For me this happens every single time I try to create a perfect rule system for some kind of game.

One I wanted to streamline how my game would handle agents (tribe members, tribes, settlements, star bases, etc). By the nightfall I had reached to a conclusion that even the universal empires, ruling over galactic clusters, in the end, still act exactly like the most primitive organisms - cells.

Another morning I started devising a game map logic to for a space 4X game and by the time I started to set for bed, I had ended up pondering about the fundamental nature of the space-time, space-time bending, big bang, infinity, nothingness, energy and such.

Does this happen to any of you too?

The reason for this is that game design is all about creating a universe for your players to inhabit. You get to thinking about how to make the universe work, and it gets down to the microscopic level as well as the macro. As we design systems, we start seeing parallels with natural systems. Welcome to game design.

I was designing a post apocalyptic game, and I wanted it to deal with character management, not only battle-wise.

I basically wanted the character to take care of eating, pooping, hygiene, weather(body temperature), etc.

By the end of the WEEK, I have studied everything about nutrition, discretizing food into : proteins, carbos, fibers, minerals, vitamins, fats; each with their respective purposes and consequences if theyr missing; how much it take to digest food (from mouth to anus), dehydration consequences, hydration vs body temperature, body water consumption, how (not)sleeping affects mind, rest vs sleep...

I like knowing stuff like that..so I keep going.

I have never gone to the extreme end of game design.

Most detailed project I worked with has day - night, and season mechanics. It wasn't as complex as many would thin it would be.

You have to deal with temperature, likelihood of a weather event, mob spawns, plant spawns, magic usage, and rendered scenery.

There were several different biomes with their own unique qualities, however all that was taken care of in a simple table.