My design up to this point has been in notebooks.  There are a few qualities I really like about them:

• Diagramming is easy.  I don’t have to conform all of my thoughts to paragraph structure.
• They don’t require a computer (my laptop is heavy).
•  It’s easy to peruse old entries (I date all of them), so I can see what I was thinking a couple years ago.

There are also some shortcomings to my pen and notebook system, the bolded ones being the most important:

• They’re disorganized and unsearchable.  If I’m designing several things, either all the designs get mixed up in the same notebook, or I have to keep a stack of different project notebooks on hand.
• They’re not backed up.  I’d better not lose those notebooks.
• They’re difficult to discuss.   If I want to get feedback, I have to gather some friends together and discuss the ideas, or write up some ideas all over again in email format.
• They’re not collaborative.  If other people come up with great ideas during those discussions, they don’t end up in the notebook, and I’m likely to forget them.

I’ve decided I should probably move to software design tools, even if I have to give up some of the positives such as easy diagramming.  My first thought was a wiki: they’re easy to set up, and collaborative.  (I’d only be giving a few trusted people access.)  Is there something better out there?  Something more tuned towards design, perhaps?  I know there are tons of teamwork tools out there, but I’m not sure where to start looking.

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 30th, 2007 at 2:10 am and is filed under Game Dev. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.