This job won’t do itself.

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18 April 2007

Written by: Duo Posted under Game Design

So, I have basically thrown myself into wiki editing. The issue is, I have alot of notework that needs to be transferred and filed on a private wiki, which grows by the day. Awhile back I did a flurry of work because I was on a serious design tear.

Right now, I am coming close to a slowdown, because I need to fill in some gaps. The thing is when you design anything, you cannot do it all yourself. Eventually once you get your core “tone” set, you have to seek out other folks. Carefully of course. I have been doing this for a time now on multiple tangents. The problem has been, to some effect…finding some of the wrong people.

Ideas have to change. You may think you have the next version of sliced bread, but until you show it to someone and offer it up for a “review of perspective” it’s really just an idea in your head. Like it or not, nobody can be “every concievable person”, and you have to be willing to offer up your idea, with an open mind toward improving it.

I don’t think an idea is worth having, if you are not willing to have it change, multiple times over its development. Idea collision, as Raph Koster says, is where real genius and creativity come from.

So, now…I need to get ready to actually show off bits of these ideas and designs to people. To make it better. My initial goal is to spend some time getting to a stage where we can playtest…I have an idea of how to do this, but before I do, I need to tighten things up a bit.

To a large degree, I have a pretty good starting design. I have no desire to write out a huge and broad specification, that would be pointless. Besides, I think and believe that in order to build this, its going to have to be in pieces. Start small, so to speak…and then put it all together.

So, I am going to bury myself for the next few days, and get things somewhat ready to get others involved. Because in the end, to get people interested in an idea, you have to convey that idea. And a coherent idea is better than one that is not.

Guess I should go clean my corner. =)

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