Everything should be short and snappy<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Maybe don’t put title in overview? Redundant<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Structure for overview?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- \n
- Opening hook<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Evoke imagery of the game, don’t be passive, world, action, fantasy<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- What is your game promising the player that would make them care<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
Game Design Pillars<\/p>\n\n\n\n
How to use Pillars:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- \n
- To maintain the game vision\n
- \n
- Help to judge if every idea we have is a good idea for your game, and isn’t just a good idea<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
- \n
- To determine features\n
- \n
- Every feature you are considering for your game must contribute to at least one game pillar, and shouldnt contradict<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
Making pillars:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- \n
- 3 – 6 pillars<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Title + description\n
- \n
- + 1 to 2 supporting sentences to ensure alignment<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Continuous adaptation\n
- \n
- Pillars should be re-reviewed often<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
Further guidelines for pillars:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- \n
- Avoid genre pillars\n
- \n
- Simply stating genre<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Doesn’t provide valuable insight<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Reverse the pillar\n
- \n
- If you can reverse the meaning and it still sounds like something a game would want to do, then its a good pillar<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Avoid tech pillars\n
- \n
- Frame rate, bug free, specific platforms<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Doesnt help with design <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
Game Loops<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- \n
- Chains of repeatable actions that for the flow of the players experience<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
Loops by style<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- \n
- Core game loops\n
- \n
- Core mechanics, decisions, shorter term goals, player repeats these hopes multiple times to make permanent progress<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- In Hades 2, defeating enemies and advancing through levels<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Meta game loops\n
- \n
- Repeatable actions, long term progression, motivations systems, feature including, story progress<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- In Hades 2, upgrading abilities, unlocking new weapons<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Making Loops:\n
- \n
- Player actions in the order they take place<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Resource flow if game has them\n
- \n
- Resources player is gaining or losing through actions<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Add icon to resources<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Loops by time\n
- \n
- Second to second\n
- \n
- In Astrobot, Navigate the level, avoid or battl enemies<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Minute to minute\n
- \n
- In Astrobot, Rescue bots , unlock new levels<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Hour to hour \n
- \n
- Find ship parts, improve tab planet, unlock galaxies<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Key takeaways<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- \n
- Game overviews are action focused<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Pillars are guiding lights<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Map actions and resources in loops<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
In this talk, I learnt how to structure my game pitch so that it appealed to more people and how important it can be to perfect this, as it can impact game sales massively. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Considering the game pillars also helped me to consider the story elements of my game more as i realised that so far i only really had the mechanics worked out. I decided that the story is about a world that has lost all visuals and sound, and it is your job as The Soundpainter to add sounds back into the world so people can navigate the space again. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Here are my game pillars so far, although as mentioned in the talk, i will likely iterate on them later on as my game concept\/vision gets stronger<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/iah1g25\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/90\/2026\/10\/WhatsApp-Image-2026-10-05-at-13.44.43-659x1024.jpeg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nFirst Draft of Pillars for “The Soundpainter”:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
- \n
- Gameplay without visuals\n
- \n
- This game is screen-less, just headphones and a controller.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Map\/ Navigate the world with sound\n
- \n
- You, as The Soundpainter have the ability to attach sound to objects which can help you find your way around and ‘paint’ the environment in the way that works for you<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Help your fellow people to navigate this new environment\n
- \n
- Interact with NPCs and complete puzzles to help your community and progress with the story<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Explore in your own way\n
- \n
- Open world, puzzles have multiple solutions <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
Venny looked through my pillars and said that the first three were strong but the fourth one wasn’t as clear, which i agree with. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mason helped to make my pillars more concise as we both agreed certain bits could be cut out as there were repetitions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Second draft of Pillars for “The Soundpainter”:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
- \n
- Gameplay without visuals:\n
- \n
- This game is screen-less, just headphones and a controller<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Map the world with sound\n
- \n
- You, as The Soundpainter have the ability to attach sounds to objects or ‘paint’ the environment<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Solve puzzles to help NPCs\n
- \n
- Encounter characters and complete unique tasks to help your community <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Catch sounds and store them for later\n
- \n
- Catch Soundbugs with your net and store them to use as tools in future puzzles<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
A follow up to this task was to consider the game loop and i realised that i didn’t have much of an idea of the actual game part, other than there would be no visuals. I think considering a game loop as my next task will help me to develop my pitch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Game Overview – Short description of game Guidelines: Everything should be short and snappy Maybe don’t put title in overview? Redundant Structure for overview? Game Design Pillars How to use Pillars: Making pillars: Further guidelines for pillars: Game Loops Loops by style Key takeaways In this talk, I learnt how to structure my game pitch […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":70,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-weekly-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/iah1g25\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/iah1g25\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/iah1g25\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/iah1g25\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/70"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/iah1g25\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/iah1g25\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":196,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/iah1g25\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116\/revisions\/196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/iah1g25\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/iah1g25\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.wsagames.com\/iah1g25\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
- Catch Soundbugs with your net and store them to use as tools in future puzzles<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
- Gameplay without visuals:\n
- Open world, puzzles have multiple solutions <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
- Gameplay without visuals\n
- Find ship parts, improve tab planet, unlock galaxies<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
- Second to second\n
- Core game loops\n
- Chains of repeatable actions that for the flow of the players experience<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
- Avoid genre pillars\n
- Pillars should be re-reviewed often<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
- Every feature you are considering for your game must contribute to at least one game pillar, and shouldnt contradict<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
- To determine features\n
- Help to judge if every idea we have is a good idea for your game, and isn’t just a good idea<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
- To maintain the game vision\n