When the decision to make an iPhone game was made, finding the right initial concept seemed to be half the battle.
Through a myriad of ideas all explained in varying degrees of depth, it was one of the least formed that was eventually decided upon. Maybe ideas that were already well developed did not allow the creative flexibility a lot the team expected from the project. Maybe a tendency to be critical resulted in the urge to focus on small areas of fully developed ideas that could be potentially flawed.
Or could it be that it’s much easier to be inspired by a simple idea.
In this instance two sentences and a 10 second drawing on a white board beat the behemoth game documents. In between days processing masses of information, it’s refreshing to hear something straightforward, clear and concise. An original concept, succinctly explained can act as a blank canvas for people to project their own ideas upon.
Putting this in the perspective of our game, one member of the team introduced his concept of ‘guiding a boat down a river by controlling the environment rather than controlling the boat’.
Annotated with a rectangle containing a river and a boat.
This was enough to encourage everyone else to pipe in with their thoughts and the idea began to take shape. A game was born.
Casual games with a viral message benefit from being based on a simple concept. The success of applications like iSteam, iBeer and Flashlight are a testament to how people are captivated by an innovative simple idea. With Apple levelling the playing field in a way that blunts the edge of a big budget, it seems on a platform where the concept is king, simplicity rules.
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