CHAPTER 5 : Focus

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E s t a b l i s h i n g F o c u s T h e F u n c t i o n o f t h e F o c u s M a i n t a i n i n g F o c u s

• Fleshing Out the Focus • Changing Focus

S u b - F o c u s es U s i n g F o c u s

Overview

 Without a focus, it is far too easy to lose track of just why you were creating the game.

 Good game designers will be able to overcome difficulties and stay on track by remembering their focus.

 Many designers may use the technique but not realize it or have a different name for it.

Establishing Focus

 A game’s focus is the designer’s idea of what is most important about a game.

 Furthermore, having it in physical form opens it up for discussion with the development team.

Establishing Focus

       What is it about this game that is most compelling? What is this game trying to accomplish? What type of experience will the player have? What sort of emotions is the game trying to evoke in the player? What should the player take away from the game? How is this game unique? What differentiates it from other games? What sort of control will the player have over the game-world?

Establishing Focus

If you do not have too much trouble divining answers to these questions, you may have written an entire page or more delineating the game’s points of differentiation.

  

A page is too much Keep only your most compelling ideas A few sentences, a short paragraph at the most

Establishing Focus

An Example: Winter Carnival Whirlwind

Establishing Focus

An Example: Winter Carnival Whirlwind    What is it about running an ice carnival that grabs you?

Do not self-censor your ideas until it is absolutely necessary.

Will the game be in 3D or in 2D?(unnecessary)

Establishing Focus

An Example: Winter Carnival Whirlwind    Giving your game a name makes it real instead of just an idea Try your very best to come up with a name that you like and that could end up being the final name for the game.

If you later try to change the name your team will be sad and possibly angry that their story no longer makes any sense.

Establishing Focus

“

Winter Carnival Whirlwind is a fast and furious character action

and theme park management hybrid game. The player’s experience revolves around running an ice carnival, with the player responsible for maintaining as long a season as possible, despite uncooperative weather. The game captures the excitement of playing in the snow, including the simple physics that make that fun, through a central character who must navigate a somewhat hazardous environment and keep multiple systems operating smoothly. The player's main source of conflict is the weather itself.

Winter Carnival Whirlwind has a light and whimsical tone

throughout.

”

The Function of the Focus

 Someone who reads the focus on paper should be able to understand your vision without further explanation.

The Function of the Focus

 When it is on paper you can look at it and make sure that what is typed is really the core of your idea.

 Try to keep your focus from referring to other games. You need to have a properly streamlined focus that can stand on its own.

Maintaining Focus

 When working in a team environment, it is important to include people in early brainstorming sessions so that they can feel that they contributed to the birth of the idea.

Maintaining Focus

 It is virtually impossible to create a good game if you do not have the majority of your team excited to be working on it.  If the team has a focus to follow, a focus they have signed on to, then they are far less likely to create work that is inappropriate for your game.

Maintaining Focus

Fleshing Out the Focus

   Should the control system use method A or method B?

In what sort of environments will the player be interacting?

What sort of challenges do the enemies present?

As these elements of the game are fleshed out, you should continually refer back to your focus to see if the additions you are making match with that focus.

Maintaining Focus

Changing Focus



Is it really necessary?

Often, after you have been working on a project for a long time, you may want to change your game just to keep it interesting to yourself. What seemed fun to you a year ago may seem dull now, not because it fundamentally is not fun but because you have been buried in the project too long.

Maintaining Focus

Changing Focus



If it is

Make sure the focus fully represents your new vision for the project.

It is important to examine what parts of the game may already exist and see how far they diverge from your new focus.

Sub-Focuses

 This will allow you to start to flesh out your game idea while keeping track of your overall focus.  It serves primarily to support your main goal.

 You can see a sub-focus as a concept that supports your main focus

Sub-Focuses

 What type of player you are thinking will want to play your game? (hard-core or casual gamers)

Sub-Focuses

 You may want to say something about the game’s difficulty level.

 Control sheme (easy or complex)  2D or 3D

Using Focus

   Of course, it is possible to make a good game without really having any idea of what your game is all about. It is also possible to win the lottery.

Using a focus is one tool that will help you to create a solid, entertaining, and compelling game. Marketing people will try to sell games they believe in and that they think are cool concepts, and a modified and adapted version of your focus statement can serve to quickly explain to them what is so thrilling about your idea.