Strange Attractor - On High Concepts For Games

Thanks to Scott Miller's Game Matters weblog for its article discussing how to design a game from the start with a 'winning concept'. Miller argues: "Too many games are sunk from day one because they lack a compelling concept. And even though these games may get made with the highest production values and polish, they will find only a small audience." He goes on to identify specific factors to follow, including uniqueness ("You should be able to say:'"Wow, why has anyone else thought of this?!'"), an easily conveyed premise ("e.g. Tomb Raider = female Indiana Jones"), and lack of obvious ancestry ("The concept is so distinctive that if anyone else does it after you, it'll be obvious where they got the idea from.")

Comments

Best concept for a game ever

[foidulus]

was the M*A*S*H game for the 2600, you had to go around rescuing falling patients from helicopters at first. Then after you were done with that, you had to go into the "operating room" and operate on terrified patients(well, that was the look in his mono-color body anyway) and remove a little pink thing. If you were successful, you went outside again. Good times....good times....