SERVICE SUMMARY
BOOTCAMP:
DESIGN JAM
Marie’s Design Jam is a 2-day workshop aimed at finding and iterating on new game ideas – like a Game Jam, but on paper. The bootcamp teaches participants step by step how to build a creative framework, and then use it as a northern star to extrapolate a feature set. The first day starts with an inspirational keynote about how to ’find the fun’ and ideas that stick, and then goes onto having participants flesh out their idea to design pillars. They then continue to immerse and describe the player experience they are looking for. On the second day, the participants get the expand their creative vision into feature sets, before diving down and learning about the very building blocks of game design and crafting their own core gameplay. They then learn how to lay out and design their own mock-up Steam page to illustrate the game on release. The jam ends with each group presenting their Steam pages and showing how they envision their full game to look like!
OVERVIEW
The standard schedule for the Design Jam is outlined below.
The team can be divided in groups or stay as one. Marie’s recommendation is groups of 3 people.
It is possible to provide creative direction and boundaries to the jam, that the participants will then adhere to and stay within. Either way, at the end of day 2, they will have solid game pitches ready for presentation.
Day 1 Schedule
Inspirational talk about how to
find the fun that makes your game stand out, how to convey it to others, align
and agree on what to do, how to implement and test it and most importantly –
how to keep it.
Takeaway: More fun gameplay
EXERCISE:
Find your fun
What characterizes a good design pillar? Should they overlap, or stand out, or complement one another? How can they be used to inform the rest of your design? What elements bind them together to explain the full direction of the game?
Takeaway: Clear design direction
EXERCISE:
Design your pillars
In this session, we walk through what Creative Briefs are, and how they can be used at early stages of design to align and connect your game across all design aspects – from narrative to progression to gameplay.
Takeaway: More aligned design across team
EXERCISE:
Write your creative briefs
Day 2 Schedule
In this talk, Marie walks through the concept of design hierarchy, and how it can be used to structure your vision to ensure your that the core aspects of your game gets to thrive and harmonize with one another, and make the game feel coherent.
Takeaway: More concise & coherent design
EXERCISE:
Expand your vision into a featureset
The core gameplay of everything you have played can be deconstructed into a few reoccurring mechanics and patterns. What are they, what do they challenge the player on and how can they be layered combine to create deep and varied second-to-second gameplay?
Takeaway: More varied core gameplay
EXERCISE:
Build your core gameplay
Workshop that discusses how Steam Pages can be used as a tool for alignment, to faster understand where your game vision is heading and to make your game stand out more. We walk through the history of Steam Pages and best practices, and then make our own mocked-up pages using a template.
Takeaway: Alignment & sharper USP’s
EXERCISE:
Make a Steam Page for your pitch
TESTIMONIALS
"Great experience"
The biggest help for us was definitely her extensive AI knowledge, where she shared her best practices from past AAA games she worked on. She went into several advanced topics. It was especially great to hear her thought process when creating the behaviors of enemies, and how she user tier lists when designing enemies. Her hands-on combat experience was very valuable to us, and we learned a lot from her.
After a week of bootcamp, our team is now well set to tackle our coming milestones, but her expertise could really be helpful again in the future. “
"Creativity was booming"
We found Marie easy to work with. She was responsive, flexible and tailored her program and content to our wishes. She also took the time to walk around and help everyone in their thinking, making sure no one was stuck, and even went above and beyond by spending some time playing and giving feedback on a game in development. All in all, we loved working with her and definitely want to bring her in again!"
SERVICES OFFERED
Schools & indie studios
This service includes:
- Two full days of design Jam
- Lectures and exercises as outlined
- Real game idea or fictional game
- Within your creative boundaries
- According to your scope constraints
- Online or in-person
€1400
(excl VAT & travel)
Incubators & funded studios
This service includes:
- Two full days of design Jam
- Lectures and exercises as outlined
- Real game idea or fictional game
- Within your creative boundaries
- According to your scope constraints
- Online or in-person
€2000
(excl VAT & travel)