Developer Tip 002 – Basic Game Design – Planning and Approach

Welcome to my second tip on game development and design.
This time I’m going to talk about planning your project and the ways you can approach or “tackle” your project.

If you have’t already, go back and read my first tip as it is vital to have knowledge on the idea of game feedback before we move forward. It will help you as a developer.

So you have your idea for your game, what now? First thing you should do is think about your strong and weak points. Are you into coding? Graphics? Or story telling? Just begin with doing small work to practise your skills. These small works don’t have to make it into the final project, but it will help you understand the hard work involved, and which area you will enjoy putting the work into. When you feel you are ready to begin work on your project, review what you did during your trial period and find out what type of design approach you took. If you started to code from the start of the project, like the intro and opening events of the game, it most likely means you have a top down approach to design. If you coded something like a menu or battle system or specific feature to your game, it most likely means your a bottom up designer. You can find lots of information on google about these design techniques but there is no right or wrong way with game design.

Now at this stage you have your project and know the area you would like to start on, but before you jump in, write yourself out a plan or list of goals you’d lime to achieve in short term. Short term means something you would like to say you’ve reach within a week or 2 week timeframe. A goal like design the hero, design the basic menu or a something you feel you will hit in your goal within that timeframe with your skills. These goals will help you progress your game at a steady rate rather then working in bursts. If you get lazy with your work rate, it will form a habit very hard to break from.

With short term goals, it will be easier to have long term goals that you will hit.

I can tell from a very early stage if the developer has planned the game or design it as they go on, and so can your audience. If you reveal your game to early, it will be easier to see cracks in the design. So your next thing you should plan is when and what you reveal to the public. What stage you reveal your game at is entirely up to you, but take cues from professional developers. Better late then early, unless you need help with your project.

The sum up of this tip is to your approach should start with a plan and that plan should contain a goal. If you do this, developing will be a bit more smooth sailing then it might not have been.