Developing an Idea for Designing a Video Game

The first thing you need to develop a video game is an idea. You can gain the technical expertise and general skill-base through an appropriate educational program, but the idea for the game must come from you.

There are four major steps to the design process: generating an idea; creating a rough sketch of your game, its world, its characters, and its action; pinpointing the details of your game and its universe; and putting everything together into a design document that contains all the specifics about your game, which is similar to a movie script.

Step 1: Generating an Idea

You need to come up with something that has a plot, goals, characters (who have personalities), enemies, weapons, and motives. This may seem like a daunting task, but taking it one step at a time can help to put it into perspective.

First establish the general ideas you have. Some tips for generating ideas include: look at other games and either improve upon them or change the perspective on them (just be sure not to copy another game); watch action and sci-fi movies, but if you want to use storylines or characters from the film you'll need to get permission; use sports, such as baseball and football, as a simple foundation to build on; utilize your dreams and nightmares (go to sleep thinking about your story or villains). Just make sure to write your ideas down in the morning!

Step 2: Creating a Sketch

Now you want to be able to visualize your game. A good way to accomplish that is to storyboard it. This involves creating rough sketches of the different levels and characters within the story. Each level should have its own sketch, as should the ultimate goal of the game and any characters you have created thus far.

Each sketch, or storyboard, should have a short description about what is happening in that level or with that character. Keep in mind that the purpose of storyboards are for brainstorming ideas and working through the flow of the game, so they can be as messy or neat as you like.

Step 3: Details

In this stage you must pay attention to the details; here the game becomes complex. Remember that if you don't program something into the game, it's not going to happen. You need to create specifics that are going to make your game unique and desirable. You are creating an entire world. Your game must have the appropriate amount of detail to convince him that he is actually involved in the game and its universe.

A few, but certainly not all, aspects to consider include the number of characters, the number of players the game will allow, the enemies the characters have, the weapons the characters will use, the sound track to the game, the perspective of the game, and the individual goals the character must conquer to reach the next level.

Step 4: Design Document

Once you have created your game and pinpointed all the details, it is time to write your script. This gives you the opportunity to give your game a final once-over and change or add anything you think necessary. You will already see the universe of the game in your mind, so writing the details down should be relatively easy.

This step ensures you have a clear picture of the game world and that everything within your game works together in a coherent fashion. This is essential for creating a game that players can actually lose themselves in. One they'll willingly believe they are a part of, with power to affect it through their decisions and actions.

(reference: http://cda.dummies.com/WileyCDA/DummiesArticle/id-1490.html)