I think I'm going to shelve my Mafia Economy game, think I bit off more than I can chew. I think I'll start off with a simple kids game (or something w/o so many variables). If that works, then go a little bigger and so on and so forth. I only learn from failure, and I'm learning a lot!
Too much?
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I saw in your other post that
I saw in your other post that you have a long list of ideas. Here's something I do when I feel like I either have too many things spinning at once, or if I feel stalled on my "one big thing" that I'm currently working on ...
Take a few of the ideas that you find the most intriguing and spin a few cycles on each one.
Flesh each out a bit in the manner that Dralius wrote about where you just write out a description in words ... write it up as if you're trying to describe it in a 2 minute conversation with a friend ... don't worry so much about the details on the first pass -- just list the important high-level points of what makes the game interesting.
Then take a second pass at each of the ones that still look interesting to you. Go through each of the high-level points and give some more details on each ... sketch up some diagrams, list out a table of values/relationships, etc.
By the end of the second pass, I usually have something that jumps out at me and says "I'm the one you should work on now" ... and I have a clearer definition on the other ones to come back to later.
While I always seem to have 1-too-many projects in-process at the same time, I seem to have had the best results when I'm able to fully drill-down into a single thing until I get it to a logical stopping point ... maybe the first complete rules draft, or a fully operable prototype, or through the first serious playtest. Then, I either cycle around with it to revise and improve and get back to that previous spot again ... or I let it sit and perculate in my head a bit.
The trick is to focus on getting something all the way through the process.
HTH,
-Matt
Sorry To Hear
I think it's a good idea, and shouldn't actually be that difficult to execute.
I was actually thinking about your game the other day when I was out for dinner at a place that used to be a Mafia hangout. I'd be happy to chat further if you're open to picking it up again.