Taking Notes

Heya,

Okay, I'm a little crazy. I'm coming out with 4 games this year and 4 games next year. Now, I want to say first off that these games are not polished super-gems along the lines of games like Dogs in the Vineyard, Polaris, The Mountain Witch, or Agon. They're not. In fact, I would look very closely at what Paul Czege is doing with his Ashcan Front. But that doesn't mean I don't take pride in them and work hard to get them as good as I can before they are released.

All that said, I'm still crazy. That's 8 complete and playable games in 2 years. So how do I do that? Well, I am never without a notebook of some kind. I carry it with me wherever I go. While I teach, while I ride in the car, while I work at home, while I play video games, I have a notebook with me. Any time I get an idea, I sketch it down. You'd be surprised (or may be you wouldn't, heh) when and where you get an idea. I make sure I don't lose any.

As a result, I've got dozen of concepts lying around. Sometimes, one will really strike my interest and I'll put it through my system design checklist. If I can do that, I'll work with it some more. Eventually, it might get to the stage where I may be able to draft a game out of it. If so, I work on it some more. But it all starts with taking notes and making sure I always have something to write with.

Hm. Maybe I oughtta develop the idea some more and make a Socratic Design post about this :)

Peace,

-Troy