About
October 16th, 2006 by Pierre-Alexandre Garneau
Athletes going to the Olympics train hard for hours each day; that’s what’s required to become world-class athletes. The same is true in any field: to become one of the best in the world, you must train at it a lot.
While I already have a few years of experience as a videogame designer, I’m not at a world-class level. I want to reach that level however, so I decided to train myself. A sprinter trains himself by running a lot; a game designer trains himself by designing a lot of games. This blog will hold the resulting designs.
Here’s how it works. At the beginning of each week, I choose a random theme (eg. “Space Race”) and a random platform (eg. “Nintendo DS”). I must then come up with an interesting game concept that fits the theme and is appropriate for the platform before the end of the week (eg. a game about a space race for the Nintendo DS). As the week progresses, I plan on posting some bits of informations about how things are shaping up. The end result should be a description of the main characteristics of the game, that give a good idea of the overall vision of the game — what’s called a “pitch” in the business.
I hope to keep to that plan. I’m currently looking for work so I have more free time available for this, but even when I get back to work I’ll try to find time for this training. So come back often and look at how things progress! If you like or dislike something you see here, just leave a comment or send me an email.
About Me
My name is Pierre-Alexandre Garneau. During my 5 years of experience as a programmer and game designer, I shipped 17 games on PC, mobile, set-top boxes, GBA and DS. I started working in gaming as an indie developer, then moved to a studio working mostly on mobile games (Humagade) where I climbed to the role of design director. I then worked as a designer at the Montreal office of Gameloft, a major developer and publisher of mobile games. I am currently looking for work.
Outside work, I have written an article for Gamasutra (“Fourteen Forms of Fun”) which was used as training material at some major studios, and as reference in some academic theses on gaming.
You Want to Use a Design?
So, you really like one of the game concepts on this site and would like to make a game out of it? Great! I’d love to see that happening!
These game designs aren’t entirely free, however. I love sharing my ideas with the world, but if you’re going to sell a game based on them and make a ton of money, I think it’s fair for me to get some of that money for my efforts.
If you want to make an actual game based on the ideas on this site, just contact me and I’m sure we’ll be able to work something out — even if it’s for a freeware game. I really don’t want to rip anybody off, but I don’t want to be ripped off either. If nothing else, I’d like to know where my ideas end up being used.
For companies willing to pay for it, I’m also available to turn those short pitches into full-fledged design documents and to help with the other tasks related to the design. I’m also available to work on other design work unrelated to what’s on this site.
Hi Pierre-Alexandre
I have just been looking through your website - great story. Thanks for sharing it with us.
I’m only starting out but would love any advice you have for getting me into some sort indie developer type situation?
I have 3 Top Draw ideas for best selling games and do not have any clue what i should do with these ideas?
I was reading through your information and was wondering if you actually get any businesses contacting you for your ideas?
And if they do, how do you prevent yourself from being ripped off?
Hope your reply does not cause an inconvenience
Regards
Tim Sim
It’s great if you’ve got great ideas, I hope you’re able to make them into great games! I’m not going to lie to you however: it’s going to be very challenging.
Unlike the movie industry, games companies have no way for people to submit their game ideas. They figure they’ve got enough ideas by themselves, so they don’t need outside ones (I think that’s a mistake, but that’s a discussion for another day). No matter how good your ideas are, they won’t do any good if nobody with the power to make them a reality reads them — and unless you know somebody with that power, the likelihood of your ideas getting seriously considered is, sadly, very low.
I don’t believe you should be afraid to be ripped-off, honestly. It’s really hard to get people to take a look at your ideas, so don’t complicate things by adding complexities to avoid getting ripped-off. If you’re ideas are good enough to convince somebody to make a game out of them, those people are better to hire you as a designer to keep working for that project — it would just be good business sense to hire you.
That’s why I did this blog, to get my ideas out there. With a lot of luck, somebody may like an idea enough to make a game out of it. Or they’ll see I’m good and ask me to do another specific design they need. That would be great, but no such luck yet. I don’t do it for the money anyway.
So, you’ve got great ideas, but aren’t likely to sell them to get made. What do you do? There are two paths. First is to join a game company, climb the ranks and become influential enough to convince people with money that they should invest in one of your idea. Second path is to create your own indie studio, get some funding and make those ideas by yourself. Neither of these path is easy, but if they were everybody would be doing it. With enough determination, you can do it!
Good luck! Keep me posted when you reach your dream!
i want pokemon to become an adventure game 4 wii i have great ideas i just hope u like em