Operation Brainstorm

We’ve started talking about the next game we want to build. It’s a nice reminder of how we made our first game. So I thought it would be a good place to start journaling how we make our games. I think most of the process will be the same with probably some tweaks from stuff we learned through our first process.

First thing, we get an idea or concept. And it may sound like we just start with one idea but I think what really happens is that we run through dozens of ideas in our heads or notebooks before thinking aloud and stepping down the path that this might be a “good” concept. I think part of the things we like about it, is that it’s a popular “genre”, proven by the popularity of movies, video games, tv etc. So all we have really is a genre, idea, concept, nothing else, but we know we want this game to exist in this “world”.

Then we start brainstorming ideas, which are more game mechanics but framed in the context of the experience for the players. i.e. How will people react to this? How will this move create tension, conversation, conflict? How will this force actions and interactions? We weed our ideas to not be over-complicated or slow down the game. Sometimes we come up with ideas that are too conceptual, intellectual and more of a mind-flex which end up being boring and don’t move the game forward.

This happens in freeform conversational, we just start riffing ideas. Usually, an idea will pop into one of our heads and we’ll blurt it out to the other person, which will then in-turn start a chain reaction of other ideas and inspirations.