Game Development Frameworks

What key questions do we ask when we develop games?

Is it fun? What is it? Can we make it? Does it look amazing? Can we build it? What is the core game mechanic? Why am I playing it? What else can I do? Is it beautiful? Why am I playing it? How can it make money? Does it sound fun? Does the market want it?

What do these companies have in common? They all successfully answer these key questions.

Casual/mobile Smaller teams Smaller teams Games-as-a-service Games-as-a-service Evolve over time Evolve over time Minimum Viable Product (MVP) Minimum Viable Product (MVP) Free-to-play Free-to-play Console Enormous teams Enormous teams Enormous budgets Enormous budgets More complexity More complexity Deeper immersion Deeper immersion Retail launches Retail launches These products answer the same key questions

Development Frameworks

Pre-productionProduction

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ConceptPrototypeVertical SliceProduction Advantages Improve Quality Improve Quality Improve Predictability Improve Predictability Increase Transparency Increase Transparency Gate 1 Gate 2 Gate 3

What has changed?

Free – to - Play

App store

Social Networks

Big Data

What’s wrong with the old Framework?

ConceptPrototypeVertical SliceProduction Gate 1 Gate 2 Gate 3

Cone of Uncertainty ConceptPrototypeVertical SliceProduction

Gate 1 Gate 2 Gate 3 ConceptPrototypeVertical SliceProduction

What is a game?

Player Action Game response

Player Action Game response Player Action Game response Player Action Game response ShortMedium Long

What’s the game? Why am I playing it? What else?

Dynamic Development Framework (DDF)

Why am I playing it?What is it?What’s next? Is it fun? (Validation) Art Design Engineering Audio Production Publishing Marketing Corporate Key Questions

Dynamism Innovation Validation

Not every game is the same! Why am I playing it?What is it?What’s next? No linear order. No linear order. Studio and team choose the questions. Studio and team choose the questions. Big teams can still employ linear processes!

Reinertsen, Donald G. ( ). The Principles of Product Development Flow: Second Generation Lean Product Development (pp. 7-8). Celeritas Publishing. Good vs. Bad Risk

Value vs. Risk Low Risk Low Value High Value High Risk 1 st priority High Value + High Risk = Greatest Uncertainty 2 nd priority High Value + fewer unknowns AVOID THIS 3 rd priority Polish Work

Green grass trees envy dolphins! beef! soccer! algae? watermelon? tennis! Good ideas are more likely to emerge in environments that contain a certain amount of noise and error. 2. In some groups, they would insert an actor who deliberately suggested ideas that were contrary to the word. 3. Result was these groups came up with more original ideas. 1. Group tasked to come up with ideas based on a colored word on a screen.

Book: “Where Good Ideas Come From”, By Stephen Johnson Cone of Uncertainty ?!!

Assumptions are untested hypotheses. Feedback loops filter out team design prejudice. Allows teams to fail fast and pivot quickly. Quantitative and qualitative analysis methods. Feedback stimulates innovation!

Too chaoticToo dense Just right for innovation Good chaos breeds innovation. Reframe problems Reframe problems Challenge assumptions Challenge assumptions Create beneficial chaos Create beneficial chaos

Minimum Viable Product MVP Cohort testing (A/B)

Implementation

Create your key questions Why am I playing it?What is it?What’s next? Is it fun? (Validation) Art Design Engineering Audio Production Publishing Marketing Corporate Key Questions

One of my teams whiteboards

Create Assumptions Prototype Game Get Feedback Validate learnings Choose Question

Not all games are the same! But all games strive to answer the same questions. A dynamic framework lets teams choose to answer the questions that are most important to them. Feedback loops with players are needed to validate assumptions that teams have about their product. Unpredictability, noise and dissent are good things in the creative process.

What questions do you try to answer first?

Thanks