best to embrace those limitations instead of fighting them. This is not to suggest that a
designer should always design the simplest game that she can think of or that sophisti-
cated, experimental designs should not be attempted. If a shrewd theater director
knows a given actor is interested in working with her, she will pick the best play to
show off the particular skills of that actor. Similarly, a designer should consider what the
technology lends itself to and use that as the basis for the game she designs and the
story she sets out to tell.
The Time Allotted.............................
Limitations that I have not discussed much in this chapter but which are nonetheless
very important in game development are the budget and schedule with which a
designer may be presented. Though these are primarily the concern and responsibility
of the project’s producer, the game designer needs to know how these factors will limit
the project just as the technology, gameplay, or story may. When choosing the technol-
ogy to be used, the designer must ask herself: can it be completed in the amount of time
scheduled for the project? Can it be completed in time for level implementation and bal-
ancing? Does the suggested design call for the creation of such a large number of
complex levels and heavily scripted behaviors that they cannot be completed in eigh-
teen months by only one designer? Just as the timeline will limit the amount of time
that can be spent on the project, the budget will affect how many people can be working
on the project during that time. It may be that, given double the budget, the game
design could be easily completed in a year and a half, but with only half the budget the
designer will need to scale back the design to come up with something feasible. Again,
if development is running six months late with no end in sight and as a result the pub-
lisher pulls the plug, it does not matter how brilliant your game design may have been
in theory. No one will get to play your game because you failed to fully consider the
logistics of implementing it. And if you fail to allocate enough time for fine-tuning and
balancing the gameplay, your publisher may demand you ship a game you consider
unfinished. What might have been a great game will be a bad one because there was not
enough time to really finish it.
Lone wolf developers have it a bit easier in terms of time constraints and budget-
ary limitations. If a single person is creating all of the art, code, and design for the game,
and is developing the game on her own time without relying on income from its devel-
opment in order to survive, she is much more free to follow wherever her muse takes
her, for as long as she likes. Of course, she is still limited by her own talents, by the
quality of the art she can create, and by the limits of her programming skills, but at least
these are the only limitations. When creating art, there is a lot to be said for not being
beholden to the person writing the checks.
Chapter 3: Brainstorming a Game Idea 55