May 13, 2008

Ideas are Easy?

So, we had our first game design class today and we've already started idea generation for the capstone projects. Basically, the process is two rounds of "rapid idea generation", and then we start paring down from there. Supposedly, we should have the designs picked and start assigning the teams around mid-term. What this means is, everyone is working on creating a pitch for this Friday and next Friday and those 60 pitches will comprise the pool from which the final games are chosen.

There's more to it than that, and in all likelihood the final designs will differ markedly from their initial pitch, but as most of you already know, I really want to get into game design and I think getting my design chosen here would be a great step. Technically speaking, the game designer position and the actual game design have been separated, so even if my idea isn't chosen I'll still be going out for the game designer role.

Anyway, I've spent a fair bit of today brainstorming and trying to vet out a few of what I feel are my best ideas. At this point I'm probably thinking a bit too much about some of the details, but I really want to make sure I understand this game before I pitch it, and I've been seeking as much counsel and feedback as I can. Once I have the idea a little more baked I'll post some more information as I would love any feedback you all can offer.

Beyond that, we had our first "special topics" lecture which was very interesting. A couple industry professionals (brothers actually) are teaching the class which is about basically anything. They have a number of different things they want to talk about, but at least today they also dedicated a lot of time to more free-form conversation about the issues that we will be facing as designers. I think everyone felt really good about being able to ask the questions that have been on all our minds for some time and get a straight, no-nonsense answer. I'm not exactly sure how we will be graded/tested in the class since all the material seems so disparate, but it is definitely very interesting material and a marked departure from our standard curriculum.

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