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Will Wright’s 4 Tips for Generating

Video Game Concepts - 2022 -
MasterClass
4-5 minutos

Design & Style

Written by the MasterClass staff

Last updated: Nov 8, 2020 • 3 min read

Designers discover new game concepts by being inspired by all

objects and settings, no matter how mundane they first appear.
However, the most important thing about inspiration is knowing
what to do when you find it.

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How to Generate Video Game Concepts

Will Wright’s 4 Tips for Generating Video Game Concepts

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How to Generate Video Game Concepts

Inspiration for the perfect video game concept can strike at any
time so you need to be ready to write those ideas down. Whether
you want to develop a narrative first-person shooter (FPS), or a
battle royale-style massively multiplayer online (MMO) game, the
following steps will help you streamline the process of creating your
first game concept:
Explore the genre. Pick a video game genre that interests you, like
action-adventure or role-playing games (RPGs), and explore all the
elements that go into developing the worlds and characters in those
games. Write down a few video game ideas that fit within that genre
to see if you have an angle that brings something new to the table.

Pick a niche. Find a video game subgenre that piques your

interest, and try to create a game concept for it. You can also try
generating a concept that combines elements of different video
game subgenres. While you should embrace all ideas during the
brainstorming process, giving yourself a specific genre to work
within can help produce new and innovative concepts.

Ask around. Talk to your friends and fellow gamers to find out the
type of game ideas that excite them. Understanding the type of
gameplay others are looking for can help push you in the right
direction for designing a good game concept. Though public
opinion is important to an extent, remember that there is no such
thing as a game concept that every player will love.

Freewrite. Freewriting is the practice of writing without a prescribed

structure, which means no outlines, cards, notes, or editorial
oversight. In freewriting, the writer follows the impulses of their own
mind, allowing thoughts and inspiration to appear to them without
premeditation. Freewriting isn’t just for literature or scriptwriting, it
can be useful for brainstorming new creative ideas as well. Allow
yourself to write for a set amount of time and come up with as many
game ideas as you can.

Watch and read. In addition to gathering inspiration from other

video games, watch television shows, movies, and read a variety of
books. Note the most compelling or interesting parts of these
storytelling mediums, and use those to inform your own concepts.

Will Wright’s 4 Tips for Generating Video Game

Concepts
 Successful game designer Will Wright has a few tips that can help
you generate a great game concept:

1. Always look for inspiration. Look for points of conflict or dynamic

interaction everywhere you go. While the games that have paved
the way for modern gaming evolution are ripe with inspiration, the
natural and social worlds are a richer source of concepts than other
games.

2. Find new subjects through wide-ranging research. Don’t limit

yourself to subjects that have already been explored in games.
Seek out areas that are new to you and try to learn more about
them, no matter how technical they might seem at first.

3. Analyze your subject. Once you have a general subject for a

game, analyze it from every possible perspective. If you’re
interested in air travel, for example, you might wonder how a pilot
lives and works. However, consider the flight attendant or the air
traffic controller, the plane itself, or the birds avoiding it during
takeoff and landing. What about the clouds the plane cuts through
during flight, or the weather gods who determine when a plane is
grounded and when it can fly? Each of these perspectives can
produce any number of game designs. All should be considered in
equal detail.

4. Listen to your instincts. When you face difficult design decisions,

trust your gut. Sometimes you’ll have to make choices without clear
data. Be confident in your instincts about what is fun.

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