Concept and game mechanics morphing into a game

It’s hard creating concept that matches the vision of a game.

You can always create an art style so the graphical people can molest it to no end but to actually make something so beautiful that you implement it directly to a game? impossible some would say, others would call it a developers nightmare. I

I call it an opportunity. Artists are merely there to envision your game usually, a method of artistically showing your mind on a canvas by being their muse. I think this is wrong. Having a canvas drawn and using it as a background would be a dream for most.

Reading from the creator of Rayman Michel Ancel makes you think how concept is implemented.
I love how he bluntly says

“When you’re working in 3D you have to sculpt and you need a lot of people working on it. It’s very technical. Here it’s very direct. There is a direct connection between the artists and the game. It’s easier to add content to the game.”

This. The connection I want with my future and current team is this. You cannot have these people working in a glass-walled office while the rest are in their cardboard cubicles. Having your office built in a way where you can throw a Mario-pillow to your artists is imperative in my opinion.

Lastly I would say that Michel Ancel’s quote on how a game should be has been with me for some time now and this is how I am trying to direct our team to

“We tried to be as simple as possible. The controls need to be simple, but you have things to discover. By combining what you’re doing you will see there are even hidden moves. We want the game to be super easy to handle but hard to master.”

Me, our lead programmer and our QA sat a few days ago and talked about how we could minimize the UI in order for it to work properly and implement our mechanics in a way we found easy for the player to understand. I believe we have accomplished this with some simple color coordination. With having so many wide skills our QA did a beautiful concept of this and I believe we have created a stunning One-Page-Design. We will unveil this later in our presentation and on this blog in about two weeks from now. 

Until then, stay crafty internet.