Recently, the team had to make a design proposal, fleshing out our one-page pitch into a proper game idea. We started the proposal a bit lost, as there was some confusion over how this would differ from the short pitch we’d already made. But once we settled into our roles a bit, things started coming together.

We started by reiterating the basic idea of the game, focusing on the plugging and unplugging mechanic our protagonist would use to navigate puzzles and challenges. From there, we fleshed it out with some work the team had done since the last presentation, such as detailing more of the gameplay loop by focusing on how we wanted the player to approach the game, elements of the game’s narrative and themes, and updated focus on the art style and visual fidelity.

From there, we took the Team Charter we’d build nearly a month prior and outlined how the team was structured, the responsibilities of each member, and the decision-making process we’d be using. We wanted to make sure we were presenting the team as much as the idea, as an idea alone does not a game make.

Next came our target audience. While we’d gone over this briefly on our one-page, we expanded on it heavily here, creating a theoretical perfect consumer and outlining their wants and needs in a game. We then outlined how our game would meet those needs specifically, by focusing on market data and innovations we were making in our mechanics and game topic to appeal to this particular audience. By focusing on an underserved market, we felt we could be very competitive in terms of what we could provide consumers.

Finally, we realized we forgot to add a reason why we made the game! We sourced some data regarding dissociation with Augmented Reality and how it related to game addiction, using this to speak directly to the problem of low awareness of escapism-motivated gaming, and further reinforced our target audience by outlining how they were not only a perfect consumer, but also a group at risk of the problem identified.

Having put together this short presentation, we showcased it to our peers, getting strong feedback and finding a few issues to correct. With this new reservoir of information, we as a team feel ready to create a prototype by focusing on where our strengths lie moving forwards.