Introduction

In November 2006, the team at CrunchTime Games Inc. had a massive task to accomplish: Successfully pitch Microsoft an Xbox LIVE Arcade game made by a handful of first time programmers and artists (some of which were still students), with only one experienced pro leading the way from his converted garage in Chandler Arizona.

Outside The Studio

On September 3, 2008, Shred Nebula will launch on Xbox LIVE Arcade servers, completing that goal and dream of the men and women that dared to take on such a wildcard challenge.

Doing a Pitch for a new game idea never gets any easier. It does not matter how much experience you have or if it is your first game idea, selling a concept to others is tough! A major challenge for students and aspiring game developers is finding legitimate reference on how this process works by seeing real design docs from released games. The Game Industry is loaded with NDA's and other secretive philosophies that make it tough for us as an industry to A) Help the future designers/developers have solid reference to learn from and B) Strengthen the trade of "planning/game design" and progress it as a technical art form through sharing and innovation.

I personally have created many detailed design documents and high-end pitches for the games I have worked on over the last 17 years as a Lead Designer, Director and Character Gameplay Programmer - all of which are stuck under NDA blanket and therefore hidden away from those who could greatly benefit from the experience.

Inside The Studio

Now I own a company (CrunchTime Games Inc.) and the IP, it is my pleasure to finally release this kind of documentation from our game Shred Nebula Xbox LIVE Arcade (XBLA)! On 9/3/08 in conjunction with the launch of Shred Nebula on XBLA servers, we are releasing the Pitch Document used to get the game green lit for XBLA and a 60 Seconds of Gameplay Essay required for submission and approval. These will be found at www.shrednebula.com

What makes these documents special is the way they are created, using a technique I call "Visual Game Design" that I was fortunate enough to adapt over the years, reflecting on experiences of working with the Japanese early in my career.

CrunchTime Games Inc. is very excited to offer this reference to the vast communities of aspiring developers, students, educators and peer in the industry, showing how we tackled the task of Pitching Shred Nebula (aka R.I.P. ROCKET) back in 2006. We hope this open sharing sets a standard for others in the industry - our game is done, there is no reason to keep these secret at the expense of helping our future developers and sharing some design "know-how" within our industry.

Sincerely,

James Goddard
CEO,
CrunchTime Games Inc.



Legal

Message from James Goddard:

"The legal disclaimer is a necessary evil, hopefully it will not overshadow the purpose of sharing this with the world- this is something that we are very proud of and hope that aspiring designers/developers out there find to be informative and helpful in their pursuit of one day making their own game. In 1991, I asked my boss how to do a pitch, and he told me there way no specific way... 17 years later this is still true. It is up to you to figure out how to best capture your own idea and sell it to others. This just happens to be the way I interpreted that challenge, and 17 years later this represents one of the best, to-the-point pitches I personally have ever had the pleasure of putting together -- and it took the entire team collaboratively to pull it off. Thanks for looking at this, and best of luck in all your creative endeavors!"

-DJames Goddard


I accept and agree the legal terms stated above.                         


Download

60 Seconds Of Gameplay



Accept Terms and Conditions
before Downloading Documents




Pitch Document



Accept Terms and Conditions
before Downloading Documents