Game Show

Imagine a TV show like Project Runway (Muodin huipulle in Finland), but with game development. In each episode the contestants, let’s say programmer–designer pairs, design and develop a simple mobile or web game, in a limited time, based on a given brief. After each episode the created games would be played immediately by the audience. The audience would decide which games get the most plays and best ratings.

It could be good entertainment, and even better education. It would be most interesting to focus on game design: the mysterious art and craft of creating and tuning game ideas and mechanics. It’d be fun to show the different approaches and talk about some best practices, for example along the lines of Jesse Schell’s great book The Art of Game Design with clarifying infographics. The production could be executed in the context of a game design education programme. The more reputable the coaches and judges, the better. 

I came up with the idea together with Mikko Köykkä earlier this year, and we’ve been talking to some TV production companies and games business people here in Finland. However, right now we are quite busy with other projects. So we decided to blog about this to see if someone else could do it, because we’d like to watch the show. :) Take the idea and run! Or let’s discuss it in comments or face-to-face.

Would you watch this show?