attractions operating smoothly. The player’s main source of conflict will be the weather
itself. Throughout, the tone will be light and whimsical.”
What else about your winter festival game is a central part of your vision? Do you
want to realistically simulate the injuries one might sustain by falling down on ice? Is
going to the hospital and waiting for your surrogate to heal an intrinsic part of your
game? Not really; it seems that though that feature could be added to the game, it is not
absolutely essential to your vision. Indeed, such a level of “simulation” might detract
from the light and whimsical tone. Will the game be in 3D or in 2D? Well, actually, the
game could work in either. To be commercially viable in today’s marketplace it will
probably need to be 3D, but that is not central to your vision. In your focus, do not
include aspects of your game that are more about getting the project funded and pub-
lished than making the game you want to make. You can worry about commercial
considerations later. As I stated before, right now you are concerned with your vision,
and if you start compromising your vision before absolutely necessary, at the end of the
day you are going to be blind. So you do not need to specify 2D or 3D. Indeed, maybe
you have everything you need for the focus. Remember, the focus should not be very
long.
Now is the time to put your two sentences together in a paragraph and name the
game. Though it may seem premature, naming the game is actually a good idea at this
point. You want other members of your team, the marketing department, and the busi-
ness people to start liking your game as soon as possible, and having a name they can
refer to it by is fairly important to that process. Can they really discuss it seriously as
“this game idea Richard had”? Giving your game a name makes it real instead of just an
idea, as ridiculous as that may seem.
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. Often whatever name is given to a game early on will end
up sticking with the game forever. It is especially important not to pick a purposefully
idiotic name, since those are the kind most likely to stick. For instance, let us say you
name itEgyptian Rumba. As your team keeps referring to the game asEgyptian Rumba,
they will start to associate your cool game with this idiotic title, and your idiotic title
will start to sound pretty good through association. Someone working on the art team
may start giving the characters an Egyptian color scheme. Team members who are
working on the story might spend a lot of time trying to figure out why the game should
be namedEgyptian Rumba, and will develop an especially clever story line around the
name. If you later try to change the name they will be sad and possibly angry that their
story no longer makes any sense. Even the “suits” will start to like yourEgyptian
Rumbatitle. They will think of how they can capture both the adventuring archeologist
market and the Cuban dance market. And soon, if you even remember, you will say it is
time to change the game’s title, and everyone will say, “Why? We likeEgyptian Rumba!
It’s a great name!” And then you will really be stuck. Then the public will see it on the
shelves and will think, “What the heck is that? It sounds stupid,” and quickly pass on to
games with more reasonable titles.
So you finally chooseWinter Carnival Whirlwind. Perhaps a more exciting name
will come up later, but you can live with this one. Now, assemble the pieces of your
focus into one paragraph, and try to write it cleanly and succinctly. Refer to your game
in the present tense, as though your game already exists. “Winter Carnival Whirlwind
Chapter 5: Focus 73