It’s every dev’s nightmare: you have to rescue the family penguin from a tragic iceberg accident, but you’re at a critical juncture in the game design process! Fortunately, 21st century game design can be distributed such that not all the game design stakeholders need to be in the same room at the same time, making developing from Antarctica something any development team can survive. That scenario may be a little farfetched, but distributed game design is something hundreds of studios engage in every day. This How To session is about how to construct a game design pipeline that is agnostic about where the major stakeholders are physically based. While working under one roof is always an asset, both large studies and small indies frequently involve collaborators that could be based anywhere in the world. The key to making this work is sensible choices of software tools, a regular schedule of design stakeholder meetings, and clean lines for decision-making. From project communication tools like Slack, Glip, or Basecamp, to design management systems such as Confluence or a GDD Wiki, distributed game design is always about solving three basic problems: how to ensure the vision of the game stays in focus as the project (inevitably) shifts its ground, how to link all the design stakeholders together – including publishers, developers, and IP owners – and how to manage important design decisions without getting bogged down in endless and infinite meetings. Put on your winter clothing and prepare to develop from Antarctica!

Takeaway

• Understand the Ten Player Motives, and how to design games that satisfy these needs.
• Estimate your game's potential sales by recognising how to relate your design to games already in the marketplace
• Maximise your audience appeal without destroying your core experience through careful design tweaking