A Concept Slide is a quick and dirty document that is meant to convey an idea. They are of the first documents that a game designer produces. The purpose is to convey a game idea quickly and cheaply, without spending more time then necessary on them. In Deliberate Game Design, concept slides rarely come alone; instead they come in groups during GD-1, as this allows the team to compare and contrast the different ideas.
I’m not sure who came up with the first Concept Slide. It may have been lost to time…
Just like Feature Briefs, there are hundreds of iterations on concept slides. What follows is my particular take on it. Before starting on one, make sure you have the initial information in the GD-1 (stakeholders, target audience, constraints, etc…). Having these is critical to make sure your one-pager is relevant.
- Find a picture or make a mock-up that demonstrates the game’s point of view and it’s main action
- Write bullet points that describe the main elements of the game and it’s hooks.
- Repeat for each idea.
As mentioned above, it’s a simple tool. That’s important, however, as we don’t want to be afraid to throw them out. The low-investment of this tool is what allows us to make dozens of them if necessary. When presenting them, make sure to do so with the GD-1 context included, as that will make sure to frame any discussion the concept slides generate.
Let’s imagine that we are asked to make a proposal for an air-combat simulator similar to Ace Combat, but with a twist that makes it seem fresh and that allows for players to play for months on end.
After some thought, you think it would be cool to have dragons instead of airplanes; this way we could sneak in a bit of pet simulators and constantly release new dragons via events. The concept slide might look like this:
Notice how not much effort is put in the images… these are not meant to show the game’s aesthetic or final quality; just to convey the idea of the game. A quick note on the name: you’ll be making a whole bunch of these; make sure the names are descriptive and easy to distinguish.
- MDA Framework
One of the most widespread ways to analyze a game holistically. - One Pager
A critical part of pitching a game idea to the wider team. - SWOT Analysis
An easy framework for analyzing the competition. - Bartle’s Player Types
One of the oldest & most widely used player categorizations - Personas
A technique to humanize the intended players of the game - X-Statement
The first step in development after having the game idea.