25
eae Pitch Perfect and The Design Box Roger Altizer & Jose Zagal University of Utah Work in Progress!

Design Box Working Paper FDG 2014

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The design box is a tool developed to aid in getting to the elevator pitch for a game or other creative product. It is intended as a tool to help groups deeply understand a problem and pitch creative solutions. This was presented at the Foundations of Digital Games 2014 conference aboard Liberty of the Seas as a work in progress.

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Page 1: Design Box Working Paper FDG 2014

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Pitch Perfect andThe Design Box

Roger Altizer & Jose Zagal University of Utah

Work in Progress!

Page 2: Design Box Working Paper FDG 2014

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You are here

Page 3: Design Box Working Paper FDG 2014

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Box gets folks into design quick

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Just-us folks working together

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Bioinformatics Pitch Meeting

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Bio-informatics Team

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Bio-informatics with partners

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Easy as pie (still confusing)

• Falling in love is easy• Pitching from the cuff is easy (ish)• Ignoring the details is easy• Pitching derivative ideas is easy• Ending endless brainstorming is easy• Avoiding competing ideas is easy• Finding relief in a pitch is easy

Page 9: Design Box Working Paper FDG 2014

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Life is hard

• Ideation is hard• Designing with teams is hard• Buy-in is hard • Breaking a problem down is hard• Thinking inductively is hard

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Assuming Assumptions

• Good design solves a problem• Constraint breeds creativity• Qualitative/inductive approach to design• Iteration helps with ideation• Coding-like process may bring new ideas or

problems up that are missed at first glance• Brining clients and audience “in” allows for

design research, vetting, and just inclusion

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Punny Beginnings

Page 12: Design Box Working Paper FDG 2014

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Design Box

Aest

hetic

sTechnology

Audience

Question/Problem/Mechanic

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Technology

• What is the tech the project is required?• What tech is available to the team?• What tech is the team good at?• Does the tech have any key advantages?• What limitations does the tech impose?

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Audience

• Who is the end user?• Who will be buying the game?• Who will be distributing the game?• Are there any other key stakeholders?• Can we narrow down the audience?• Is there anything about the audience we need

to pay special attention to?

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Aesthetic

• Is there required content?• Is there a required style?• What would you like the audience to feel?• What limitations do we have on content?• Is there a particular theme we want to

embrace?• Is there any taboo content?

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Question/Problem/Mechanic

• What problem does this game need to solve?• Does this game need to promote a certain

kind of play?• What question is this game exploring?• What is it we want to say as a team?• Is there a particular mechanic we want or

need to explore?• What does this thing need to really do?

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Step 2: All pitches welcome

• Moderator writes pitches inside of the box• No pitch may be written in the box unless it

accounts for all four sides.• Any member of the team present may pitch.• Any member may riff off another’s idea.• Repeat until ‘theoretical saturation’ occurs –

the ideas start to sound the same• Cross talk about the walls but not the pitches

is allowed.

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Be cool with the box

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Step 3: Refine the walls

• What assumptions are being made in the pitches that aren’t on the walls?

• Refine the walls to account for common threads in the pitches.

• Refine the walls based upon the cross talk from the previous step.

• Allow for drastic changes to the walls.

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Be transparent with the box

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Step 4: Rinse and repeat

• Take a photo of the pitches then erase them and start over.

• Team members may not pitch the same ideas as previous rounds.

• Team members may modify earlier pitches.• Again, all pitches must work with all walls.• Moderator may ask questions to help the

pitch evolve.

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Team should press on the box

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Step 5: The pitch

• Teams may repeat the steps as many times as needed

• In the end the walls get “heavier” and the box gets “smaller”

• The smaller the box, the fewer the pitches that fit

• The last pitches should look like answers the team came up with or agreed with

Page 24: Design Box Working Paper FDG 2014

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Great big idea, tiny little box

Page 25: Design Box Working Paper FDG 2014

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Your thoughts here

Roger [email protected]@real_rahjur

Jose [email protected]@JoseZagal

You’re on a boat!