i have no tape recorder

"Those who serve no purpose, have no purpose. SSC the Super Saiyan Cat"

Design is an evolutionary process, involving both inspiration and discovery. It will happen in steps, not all at once. You will know your ideas are fairly complete when you can take those ideas and organize them in a way that could help a stranger understand what your game is like. In the meantime, the best you can do is to write down as much as you can come up with at any one time and add to this as you discover what''s missing. Don''t be afraid to point out seemingly obvious, insignificant things. The more detail you include over time, the more complete your design.

My frustration is that I can''t speak as fast as I can think and I can''t type as fast as I can speak.

Best approach I have found is to do it top down...
What is the concept?
What are the major components of that concept?
What are the properties of each major component?
How do we arrive at or define those properties?
What do those properties do?
...

Not only will you be starting to organize yourself in small chunks, you will be able to see any major gaps that you have in your concept and be better able to fill them.

Dave Mark
Intrinsic Algorithm Development

I think InnocuousFox beat me to it.

Start at the high level, with the general points. Get all the general points down. Then explain each point in more depth when you can. Continue until you have explained every part of the system well enough that you understand it and could have it implemented. Just don''t get stuck on the details of the 4th weapon when you haven''t put down the aim of the game yet.

[ MSVC Fixes | STL | SDL | Game AI | Sockets | C++ Faq Lite | Boost ]

Working top-down is a good way to discover the details of your game, but it''s worth pointing out that sometimes little details can inspire changes and new ideas at higher levels. So, while generally working top-down, it''s best to remain open to the details at all times. If you come up with a good idea that belongs at a lower level than you''re working on, write it down so you don''t forget. Later you can place it in its proper context, or eliminate it if necessary.

A method I find useful in my work ( I mostly use the PC as a typewriter at work) is to grab a whiteboard pen
and start to draw diagrams and figures and in my mind keeping a lecture to an audience and trying to explain
my ideas. This gives me the opportunity to sort out my ideas so that they easily can be put on paper. And no
I do not try to write the document as it is supposed to be in the end. I write down some importand points
and add flesh to the bones continuously as the drawings on the whiteboard take form.



"A witty and slightly sarcastic quote from an unkown source"
-- The generic SIG

/trysil

First post

I don''t know what you really mean by putting your ideas down on paper, but I''m currently working on a layout for a WWII game I had in mind. So far I got things down like the weapons, and skill system, and how it''s going to work. How the enemy''s are going to surrender, how multiplayer is going to work and stuff. I don''t think you should worry too much about organizing everything right now. I have a skill system in one place, and a table of the weapons in a whole different page, after I''m done writing, I''m going to get everything organized. I don''t even know C++ yet though. Just got to learning expressions and statements so I''m a newbie to programming.

I know it''s hard, but just write.

I don''''t know. Part of me thinks the kid''''s right. He asks what he''''s done to deserve this. He wants to stay here, fine. Let''''s leave him and go home. But then another part of me thinks, what if by some miracle we stay, then actually make it out of here. Someday we might look back on this and decide that saving Private Ryan was the one decent thing we were able to pull out of this whole godawful mess. Like you said, Captain, maybe we do that, we all earn the right to go home. ~Sergeant Horvath

whoa

im gonna have try to your ideas

now wheres me pencil and paper

thx alot

"Those who serve no purpose, have no purpose. SSC the Super Saiyan Cat"

When I want to design a game, I usually have a strong gameplay scene or two in my head and little else. So, I write it down. Then I go watch a bunch of movies, write some code, or read a book, and every so often an idea or two hits. I write that down. Pretty soon I''m kneedeep in world-building my game. After I get the world figured out, story elements start appearing. So I wrote those down. Eventually, say 3 or 4 months later, I have a complete game design. Usually, it bears little resemblance to the original idea. But since the sucker has grown organically, it tends to be very self-consistent, and that makes the programming a lot more predictable.

You mileage may vary...

yea, my mileage doesnt run 3 or 4 months

i already have a page or so of ideas and im just gonna keep on writing

i might organize it all tommorow but how should i organize it?

should i organize it into topics like Combat, Experience and Ranks, etc?

"Those who serve no purpose, have no purpose. SSC the Super Saiyan Cat"