur herds, remember it started out as a game about airlines.
Keep that in mind. What makes a game ‘tick’ is a bunch of systems and mechanics wrapped around the theme. Often, those systems and mechanics would fit just about any theme you’d care to name (they’re seldom truly theme-specific). -AE
Re-theming Your Game
The bottom line is this: You should constantly be thinking and rethinking of ways to re-theme a game. Never be satisfied until you have a signed contract and have deposited the royalty advance check. And always, always, always be open to suggestions from game companies. When you re pitching a company a game about becoming a movie star and they say, “I love the idea but movie games are out. Can you make it about Slime Kittens from the Nth Dimension?,” your response should be, “Is tomorrow morning too late?”
In other words, don’t get so mentally locked into a game’s original theme that you’re inflexible about transplanting your brilliant systems and mechanics to a new theme. Keep your mind supple, and your visions flexible; you’ve got to be able to roll with circumstances if you’re going to make a career out of designing games. -AE
You should be starting to understand that all of this works together. A viable concept fits a product category, the category supports the theme, and all of that creates an environment for what is called ‘gameplay.’
Gameplay is the seldom-mentioned aspect of games that makes them fun. Without good gameplay, all the other elements are so much window dressing. But like everything else, gameplay has to be more than good; it has to fit the product environment.
Just as an engineer would never try to fit a 747 turbo jet engine to a Honda, a game inventor has to make sure the way the game plays and the devices used in it are appropriate to the theme and category. It would be a terrible blunder to design a game using small beads for a preschool audience. The kids will either lose or eat the beads.
Think about the target audience and try to make your game appropriate to them. For example…
Spinners are good for kid games because they can’t lose them. Adults think spinners are juvenile and prefer dice. Kids often don’t understand the concept of time and consequently don’t use timing devices included in a game. Adults will get impatient when a player takes too long with a turn, so they like timers.
When questioning whether gameplay or devices fit a certain category it’s a good idea to invest a little money in building your game library. Go buy a half-dozen games currently selling in the same category and study them. See what they have in common. Also look to see if any of them incorporate your planned devices or mechanics.
In other words, study the competition to see if The Hook to your game will really set it apart from the competition.
Another compelling reason to have an extensive game library, attend game conventions, and generally watch and play all the games you can comes back to the second overriding rule of game design: Plagiarize! That is, to “use existing techniques.” If you don’t know how other designers addressed design problems and came up with their solutions, how will you know what clever ideas have already been invented that you can use as an inspiration (or basis) for your own game design? The more you learn from others, the less you’ll have to reinvent the wheel every time you set out to design a game system or mechanic. -AE
