After two weeks the BGDL Community Design Sprint is wrapping up. Did we create a working prototype in two weeks? Categorically yes. Is it any good? We’ll see….
The dangers of designing anything by committee are well known, but the group came up with a really solid brief that would be the foundation. for the game. Week 2 was when most of the hard design work began, and I want to particularly thank Drew Richards, Chris Backe, and Matt Wilson who together turned the game from just an idea to some beautiful prototypes, some cool mechanics ideas, and some interesting playtest sessions.
What did we learn?
It’s dangerous to go alone. As a community design it might be obvious that success depends on the input from others, but where the game really took huge leaps forward was when the concept grabbed a few people who invested more time and work into it. More than that, as a designer having other enthusiastic people around can keep your own momentum going. Towards the middle of the second week I knew we had a flawed prototype but no impetus to start refining it – a push from the team to get some playtests done kept things moving where it would have stalled (and possible never been looked at again) had I been going it alone.
Briefs and Prototypes are easy. Too easy. Creating the brief was surprisingly simple, and through a series of polls we had a pretty clear theme and gameplay direction. I expect the first prototype(s) to be broken and unplayable. What I didn’t expect was that out of those first playtests we would come up with ideas for potentially 5+ different approaches for the game, which means designing and playtesting 5+ more things, before settling (or finding 5+ more…). The exponential growth of possibilities from prototype playtests really showed how much work is required in the prototype stages.
Engage by giving people control. Engagement during the Facebook polls was very high, with dozens of people voting and submitting ideas. It was also a good way to gauge popularity for ideas. Once we had the brief nailed down and there were no simple poll questions to ask it was much harder to get community engagement, but thankfully a few members really got inspired by the challenge. This makes sense – everyone is busy with their own designs, and a click on a poll is a low investment, whereas investing time in designing and playtesting an idea takes significant effort. In this however is a great lesson for an oft cited concern – this is why no one is going to steal your game idea.
Conclusions
Creating a game in two-weeks was simultaneously very easy and very hard. Coming up with a solid theme, some mechanics, and ultimately a brief was simple to do. Creating a first prototype was also very simple, made easier by limiting the game to a two-player micro game.
However, the next step after the prototype wasn’t just to tune and tweak a few things, but to brainstorm ideas and nail down what the game would look like. This is where the potential for the game really exploded and whilst we do have a game we are still honing in on the game.
If our head-to-head micro game about time lords trying to capture a fugitive by trapping them in a paradox becomes a published game then it’s thanks to the community effort to create something really cool. If it never sees the light of day, as most games won’t, then I’m still grateful for the lessons learned during this exercise, the time spent getting to know some more of our community, and hopefully some seeds of inspiration planted in myself and others.
It’s about time.
Prometheus Game Labs 