From a theme to a fun experience

Rapid Ideation techniques are common in many industries. They can take the form of Hackathons or, more commonly in the Game Development industry, Game Jams. The focus in these events is on the limited time for creating a prototype, which helps streamline the scope of the final deliverable (Komssi et al., 2014). Moreover, they are used in the industry to evaluate ideas and identify which ones would provide the biggest value for the business and the customers (Komssi et al., 2014).

The game development oriented rapid ideation events, called Game Jams, come with their own twist on the idea. Some events, such as the Global Game Jam, remove the competitive nature of the hackathon format. This promotes taking more and larger risks and allows the participant to push the envelope further and simply focus on creating a good experience for the players (Serafinelli et al., 2018). Additionally, participants gain more from the event as they push their own limits more rather than sticking to the familiar (Meriläinen et al., 2020).

Rapid Ideation is vital to the game industry. People often think they have the new AAA title in mind, but unless the idea is prototyped and tested the development of that idea is a huge risk. This can be seen in "The Making of Horizon Zero Dawn" documentary (embedded below) by Noclip (2017). It describes how Guerilla Games use rapid ideation events to encourage all their employees to innovate and share their prototypes with the company.

Due to the importance of such events for innovation, creativity and learning, I am planning on attending multiple such events through the duration of my degree and beyond. The ones I have in mind so far are the yearly Global Game Jam, which I already took part in this year, and the Ludum Dare Jam, which happens twice a year. I have focused on larger events as having more participants means there will be many experienced and talented people I could learn from. Furthermore, I will also be keeping an eye on the Itch.io Game Jams page. There are thousands of game jams hosted throughout the year, which makes it easy to join one in case I have a free weekend.

Tools and their value

Throughout my career, I've created and used different types of prototypes - Sketches, Paper Prototypes, Wireframes and even worked on Wizard of Oz testing. While all of them have been useful, each has a different purpose and area in which it excels.

Image by stories - www.freepik.com

To create a game, people of many different disciplines join forces, which means no single prototyping method can be used to encompass all aspects of a game. Sketches would be the first step of prototyping the feel and art style of the world that the game would be creating. The cinematics and story elements of the game can be storyboarded to ensure the flow and pacing is right. All elements of the interface (menus and HUDs) can be paper prototyped or wireframed. The main characters of the game can be made into physical models to help visualise and inspire the team. The core mechanics can be prototyped in-engine using already existing assets or programmer art to test the feel of the movement and camera systems.

The wide variety of disciplines involved in making a game make it impossible to narrow down the types of prototypes and the tools to be used. This is why choosing the correct one each time based on the current requirements and goals is crucial. This blog post would serve as a handy reference for me any time I start a new rapid ideation activity.

References

Meriläinen, M., Aurava, R., Kultima, A. and Stenros, J., 2020. Game jams for learning and teaching: a review. International Journal of Game-Based Learning (IJGBL), 10(2), pp.54-71.

Komssi, M., Pichlis, D., Raatikainen, M., Kindström, K. and Järvinen, J., 2014. What are hackathons for?. IEEE Software, 32(5), pp.60-67.

Serafinelli, M., Tabellini, G., Moser, P., Lee, N. and Rodríguez-Pose, A., 2018. Creativity under fire: The effects of competition on creative production.

The Making of Horizon Zero Dawn (2017) YouTube video, added by Noclip - Video Game Documentaries [Online]. Available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9tLcD1r-6w [Accessed 12 February 2021].