7 Seasons Studio is a project about exploring the process of game preproduction. So, what is game preproduction in the first place?
Within industry, the process of coming up with a concept to turning it into a game, though varied from studio to studio, is very deliberate. Games take a lot of time, people, coordination, and in general resources in order to ship. Thus, it’s important to validate that the proposed game concept actually has a lot of potential before devoting a bunch of resources towards developing it. In larger studios, this often takes the form of an internal pitch, where individuals have to convince higher ups that their concept is worth diverting resources towards. In more indie spaces, this can take the form of meeting with publishers to secure a deal for money. In any particular case, who ever is proposing the idea must be able to clearly and concisely convey their concept and how it translates into actual gameplay. Thus the difficulty of preproductiton is to actualize what gameplay looks like without yet having a game.
Knowing the end goal of preproduction, the team must realize what figure out in order to arrive at a deliverable concept. While everyone can (and should) contribute towards the initial concept itself, it is the role of the design team to turn the concept into gameplay and mechanics, while the art team assists with visual exploration and the visual reinforcement of the concept. Of course, exploration on either side leads to the concept changing and shifting, and the team as an entirety must pivot together in order to remain cohesive. To this, there are a variety of strategies that the team will learn and emulate in order to whittle down the initial concept into something concise, deliverable, and cohesive.
This semester, the deliverables for the project are as follows
- A 5 minute pitch illustrating concept and core gameplay
- A design document further fleshing out more detailed gameplay and level design, and examples of implementation
- An art style guide visually expressing the artistic direction for the concept