Features

The Right Decision at the Right Time:
Selecting the Right Features for a New Game Project

4th Stage - Analyzing Hypotheses According to Priorities

Once the valid hypotheses are identified, they are classified in order to isolate the best possible concept.

Selecting Criteria and Assigning Weights
To determine the interest of a particular concept, we need to establish a set of criteria. Let us select the following:

	Set of criteria

The list of such criteria is established by the whole team. You are free to use as many criteria as you feel necessary, but experience shows that the maximum should be around ten. This creative thinking is particularly beneficial because it motivates the group to consider what is truly important for the game and for the studio. In the next stage, weights are attributed to each criterion:

	Rating each criterion

Rating Hypotheses According to Selected Criteria
We must now rate each solution on a scale of 1 to 5 for each individual criterion. For instance, for solution 2.3.2.2.1.1.3:

	Rating Hypotheses According to Selected Criteria

Reconciling Opposite Views
There is one problem, however, when rating hypotheses. How can the studio come to terms with contradicting opinions — for instance, from management and players? The solution is to assign more than one weight to each criterion. In our example, we identify two groups that judge the interest of a concept from different angles: management and players. Management will be preoccupied with figures, while players will be less concerned with budget issues. A new table is necessary to take both groups into account:

	Although this example uses only two weights per criterion, it can still be used.

Analyzing the New Ranking
The new table is now much more informative. As we can see, the ranking of hypotheses varies significantly depending on which point of view is chosen.

	Analyzing the new ranking. Note: for technical reasons this table is extracted from a different analysis.

Ultimately, how do we retain the lowest amount of possible variants? Priority is to be given to those hypotheses that will satisfy both groups.

Here is an example of a configuration that creates a game concept that merges two genres: racing and adventure:

We can also identify a few hypotheses that did very well in one ranking but poorly in the other.

Here for instance, the following criteria translate into a rally racing game with a storyline, a concept that did not score that high.

Finally, don't throw away ideas that are extremely original, and therefore hardly imaginable by the competition. Keep one or two hypotheses that rated average, but are dear to the heart of someone in the team, as possible concepts.

Applications and Conclusions

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