GameDev Protips: How To Choose The Right Game Idea

Being a game developer means long days, even longer weeks, little sleep, and being inundated with ideas on a daily basis. With all of these ideas and so little time on our hands it can be hard to articulate all of these ideas, let alone implement them More-so, you know that your ideas will bring in money only once they’re released. The trick is finding which ideas to develop further. Your best ideas on paper can be too time consuming, expensive or creatively draining to produce.

What are ideas? Most ideas are abstract concepts, something you come up with during your coffee breaks. But as soon as they’re in your head, they’re gone. It is good to have ideas, but too many of them can make you feel unsure which one are good. And choosing the wrong idea could have dire consequences.

Your best idea is something that can be easily executed. In this case you should be able to quickly build a prototype and either start a new project or integrate it into an existing one. Particularly novel ideas, while cool, will put more stress on the project as a whole because you are doing something that will take more time and entail greater risk. Also, with such a new idea, you won’t know how your target market will like it. Maybe they will love it and if you get lucky, your idea may become a trend.

The right idea could easily be your least favorite idea because it feels less expansive or imaginative. The right idea is about trade-offs. If you need to, take a list of your top five design ideas and write off the pros and cons of each. Depending on the scope of each project, consider the resources it will take to complete the game and whether or not you have what is needed to follow the project through to completion.

Actionable Takeaways: While some ideas might sound good, they can be impossible to actually turn into playable games, so make sure that you have the resources necessary to finish any projects you decide to start. Keep in mind that very complicated or novel ideas will be harder to make than games with a less adventurous premise. Lastly, remember that a simple project that you can complete is worth far more than any combination of grandiose ideas, so the most ambitious game idea is often not the best.

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Thank you so much for reading my article! I’m Daniel Doan, the Co-Founder of Black Shell Media. We're a publishing and marketing firm dedicated to helping indie developers succeed.

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