I look at design, scope, and development as a series of concentric circles emanating from the center.
At the center of these circles is the main idea, theme, or essence of the game. If we can discover and define what that is early on, then we have something to build the rest of the game on. That's not to say that finding the main idea is an easy thing, that it doesn't take iteration after iteration, or that it won't change as we develop and test the game. But starting out with a central theme will help us focus on what we're trying to create. With most creative processes I've been a part of, what we initially start out creating usually changes along the way. And with games especially, as you put your prototypes in the hands of your players and listen and react to their feedback. it should change along the way.
The main idea or theme that I'd like to explore with Flux is change, and how that change affects our choices and strategies. If that's the main idea, then we move to the next concentric circle and find the basic objective, mechanics, and the player elements that we'll use to explore this theme. For me, I'm using shapes, circles, squares, triangles, and red and green bullets to explore the theme of change. The basic design is to change the shapes of other players along with your own, by shooting them with different colored bullets. The objective is to make the shapes in the level match the target shapes.
Once I have the basic design and elements and know how they support and explore the theme, I can then define the mechanics and abilities based on the theme and start prototyping the design. At this point, the resources needed have been very minimal. I can use sketches, writing, and thoughts to develop the idea. We then start prototyping the mechanics and basic movement.
I can figure out control schemes, and how I want the player to move in the world. I wouldn't worry too much about polish, but I'd spend time on controls and movement to get a good idea of feel. Once I get the movement feeling good, I can start giving it abilities, in Flux, this is shooting.
As we develop the game we ensure that each concentric circle is working well, is fun, and supports and contributes to the central theme of the game. If something presents itself that is more fun than what we initially had in mind, the earlier we find this, than the less painful it is to change. As we move outward in the circles, changes to the inner circles get harder and harder to make, because the ripple effects become harder and harder to manage.
Ideally if the very center of the game is fun, and we find and polish that fun early on, then keep that fun throughout development, we can add features and elements as our time and resources permit. If we have the resources, than we can start to add better vfx, better sound fx, more levels, etc. If those resources expand, than we can move onto development of characters instead of shapes, worlds, instead of simple mazes, and storylines, etc.
I'm interested in exploring this idea of development and design because I believe much of our industry works in the opposite way. They spitball and blue sky as many elements and features as they can think of early on, and start iterating and prototyping on all of them. As the features grow and the design expands and changes to fit in all the prototypes and elements, the game and development quickly balloon to an uncontrollable point. At this point in development, usually late in the cycle, in order to ship the game, the developers are forced to cut features, trim scope, and piece together the remaining elements. This often comes with a lot of pain, because these features and designs have cost a lot of time, thought, energy, and resources developing them.
I don't mean to criticize this process, a lot of great games have come from this process, and a lot of great developers really thrive by making games in this way. Also, for bigger studios who have the luxury of abundant resources and flexible deadlines, this process can be very successful. For myself however, with the limited time and resources I have, I would like to explore the concentric circle approach and see if we can't make a game in a more focused, disciplined way.
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