Sometimes in the middle of a project it is easy to get sidetracked — sidetracked by
technological obstacles that are thrown in your path, sidetracked by altercations
between team members, or sidetracked when your publisher tells you features A, B,
and C simply have to be changed. It is at these junctures where you come to doubt that
your game will ever be fun, or whether it will even be completed. These periods of
doubt are the ones that separate the good game designers from those who are merely
passable. Good game designers will be able to overcome these difficulties and stay on
track by remembering their focus.
The technique I explore in this chapter is certainly not one that all game designers
use, but I think it is one that all game designers could benefit from. Many designers may
use the technique but not realize it or have a different name for it. Others may have
entirely different methods for assuring their game comes together as a fun, consistent
whole. You cannot expect to go up to any game designer and say, “What’s your focus for
your current project?” and expect them to produce an answer in line with the method I
explore in this chapter. But if you start being rigorous in maintaining focus in your pro-
jects, I think you will see very positive results in the final quality of your games.
Establishing Focus..............................
A game’s focus is the designer’s idea of what is most important about a game. In this
chapter I encourage designers to write their focus down in a short paragraph, since
putting it down in writing can often clarify and solidify a designer’s thoughts. Further-
more, having it in physical form opens it up for discussion with the development team.
However, it is the idea of the focus that is of paramount importance. In a way, a game’s
focus is similar to a corporation’s “mission statement,” assuming such mission state-
ments are actually meaningful and used to guide all of a corporation’s decisions.
As a game designer you should start concerning yourself with your game’s focus
from the very beginning of the project. When the project is in its infancy, before work
has started on the design document and the project exists primarily as an idea in your
head, you should ask yourself a series of questions about the game you are envisioning:
- 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?
By going over these questions, you should be able to determine the core nature of
the game you are planning to create. If you have trouble answering these questions,
now is the time to think about the game until the answers to these questions become
obvious. Now — before there is anyone else working on the project, before “burn rate”
is being spent and driving up the game’s budget, before the marketing department
starts trying to influence the game’s content and direction — is the time to focus. Only
70 Chapter 5: Focus