When you’re a designer, or especially a designer/programmer or a designer/artist working on your own games, then you need to be organized. Or at least I do. I have so many ideas running around my brain, most of them useless but some of them gold nuggets. The ones that are good I need to make sure that they get captured. And the ones that aren’t good? Well…we can write those down too in hope that they’ll eventually bring along their good-idea friends too.
When I was originally typing this article up, I had listed my 4 Rules for taking great notes. However I realized that they should really be guidelines, because although they work for me, something different or some variation may work for you. Nevertheless, here is how a pro game designer fills his notebooks.
Guideline #1: No idea is too small
Above is a picture of some different characters I’ve thought about having in a game I’m working on. It’s very freeform, I just kind of went where I was thinking, left, right, up and down. Whatever game to mind I sketched it up, took some notes, and threw it in.
You never know where big ideas are going to come from. Some ideas have hit me and I think, “Wow! That’s a big idea!” only to later wake up and, after breakfast, realize that meh, maybe it wasn’t such a big idea. Other ideas start small and are cultivated. I didn’t think much of them at first, but as I keep thinking about it they grow to drive an entire month’s worth of work.
So to make sure that I’m not missing out on anything, I try to make at least a small note about everything that could remotely be interesting. My recent play experience in Mario Galaxy and what I thought was wrong with it. How I want the intro to my game to be like my lunch at In-N-Out Burger. An idea that I got while reading Dracula that I think could work into my current project. Anything goes!
The key is that there is plenty of time to look at ideas, develop, and discard them. But there is only a moment to capture them at first. Drawings, illustrations, quotes, thoughts. Any one of them could be the diamond in the rough, so dig it up now to polish and take a look later.
Guideline #2: Information that is recorded is only useful if you can find it
That is a picture of the table of contents of my notebook. Yes, I have a table of contents. If you plan out all you levels, write all your crazy promotion ideas, and scatter around character write ups, then it’s going to be long. So when you need to remember whether or not you decided that Jovi was going to be the 3rd boss or the 4th boss, you need to be able to find his page.
I got my note organization strategy from author Tim Ferriss, and it works really well. The process is:
- Dedicate the first and second pages of each notebook to being a table of contents
- Assign a general theme or idea to each page
- On a corner of each right-hand page, write 1, 2, 3, etc
- On the corner of each left hand page, write 1.5, 2.5, 3.5 to correspond with its other side
- Write the theme or idea at the top of each page
With some luck, each of my notebooks ends up with a really useful directory structure so I can find what I need when I need it.
Guideline #3: Designer’s Notebooks are fun. Have fun with it!
I’m a big fan of opening a blank page and letting my ideas run wild. I try to be liberal with paper and grab a new page when I feel like I have a jumping off point that’s different enough. There’s just something about going at a project with all your creative juices that makes it an entralling experience, where you feel like anything is possible.
So don’t limit yourself. I try not to label my notebooks or put a title on each page until after they’re filled, because I don’t want to box my mind in. The creative part of your brain doesn’t work in a logical fashion. So don’t stifle it by insisting that everything be in the right order, in nice lists, or anything like that.
Here are some of the things I’ve written up in my current notebook:
- Scheduling
- Character ideas
- World ideas
- Platform and distribution ideas
- Base Mechanics
- Aesthetic Layout ideas
- Random drawings
- Quotes and inspiration
- Sketches
- Intro Experience concepts
- Whatever else I think might be useful
And what order are they in? None whatsoever. But that’s what the table of contents is for.
Guideline #4: Right brain creativity must turn into left brain action at some point
While drawing pictures and brainstorming is fun, it’s always only the first 20% or so of a game project or design. At some point action needs to be taken. That idea, that drawing, that concept needs to be made before anyone will care about it or pat you on the back. No one, not even designers in the game industry, get paid for just coming up with ideas.
So when I know that an idea, a page, or a concept is finalized and it is definitely the way to go, I write something like the following:
Next Steps: Get prototype up and running by 12/15
Or something along those lines. The point is to turn the idea into action and hold myself accountable. By setting a simple goal I make sure that the game is going to be made and that I’ll be able to share my idea with more people than happen to pick up my notebook.
Happy note-taking!
If you enjoyed this article, please consider leaving a comment below!
What note taking or creative guidelines do you use during your brainstorm stage?
I too use notebooks and scraps of paper to jot down my ideas or doodles and in my closet I have ideas from 8-10 years ago and time to time I’ll look at them and see if the idea works with my current mindset.
My newest note taking process consists of opening up the program notepad and just writing down stuff whenever I think I might have a potential idea no matter what it is. Even if it’s for a funny drawing with mashed up characters from other series. Or a comic idea with a simple but funny punchline. Anything goes really because I’m an artist and a game maker.
After I’ve come up with my ideas I’ll save the notepad and file it away in Documents. That however has turned out to be less efficient. So my next note taking idea was to just use the File name of the Notepad and saving it instead of actually opening it.
So now I have notepads with 0 bytes and names like “Color based platformer starring cute girls” and thats it. I place these in my “Idea” folder. If I need to elaborate the idea I’ll write inside the file but I make sure to place a capital “C”(C=continued) at the end of the file name so I can tell. So far that has been going well as they are easily accessible.
Also if I have an idea I need to see in action I’ll use my DSi and flipnote studio(animation program) in order to animate it that way I can get a better feel for how it would look and play. However I’m always looking for better more efficient ways of note taking.
I’ll give your way a trial run Brice although I’ll do it digitally since my penmanship sucks.
I have some questions about the table of contents.
How can you come up with that before you have the ideas down? Is there some sort of all encompassing basic table of contents that incorporates all the ideas that could come up in a games creation lifetime? How do you know how many pages to make it?
Oh and can’t wait for chapter 2. There’s gotta be a better way to promote the site. More people should know about this place!
The table of contents page is left blank at first. After I fill up a few pages, then I go back and fill in what’s on those pages. Good catch, thanks!
Nice summary!
Also check out this thread about mind mapping software etc.
(I recommend XMind)
http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=16150.0
And yeah sketching ideas is important. When they come up they have to be captured! Otherwise *poof…gone*. As you said it’s key to catch them early and cultivate them over time…
Also nice drawing of the classic Adventures Of Lolo :D
I use GMail drafts to write all my ideas, so, when I’m at my day job, I can simple open my email and see all my ideas on one draft, or create another one. I use it to make notes too.
Now I’m trying to improve this method and use Google Docs instead of the GMail drafts, creating a new document for each new idea, and writing it down (and/or drawing it down, when applicable) and putting it on a folder named “Game Design”, “Game Ideas” or something like that.
This way all my ideas are in the cloud, and I can access than wherever I have an internet connection. Since I’ll not always have it, I’m thinking of a way to have it offline to, maybe using something like Google Docs and Dropbox together.
Good article, thanks for sharing.
I used to use notebooks like this too leading to wayyyyy too many idea books on my floor or in shelves taking up space. For me, I’ve found a great way to make use of most of my notes without them taking up too much space or being lost / forgotten.
1. After writing the idea up on whatever (sticky note, paper, tissue, etc.), I’d place it in an “inbox”.
2. At the end of the week or sometimes every few weeks, I’d go through the inbox and split these notes up into categories and drop them into a folder.
3. I gave the folders to someone who I hired to type / scan them all up for me ($5 for every 15 pages). They would return the empty folder with any notes they didn’t understand and I’d give them the next folder (and clarify the notes they didn’t understand so that they’d type them up with the next batch).
Once all my notes were digitized and separated into broad categories, it was easy to organize them in more detail and reference them when needed.
When starting projects, I go through all of these notes, copy and paste all relevant ideas into an excel tab or word document and continually add to update, and reference this doc over the course of the project.
I would also do the same for any theory or research that is relevant to the project I’m working on. I would use this theory during the review phase of the project to make sure that I covered or at least thought about things from as many angles as possible.
It’s been working really well for me on my personal game (and other) projects so far:
http://www.rpgmakervx.net/index.php?showtopic=32972
http://www.rpgmakervx.net/index.php?showtopic=32972
Look forward to reading more productivity articles like this.
-Kaz