Venezia “Venny” Georgieva – Talk & Exercise
On Monday Venezia Georgieva (Principal Game Designer at Sumo Digital) visited to give us a talk on what Game Overviews, Game Pillars and Game Loops are, how to craft these and what their purpose is in game dev. She used existing games and their official content to give us case studies for better understanding of these concepts.
We then did an activity to start applying these to our games, as overviews, pillars and loops are expected to be part of our pitch deck.
Venny said I was on the right track with the pillars, with the feedback that | just needed to keep iterating to get the descriptions as concise and clear as possible. I was hesitant to reference a genre with the phrase “robot body-horror” which I’ve used in my head as a core part of the project, however Venny said it’s an acceptable phrase for a pillar because it’s a specific twist on genre that communicates the experience.
I struggled with the game loops, as my game is heavily narrative and linear, whereas the case studies had more gameplay and/or choice. However, through discussion with peers and more thought, I feel I’ll be able to visualise the experience through this lens.
I did also ask Venny how to approach this after her talk, and she said that “resources” could be time or story progression, and there are still player actions to form a loop such as talking to people and collecting things.
GAME PILLAR ITERATION
In Ellipsus, I used the draft feature to iterate on my game pillars, trying to make them clear, concise and meaningful. Here is every iteration with major changes, with the differences highlighted.
2ND PASS
- Robot Body-Horror – Play as a robot who wants to be taken seriously by a space exploration program. Progress and see your character become more unfamiliar.
- Diverse NPCs in a Sci-fi World – Form relationships with people and aliens to gain and install new parts. Discover the customs of this far-future world and its societies.
- Upgrade Your Body with Developed Knowledge – With each body part/Through repetition/With practice, learn the systems and parts that make you tick to replace your parts safely.
The 2nd pass was my first attempt to improve on my paper-written pillars. I was focused on immediately emergent changes that would communicate the experience better, like the tagline “robot body-horror” and shortening the descriptions.
4TH PASS
- Robot Body-Horror – Play as a robot desperate to be taken seriously by a space exploration program. Increase your chances of being selected by upgrading your parts. As you progress, your body and relationships gradually transform – for better or worse.
- Dive into a Sci-fi World – Explore a far-future world and interact with its inhabitants to obtain parts. Form relationships, learn about customs and discover the societies of the far-future.
- Upgrade Your Body with Developed Knowledge – With each upgrade, familiarise yourself with the systems and parts that make you tick to replace your parts safely.
The 4th pass has many significant changes. There are more verbs (explore, interact, learn) and short descriptor words (desperate, gradually) to more clearly communicate what the player will do and feel.
5TH PASS
- Robot Body-Horror – Play as an ambitious robot desperate to be taken seriously by a space exploration program. Try to increase your chances of being selected by upgrading your parts. As you progress, your body and relationships will transform – maybe not in the way you expect.
- Dive into a Sci-fi World – Explore the far-future and interact with its inhabitants to obtain parts. Form relationships and discover the intergalactic society of this cyberpunk world.
- Puzzling Parts – With each upgrade, familiarise yourself with the systems, wires and power units that make you tick to replace your parts safely; all while adapting to how these upgrades change your body.
More keywords for a vivid picture of the experience: ambitious, intergalactic, cyberpunk. I added the verb “try” and edited the last sentence to imply the narrative, which can hopefully be pieced together in combination with the other pillars (I will seek feedback on this tomorrow). I also gave the last pillar a new, catchier name as I was struggling to think of something both effective and accurate. I also expanded on the emotional challenge this pillar should uphold, as should all of them.
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