Holy crap.

The backstory: Gamasutra, renowned game development blog, ran a contest to describe a game popular in 2020. We were to focus on such a game's primary design concepts, the innovation it would bring to the table, and how it would be controlled, as well as give some info on its minute-to-minute gameplay. The loot: 20 $1600-value all-access passes to GDC. I was already signed up for GDC, but with a crappy Expo Pass, the kind that doesn't let you attend any of the lectures. I'd never written a game design document before, but I had some good ideas about the future content distribution and design theory. I figured it couldn't hurt to enter, so I gave it a shot, and spent my Wednesday putting a concept together.

I won!

beat was my name for the music game of 2020. It focuses on modularity in design and content delivery, leading to easy implementation of user-created content (among other things). The concept was for an entirely new vector of music delivery and enjoyment - the spiritual successor to Rock Band, but more flexible and pervasive. Apparently the guys at Gamasutra liked it, and now I'm going to the full week of GDC!

The full design document I submitted is below. (Be warned, it's 9 and a half pages!)

 beat: music is everywhere (.pdf, 204kb)