Behind the Scenes: Picking a Game Concept

By Megan Schwarz, Head of Narrative

Megan is Head of Narrative at Candlelight Games. She has been working as a games writer and team lead for over ten years.

We’re hard at work on our first game, but we wanted to share a behind-the-scenes look on how we picked the game concept.

Who’s Candlelight Games Anyway?

One of our first conversations at Candlelight Games (long before our studio even had a name) was about our company values. We wanted to make sure we were on the same page about what was important to us and craft a set of guiding principles against which we can judge everything we do, from the games we make to the way we comment on social media. 

Why? There are a million game ideas out there that could be fun and successful… but wouldn’t be the right fit for our team to make. Our company values help us stay true to ourselves.

Games with Heart

Then we started brainstorming game ideas that fit our values, team skillset, and target audience. We talked about characters and narrative and gameplay, making sure we felt confident we could deliver an entertaining game that still foregrounds empathy and understanding.

Notes from our early game concept brainstorms

Ultimately, we narrowed it down to 3 game concepts.

Player First

Then we got our first batch of feedback. We talked to friends and family–both in our target audience and outside of it–and discussed their thoughts, refining our concepts as we went.

Next, we asked all of you for feedback! In the first of many player surveys, we asked what genre you’re hoping to see from us first, which helped determine which game concept we chose.

Community Matters

Early storyboards for our first game concept

But we’re not done yet! As we’re designing, outlining, and coding, we’re also building our online community (that’s you!) so we can continue to get your invaluable feedback as we go.

Game development is all about staying agile as you refine your game and see what works. That concept we chose? It’s already gone through dozens of iterations. Even last week’s version is notably different than the current version. That’s how it should be.

And it will continue to change as we keep working on it.

We’re grateful so many of you want to follow us on the many, many twists and turns of game development. The version of our game that eventually launches will likely be pretty different from our initial announcement… and that’s a good thing.

So… What IS The Game?

I know I’ve kept you in suspense for too long already… but alas, this is not our game announcement post. That will be coming very soon, so be sure to sign up for our newsletter to be the first to know!

In the meantime, here’s a little hint:

Early concept art sketches

Bonus: What about those other game ideas that you didn’t choose?

Never say never! We’d love to dust off those other ideas as our second or third game. But first, we have to focus on the enormous challenge of the game in front of us! So we don’t want to share the details of those ideas just yet, in the hopes that we can make them in the future. 🤞