The Art of Idea Management!
Learn my systematic approach to game design ideas.
Years are passing by, people are getting older, and they have less and less time, yet ideas for games (and other artistic endeavors) keep increasing instead of decreasing.
I could follow the example of Peter Molyneux and not write anything down, assuming that if I forget something, it couldn't have been a good idea in the first place... But I can't! (On the other hand, one day I might come to the conclusion that this approach is excellent because it's minimalist.)
What I'm getting at is that I've started to write down my ideas. Just like I approach my gaming backlog - methodically. Which means I made a table in Notion.
Each of my old ideas undergoes analysis, and if possible, I break it down into parts, which I notate as separate ideas. Some time ago, I noticed that ideas kept in my head tend to blend together. And as it turns out, that's usually a good thing!
The sad truth is that neither I nor many others will use all their ideas, but some ideas could easily work in conjunction with others, enrich them, refine them, and, of course, sometimes even overdo them. To achieve this, I need to have ideas divided into small, indivisible concepts.
Okay, let's assume I already have all my ideas divided and documented. What now? Now I need to categorize them. My proposed categories include:
General game idea (sometimes it's a title, often I lack the skills to categorize it better)
Plot (or simply the narrative theme)
Character (not always understood as a part of the plot, sometimes it can be a profession understood as a set of mechanics or a keyword that can trigger associations for game development)
Setting (whether it's a backdrop or a historical era)
Mechanics (what the idea should primarily be about)
Sensory (I decided to create this category inspired by Thomas Brush's Trinity Hook tool, the already linked Peter Molyneux's post about what the player needs to experience, and a Zenva Academy game design course I'm currently taking, which has a chapter about experience as well)
What else?
In separate columns:
Genre that the idea would best fit (non-binding)
The name of the note in Obsidian (since I used to leave many notes about ideas there, and still do, to be honest)
Reference games (the ones that inspired the idea, which is the unattainable ideal)
Tags, where I add additional recurring information (e.g., when the idea is a potential adaptation, it's worth noting that a license is needed). I can use tags in the future to mark ideas that I combine into one (although an additional column might work better here).
Related ideas are those that were once part of a larger idea together.
Now, when I create a game, this database will help me not only use as many ideas as possible but also implement the Trinity Hook method (which might help me avoid feature creep)
Some categories can be expanded (narrative threads), while others can be limited to one per game (mechanics or setting). Or maybe the other way around? It's all up to the game designer.