Great community, wondering about the blogs...

I honestly blog whenever there is a *relevant* happening to one of my games. Sometimes I just spend some time thinking about a Work-In-Progress (WIP) and decide to write out a blog entry so that I can have a mental reminder about it...

So I use the blog to inform others but I also use them to remind myself.

As I mentioned in your other thread, starting a website with a blog is probably one of the first things a self-publisher should do.

If you are interested in more traditional route (like publishing via a publisher) well it's a good way of protecting your WIP. People don't want to entertain ideas like NDAs (Non Disclosure Agreements) and many publishers will tell you if they need to sign an NDA, they are not interested in taking a closer look at your game. So there comes an issue of trust. But personally I feel if you blogged about your game, that should give people a *reference* to you as being the "author" of that particular game if it is a WIP or a completed design.

Some people write their blogs when they have an *idea*. Obviously from *idea* to *game* is a BIG hurdle. It's not as if your great idea will even make for an interesting game. There are many, many obstacles when designing games and most probably your first version of the game will probably look very different from your finished product. My 2nd WIP has been 10 months in the making and I am at my 10th prototype. I hope to get a publishing deal within 12 months, so one year from inception.

So I think it depends on each individual. Personally, I don't want to have to set up a blog website and BGDF does enough for me to share my WIP without too many headaches. Otherwise I would get caught up in the details of which software to use like WordPress, Drupal or something else... I would then have to find a theme that I liked and then the blog would sometimes go *stale* because there is nothing new happening, etc.

BGDF is effective enough for communicating what is happening with my WIPs...

Yes, do it.

A blog, written regularly, forces the mucky thoughts out onto the screen/page and leads to the better ones.

Design a little bit, every day. Even if you actually post it once a week, you will be still be practicing. And here you'll be practicing with a supportive crew.