Concept Revision

The assignment for this week is very simple: revise the concept document. This is one of two revisions on your concept document. You will have another official Document Revisions (for gameplay specification and the technical specifications) close to Alpha Release. At that time you will submit your final version of this document. Unlike the other documents, we do not want you submitting the Concept Document with final document portfolio, as it does not make sense to submit a concept document for a finished game.

In revising your document, please read all of our comments and respond to them. This year, students were very good about putting gameplay sketches and features on the same page, but some could still use a little work. However, the real problem this year is your competitive analysis. These could all be improved, and we have some suggestions below.

Improving Your Competitive Analysis

Your competitive analysis should focus on games that are like yours. That means starting with your unique selling points (what makes your game different) and searching Steam or elsewhere for games that have this selling point too. This is actually a really good use of generative AI this semester, as sites like ChatGPT are far better at searching for this weird games than Google is. However, make sure that you verify the game exists and that it is not a hallucination!

Avoid games that are famous and only superficially like yours. The classic example of this is Celeste. A lot of platformers use Celeste as a comparison. However, this is only valid if you are creating a fast-paced game with precision platforming challenges. If you are making a puzzle platformer that is more forgiving on the platforming aspects, Celeste is a horrible comparison.

To help you with this part of the revision, we have a marketing worksheet for you to fill out. We do not want this attached to your concept document revision. We still want your answers as proper paragraphs. However, you should use this worksheet to help you write those paragraphs.

If you are in doubt about what games are like yours, please reach out to the course staff. Many of them have played a wide variety of games, and are often familiar with niche examples that even the instructors were not aware of.

Submission

Due: Sat, Feb 14 at 11:59 PM

There is no new assignment in CMS for your document revision. Instead, we will give you an extension in CMS for the original assignment. You will submit your revision there in place of your original submission. This is also where we will post the updated grade and feedback.