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 generating viable game design ideas are expressed to help you find the right game design target and start blueprinting the structure to create it.
The sections in non-italic type are the words of Steve Peek. My commentary follows in italic type.
–Alan Emrich
I have a story to tell. It goes like this…
In the year of 1454, in the town of Mainz, Germany, Johann Gutenberg had just finished binding his first Bible. Ecstatic, he sought an audience with the local baron, from whom he sought financial assistance. With tremendous pride, he delivered the fruits of his lifetime of labor into the hands of this elegantly dressed nobleman. The baron opened the book and casually thumbed through its beautifully printed pages. He closed it, placed it on the desk and, with his right index finger, thoughtfully tapped the massive volume. “Herr Gutenberg, this is marvelous! Truly a wonder!,” he exclaimed. “But you see, I have this great idea for a game and…”
The rest, as they say, is history. I’m sure the baron convinced poor, trusting Johann to go into partnership on a board game venture. And I’m pretty sure they went to work immediately printing the baron’s new game, whatever it was, because the next year Mr. Gutenberg went bust and was forced to sell his press. He should have stuck with Bibles.
This isn’t exactly a cheery note on which to start a book about getting into the game business. The painful truth is that out of an estimated three thousand games that enter the market every year [it’s now over twice that many, including electronic games], barely a handful will be found on retailer’s shelves two years later. The rest are destined to gather dust in warehouses, basements, and garages. In some cases, the games won’t even remain on the market long enough to have a chance at becoming moneymakers.
The fact is, virtually every [board] game that became a blockbuster was on the market for at least three years before anybody new it was a hit. The reason: a game’s popularity builds momentum, or loses it, by word-of-mouth.
The internet has shortened that time, and this is true for all games regardless of media or genre, but word-of-mouth still remains a key element in the success of a game. -AE
Where do good game ideas come from? As it is with many inventions, it is a combination of stream of consciousness thinking, unique perspective, and persistent childlike curiosity.
Stream of Consciousness
Stream of Consciousness is simply letting your mind slide from one thought or image to another, unhampered by mental criticism. In contemporary jargon, it is switching off the left side of the brain and tuning up the power on the right side. Even if you aren’t the least interested in inventing, it can be a fun and entertaining experience.
This is where you need to just chill out and find your ‘Zen’ for different aspects of the game you’re currently thinking about. We call this 'conceptualizing' a game. In my case, I stare at the ceiling (where I’ve found many a good design idea over the years). Some of you might put on your headphones, tap into the right music, and just close your eyes. Others might find it on long, boring drives staring ahead down the road, or simply taking a walk outdoors. But you have to let your ideas float around, shift freely, and note anything that you might want to pursue later. -AE
Unique Perspective
Unique perspective is simple to demonstrate. Look where the floor meets the wall. Imagine a cartoon mouse sticking its head from the hole, nervously twitching whiskers as its gleaming eyes watch you. Now, close your eyes and become the mouse. Imagine what it sees. Is there furniture in the room? Does it loom like fabric-covered cliffs? Does the carpet piling come up to its shoulders? What does it think of you? How does it react when you rise from the chair?
While this can be an endless game and may not seem to serve much purpose, it is the most simple form of a problem solving technique.
For example, you just invented this great game where each player has a popgun and a number of ping pong balls. In the center of the table is a miniature basketball net and a backboard spins around. Each player fires the ping pong balls trying to trap them in the net; first player to sink all his balls wins. Great game, but a trip down to Toy’s R Us reveals there is already something very similar on the market - too similar to make your idea particularly interesting to manufacture.
This is why your game needs a Hook and why it’s an important early consideration. The Hook is there to set your game apart from the competition and compel its audience to try it, buy it, and not return it. -AE
Back to the Drawing Board
Here’s where changing perspective comes in. You run home and start a new model. This time, the center of the table contains a self-loading baseball ‘pitcher’s arm’ that spins around, catapulting colored ping pong balls randomly. The players are armed with huge, floppy foam catcher’s mitts and the first player to catch five balls wins. Maybe the ball reservoir is filled with toy ‘slime’ and you call the game Spit Ball! By simply changing perspective, you have a new game that looks to be even better than the original. Always, always run ideas through this process.
Remember, the Hook for your game can be as simple as presenting the same old subject in a new way, as this section illustrates. -AE
Childlike Curiosity
Of all our personality traits, childlike curiosity is the easiest to explain but probably the hardest to maintain as we age. When children have a basic understanding of speech but little knowledge of how anything works, every parent will tell you they drive people crazy with two words, “what” and “why.”
If you apply this simple technique to each idea you can only enrich the concept. An example would be watching a child playing with blocks. You ask yourself why the child likes doing it. Your answer is they like to build things. Then you begin a series of “what ifs”.” What if the blocks were plastic? What if they were different shapes but still fit together? What if each block contained snapping sockets so they would not fall down? Bingo!
This is what I called the Who, What, When, Where, and Why stage where you must think through these "wopen" questions about every element of your game concept. Playing the “what if?” game within your mind, as Steve suggests, is particularly apropos at this juncture of conceptualizing because you can hone your concept quickly and cheaply within your head before committing a great deal of effort to it. -AE
Viability
Once you have the idea, it must be tested for viability. Lacking a history of the industry products and a two-ton file of game company catalogs, you are forced to investigate the originality of the idea by visiting toy stores [and game conventions, plus searching the internet]. After haunting their aisles and talking to store managers who have excellent memories, you may find out that the game has been manufactured and failed in so many previous versions that it is not worth doing.
A good example of this is a game based on Liar’s Poker. Most people know Liar’s Poker as a bar game played on paydays. Each player bids from a dollar bill using the serial numbers on his bill plus the numbers he suspects are on this opponent’s bill. Each bid must be higher than the last (i.e., two 5s beats two 4s; three 4s beats two 5s). This continues until one player believes the other player has overbid and calls. The winner gets to keep both bills. Simple, fun, and it has been popular for years. So popular, in fact, that about every other year some unsuspecting entrepreneur manufacturers a garage full and then runs into a stone wall trying to sell them.
When a game fails that often there is something fundamentally wrong with the concept. In the case of Liar’s Poker, the problem is players really want to gamble. They don’t enjoy playing with play money. When you run into this situation, no matter how good you feel your idea is, put it aside and start on something more productive.
In short, you need to learn about your market. You do that by looking at a lot of games and learning about what types and categories are (or are not) selling and to whom. Remember, you don’t just want a good game, you want a successful game; the two are not synonymous. -AE
