Establishing a creative vision
Alexandre Mandryka
gamewhispering.com
Who’s this guy?
• Born in Paris
• 12 years as a designer/creative director
• Ubisoft, Relic, consulting
WHAT IS A CREATIVE VISION?
Have you asked yourself these
questions?
• Is it fun?
• Is it good?
• Is it beautiful?
Questions so vague they are dangerous
What is a creative vision?
• It is a process
• It is thinking of what you want for your audience
• It is also inspiring your team with a clear target
Thinking before acting
Mandate
Meaning
Player
Experience
Game
Clear rationale
Rallying target
 Focus creative effort
Mandate
It can be very concrete
“The people’s car”
A car for every family
The specs followed
1 000 Reichsmarks max
Economical usage
5L/100Km
100Km/h
600Kg maximum
Fits 4 to 5 people
Meaning
A message to the world
“Dad, thank you for showing me that there is
honor in looking back and respecting the past.”
Private Ryan: It doesn't make any sense, sir.
Why? Why do I deserve to go?
Private Reiben: Hey asshole! Two of our guys
died trying to find you all right?
Captain Miller: Earn this.
Meaning
Old James Ryan: Tell me I have led a good life.
Ryan's Wife: What?
Old James Ryan: Tell me I'm a good man.
Ryan's Wife: You *are*.
It is our responsibility to be worthy of the sacrifice of our elders
Player
Experience
“Need for speed, but at night”
• How do you represent speed
at night?
Use lights
Bunched to create contrast
Reflection is needed
Ground has to be wet
Helps find the right questions
and make decisions
Abstraction
Mandate
Meaning
Player
Experience
Time
Define your project
Communicate your vision
TOP DOWN PROCESS
- Features
- Systems
- Rules
...
Doing things in the right order
Execution
Reflection
Consumption
Heading straight for execution leaves results to chance,
which is a largely unacceptable process at industrial level
Doing things in the right order
Reflection
Execution
First establish your vision
Consumption
It then helps direct execution and becomes a rationale evaluation metric
We start wrong for different reasons
 Mainly because we don’t know better
 It reassures us, we need concrete progress
 I’ve seen it at all levels
 Also because we use the player perspective
Understand your material
Mandate
Make a Mario Kart like
Analysis takes time
Mandate
Romeo and Juliet + Modern times
Over 300 years
Ubisoft’s long process
• Core team
• Research for 3-4
months
• 3-4 days workshop
– Offsite
– In a castle
– With the CCO
Communication:
Not an exact science
Avoid misinterpretations
Mandate
Make a movie about WWII
Business
Mandate
Team
Creative
Player
Experience
Meaning
Implementation
Communicate through different layers
Rational flow
Creating a unified vision
Not what individuals ‘like’
Establishing Player Experience
Professional
Gamer
An audience is mesmerized
Technique is at the service of intention
• Shaky camera
• Slightly out of focus
• Sound is distorted
• Looks into camera
Engage your team members
Support creativity
TEAM DYNAMIC &
BOTTOM UP PROCESS
Being creative
Abraham Maslow
Malsow’s hierarchy of needs
Intrinsic needs
Competency
Autonomy
Purpose
Respect competencies
Competency
Autonomy
Purpose
Give a problem
Let me find a solution
If you don’t ...
Strong vision
No team engagement
Vision must be
rationale
Let the team member find
their solutions
Supporting Bottom-Up
Vision
Coding
Features
Art
Design
Features
Features
Process
Game
• Engage your team
disciplines
• Do the team specialists
understand and share
it?
• They deliver the
features
• They are specialists,
They know best
The Sands of Time
Creativity VS Management
•
•
•
•
Finding the creative core takes times
It can fail
Creativity is about finding something hidden
Management is about limiting uncertainty
What is needed is Creative Management
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Gold
Ideas
Understand creative process (vision, brainstorm ...)
Take away
• You are a creator, not a gamer anymore
• Understand creativity and respect it
• Establish a clear objective and work as a team
Alexandre Mandryka
alex@gamewhispering.com
gamewhispering.com