X-Statement

The x-statement, also known as log line or vision statement is one of the most important tools at the beginning of a new project. It’s a concise phrase that informs the listener about the core of the game and why they should be excited about it. It is used both as a marketing tool to let others know about the game but also as a guide for the development team.

The phrase should be short (no more than 40 words) and punchy. It’s a great way to answer the question “What is your game about?” or “What are you working on”? If you see a twinkle in the listener’s eye after hearing it, then you can then move on to explaining the game as a whole with an executive summary or 2-min pitch.

You should make one as early as possible, possible after completing the Agile Statement.

Loglines come from the film industry, and they have been used there for a long time. Below I present different versions from several designers and writers.

Don’t be fooled by the length of the sentence; boiling down a whole game into a sentence or two can be really tough! Multiple designers and writers use different templates to do this:

• Alicia Fontaine, in a 2021 positioning workshop I attended, mentions two templates she likes to use:
  • [Title] is a [adjective] [adjective] [genre/category] where you [core action]. [Additional action], [action], and [action] to/by/in [differentiator].
  • [Title] is a [adjective] [genre/category] for [audience]. [Additional action], [action], and [action] to/by [differentiator].
  • Some additional notes from her workshop: when speaking to businesses use steam tags to define the genre & adjectives (this will help them see the market appeal). Make sure the actions describe the core loop. As for the differentiator, this is your game’s hook, use ‘to’ if the hook is in the goal of the game, ‘by’ if it is in a unique mechanic and ‘in’ if it is a novel setting.
• Michael Lega in their GDC talk, also has a few techniques:
  • For an action game: “[Verb] in a [noun] while you [verb]“
  • For a game with a strong genre: “[Game Name] is a [genre] where you [verb] & [verb]“
  • For a narrative game: “[Story details]. Will you [verb]?”
• Level designer Evan Hill in one of his talks mentions he thinks of loglines as: the form + aesthetics + theme.
• Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin uses the formula: “protagonist + inciting incident + protagonist’s goal + central conflict”. This is tailored for movies, but by adding the game genre as a fifth element, it could work well for games where the story is a major draw.
  

As we can see there are tons of different ways to make a logline, you should choose the one that best serves your game, and the one that flows best from your lips. Here’s an example of the different templates mentioned above:

• Alicia Fontaine’s templates:
  • “Death Card is a deckbuilding, horror rougelike where you try to escape purgatory. Explore macabre lands, defeat monstrous demons, and uncover holy loot by playing cards against Death itself.”
  • “Fantasy Pet tactics is a deep autobattler for midcore strategy players. Collect pets, level them up, and merge by using generative AI so any number of beasts can be combined.”
• Michael Lega’s templates
  • Action game: “Explore a dungeon in a crumbling castle while trying to hold onto the memories of your past life”
  • Strong Genre: “Mechacore is a multiplayer FPS where you pilot a military mech in an evolving ground, air and space battlefield.”
  • Narrative Game: “In post-revolutionary France, a new plot is forming. Will you betray the revolutionary ideals to save the new nation?”
• Evan Hill’s Template
  • “Modern Combat is a modern day military (aesthetics) fast-paced shooter (form) about the role of special forces in the world stage (theme).”
• Aaron Sorin’s Movie Template
  • A classic example is the Godfather’s: “The aging patriarch of an organized crime dynasty transfers control of his clandestine empire to his reluctant son.“

A special extra one I’ll throw in here is the rumor that Gears of War was pitched with the phrase: “Linebackers with Chainsaw guns”. I don’t know if its true… but it is awesome.

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