Toy or story
The approach that we're taking to your initial idea phase is not an approach that comes naturally. Usually, new game developers want to start with setting the story and characters, as if writing a book. That's how we've always been taught to begin a creative project. As there's often so much overlap between narrative forms such as books, movies, and teevee shows, it's tempting to start there. "My game is about a dark, brooding superwarrior named Kane Glorg who doesn't know who his parents are, so he travels the wasted landscape with his two-handed axe and his vicious battle sloth, slicing through hordes of evil slime demons in his ultimate quest to punch Satan in the face."
The take-away from this chapter is that all that stuff is window dressing. When you're just starting out (and unless you're building an explicitly narrative game like a graphic or text-based adventure), story, setting, and character are the end point, not the start point. Too many would-be game developers...
