#26808 - keldon - Sun Sep 26, 2004 3:32 pm
Doesn't game design suck when you've just thought up a neat little gaming concept; only that it can't quite be represented with a few drawings and words and to test it out you'll need a lot of tiles and an engine to work with ...
... Then by the time you've done either one; you've forgotten what the original idea was in the first place. Grrrh.
=D
#26812 - zazery - Sun Sep 26, 2004 6:13 pm
Yeah it does. :)
I find the purpose of the game design document is so you can create the game in concept and focus on the details, while having somewhere to go to remember the game concept itself.
Another way I remember my ideas are if I sketch rough copies, and lots of random notes down into a little note book.
Over time some ideas are lost anyways, but this minimizes the changes of losing everything.
#26818 - keldon - Sun Sep 26, 2004 8:39 pm
I think that paper is outdated, it's too slow for my liking :D. I personally sit down evaluating a games play in my head far quicker than I could ever write it down, often visualizing a couple of concepts over short periods. What I do write down becomes dated in seconds and my hand can never keep up with my thoughts, and I sense some loss in translation. I've felt that if I could just record my thoughts, I could create everything.
But doesn't it suck that you're innocently thinking up an idea, while everybody on the bus thinks you're just gazing at the attractive commuter opposite. And while you probably are gazing, you're also devising an evily addictive game that will abduct the minds of gamers. You pull out your newest journal's pad, grab for your finest bic - without teethmarks in the lid. Flicking it off the lid, you rotate the pen and catch the lid with the end 'matrix style' while the other hand skillfully flicks over the pad. A wisk of wind from the fresh pads pages wander wildly around the bus turning a hundred heads. All attention draws to your unbourn masterpiece; is it a poem; is it art; will he sing them? Nope; you've unfortunately forgotten it all, and now you'll just have to put everything back in the bag and try to reinact your last 5 minutes, while also looking a little somewhat, weird!!!
---
But funny stories asside, I do have a similar problem. Because when you are thinking of something new, your brain doesn't stop; and words and pictures just don't build a clear picture. I don't really code it before I've written it down, in fact I evaluate and filter ideas ten times over. Apparently I didn't baby talk, and I think I haven't changed; I could like something but not go further for a number of calculated reasons. I've written the better part of a basic graphics editing program, but what could it offer over The Gimp? Not much, so it just becomes testing ground.
#26875 - tepples - Tue Sep 28, 2004 1:24 am
Get a push-button retractable pen.
Get a Microcassette recorder and quietly speak your idea into the microphone.
_________________
-- Where is he?
-- Who?
-- You know, the human.
-- I think he moved to Tilwick.