Not having a Game Direction is the perfect setup for failure.

You can’t make an informed decision about the potential of your game, and your development moves on by intuitions and gut decisions. Defining a solid Game Direction before committing to a game idea is how you mitigate risks and determine the why of your game. You can clearly define your game idea, communicate it to others, and have a lighting guide throughout the development.

This week, I’ll show you exactly what a Game Direction is and what it can do for you.

The Game Direction gives you a clear route and a reason to follow it.

‍

We’re going to discover:

• The Foundations Of Your Game’s Design
• A Game Direction Doesn’t Define A Game

Without further ado, let’s jump right in.

The Foundations Of Your Game’s Design

A solid Game Direction is the requirement for the Concept Phase.

A game always starts with an idea having a certain amount of potential. However, you need to explore that idea to evaluate its potential, and if it works, you can start to make it concrete.

The phase where all this happens is called the Concept Phase, and it’s always done before starting the Pre-Production. But what does it mean to evaluate the potential of an idea? It means linking it to a solid Game Direction. This works because the Game Direction explains what you want to achieve with your game. When you have a full Game Direction, you have all the info to choose to turn it into a full game or not.

It doesn’t end there, though! The Game Direction remains crucial for all game development since it’s your lighting guide for decision-making.

Okay, that’s good for the purpose, but what exactly is the Game Direction?

‍

The Game Direction is the boundary of the Target Game Experience.

As we’ve said, the Target Game Experience is what you want to achieve with your game. The Game Direction holds the concrete constraints to which the Target Game Experience can stretch.

The Game Direction has 2 components:

• Game Pillars
• Thematic Structure

Together, they define your Target Game Experience.

If you know what both components are, you know there’s no game content here. And that’s the most important thing you need to remember: a Game Direction should NEVER contain game content. Its purpose is to describe the experience you want your game to generate, not which game generates it.

I know this could be a bit counterintuitive, so let’s go deeper.

A Game Direction Doesn’t Define A Game

A Game Direction represents a space of possible games.

The number of games you can design to generate that Target Game Experience is infinite. This is because the Game Direction defines “a subspace of possible games” by setting constraints to the bigger unlimited space holding all the games you can make.

That’s a crucial point to understand. It’s called Game Direction because setting constraints to the space of possible experiences gives you a direction of what you can do. It’s like decorating a room that must be 4 by 3 in size. You can’t do whatever you want, leading you to make certain decisions.

The direction you’re propelled to is the set of routes your design can take to generate the Target Game Experience without leaving that defined space.

But what does that mean for the Game Designer?

‍

The Game Designer freely moves inside the Game Direction space.

The Game Designer can never work outside of the space defined by the Game Direction. This constraint is a good one because he still has a lot of free movement if the Game Direction is well-built.

That’s why you should never put concrete game elements into your Game Direction. If you do, you’ll limit too much creative exploration. And the worst part is that you’ll make the Pre-Production inevitably converge to a pre-defined game. Instead, you want a space in which you can freely explore to find the best game that generates the Target Game Experience.

This is one of the many concrete manifestations of the game being a means to an end, which is experience.

Game Direction gives autonomy and purpose to your game’s design.

‍

Key Takeaways:

• A solid Game Direction is the requirement of the Concept Phase.
• A Game Direction is the boundary of the Target Game Experience.
• A Game Direction represents a space of possible games.
• The Game Designer freely moves inside the Game Direction space.