Game Vision Statement

Game Vision Statement

This week for my progress on my game design project, I read and learnt about vision documents. I read an article called "The anatomy of a design document, part 1 : Documentation guidelines for the game concept and proposal". I enjoyed reading this article as I feel like it benefited me as I learned new things about game designing that I never knew went into the development of a game. I didn't think as much detail and research went into making a game before starting my journey into making a game but after reading this article, I realised there's a lot of information to know about. The purpose of a documentation for a game is to communicate your vision in detail. It helps the programmers, designers and artists to know what their supposed to do instead of asking. Adding specific guidelines will benefit your project. Theres 4 reasons for adding guidelines : 

-Elimination of hype: guidelines eliminate hype by forcing the designers to define the elements of the game.

-Clarity and Certainty: guidelines provide clarity and certainty by making the documents easier to read and making them easier to write.

-Ease of drafting schedules and test plans: Design documents that follow specific guidelines are easy to translate to tasks on a schedule. The document lists the art and sound requirements for the artists and composers.

-Varying from the guidelines: Some guidelines will not need as much detail and going into as other ones.

I learnt about what needs to be in a game concept. I am going to explain the headings for each one and reference my game idea to each heading also.

Introduction: The introduction should be  one sentence about what your game is about, the aim is to sell it to the document to the reader. The way I'd describe my game is " My game is a multiple choice game for laptop/phone, where the player chooses the way the person should live and pick between difficult choices in their life, how they live is up to the player". Introductions should explain your game in a short but efficient sentence.

Genre: Genre describes what type of game your game is in a word or two. My game genre is 'Adventure'. This genre fits my game as in my game, the player goes on the biggest adventure which is living to see how a person turns out and how their life plays out. I love adventure games and felt like their the most effective as the player can really get attached to the storyline and then becoming invested into my game.

Gameplay: Gameplay is very important for a game concept. Without knowing what type of gameplay you want , then your game wont be able to function right. My game is a nonlinear gameplay type of game. Nonlinear gameplay is where the player is presented with challenges that can be completed. In my case for my game, the player is set challenges by giving options to choose in the persons life, for example, a challenge in my game could be to pick between going out with your friends to drink and go to the club or choose to stay in and do your school work for college. I like nonlinear gameplay type of games as it gives the player the power in what they want to see happen in the game their playing.

Description: A description is when you describe the game you've made in a few words in the best way possible to show people what your game is about. My description of my game is " My game is a multiple choice nonlinear game, it brings the player through the life of a human from being a kid to the day they die, my game is going to put the player in tough decisions, funny decisions and life changing decisions, how the human lives their life will be based on what the player chooses from a various of options shown in front of them that they must choose from, all the power is in the players hands". This describes what my game is about.

Key features: The key features for my game are : difficult choices to make, player has all the power, exciting adventures though the humans life and a very connecting storyline that gets the player invested. 

Platforms: The platforms my game is going to be available are the internet which can be accessed through phones and laptops/computers. I choose this type of platform as I feel like it's the easiest type to access for most people. 

My target audience for my game is people aged 13+. I choose this type of audience as I feel anyone above this age can relate with what's going on in the humans life in the game. This will make the player more invested as they will gain an attraction to situations in the game that they might have gone through in their own life. 

A link to the article I read: https://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3384/the_anatomy_of_a_design_document_.php?print=1

An image showing vision in the human head.

Image Source:https://pixabay.com/illustrations/vision-ideas-objectives-aims-2395783/