Warning Signs: Design Diary Part 1

My primary creative outlet for most of my life has been drawing. Preparing for a drawing comes easy to me. I can sit down, sketch out some ideas, and generally work efficiently towards an end. The process from start to finish is an active one and you could track my progress from early sketches to final drawing by looking at what is being produced in between.

Game design is less familiar territory and I don't really have a good work flow established. The result of this is that I have frequent "design sessions" that look like this:



I can spend a good chunk of time in this state and it feels like time wasted. In these moments I am spending energy working through problems and trying to figure out what direction I might take a project in. On the other hand, my mind is also prone to wandering. I go into a "default" mode where I just start doodling and filling my paper with unrelated sketches.

I can fill hours of time with this routine and come away with very little measurable progress. I actually found that my "design sessions" seemed to break down so often into seated meditation, that I started combining "design time" with things like "Steam Room Time". Despite all that, I have just finished the first draft of a new card game and I've learned a few techniques along the way, that seem to help keep me focused and generate more tangible development.

"Warning Signs" (working title), was created for the monthly contest over at the Boardgame Design Forum: http://www.bgdf.com/node/3092. This is the second time I have attempted to put something together for one of these challenges. The first one I gave up on after a few days of effort (mostly because I wasn't really excited about that particular contest). This second one was much more interesting to me.

I still wasn't able to finish it in time to submit, but I'd like to continue working on it anyway just because it's a fun concept. The contest was to design a game that used all of the following symbols:




If you have time you should check out the submissions via the link above. There are some pretty surprising designs -- most of which feature some sort of deadly factory floor, or crazy industrial scenario. My design also takes place in such a location. The first thing I thought of when I looked at those symbols was the game Lemmings:



I took that bit of inspiration and decided to create a board game with a similar experience -- where players had to guide their people through a series of hazards in order to win. Because there are so many symbols, it made sense to me to that this would be primarily a card game. In my notes under "Player Experience" it reads: "Frantic, managed chaos".

The most important thing I learned while working on this project is that when it comes to writing surfaces, bigger is better. I used to like to use a standard sketch book when I was getting down to design business, but on this project I decided to use a large newsprint pad instead. The extra space meant I had more room to explore ideas. I could branch off of and organize thoughts with more freedom this way.



I also decided to employ the tried and true "brain map" technique for brain storming. I really needed some way to sketch ideas out as simply and easily as I do for drawing. I don't know how innovative or effective the brain map is, but it was familiar and it made me feel like I was getting somewhere and that alone made it worth while.



I should be able to get a play-test for "Warning Signs" in during the next week or so and I'll post the results here.