Design Documents, used or not used?

My first write up for a given game, which is usually named **** Notes, not only includes any and all ideas I have but also examples of components; board, cards, etc…

From this I write the first rules draft and create the components. Effectively this is my design document but is abandoned once the initial rules and components are created.

My system is fairly crude, but effective. I bought a simple spiral bound graph paper notebook at the office supply store. It keeps all my design ideas in a central location and the grid comes in handy for sketching out cards, game boards, logo concepts, etc.
I can take it with me if I travel or just go to lunch. You never know when a brainstorm will hit you. It would be interesting to see a sample document that some might use, a sort of checklist like they use at NASA.

At first I have a rough document describing various ideas for the game, in no particular format.

When the game starts to take shape, I'll abandon that and create a rules document.

When there are a lot of things to consider that I won't put in the same rules document that I would show to play testers, I create separate docs. For example, for Lines of Fire, I currently have:

1. Some paper sketches that started the idea (never had a proper ideas doc for that one).
2. Rules -- the current rules
3. Rules Snippets (things that were removed from the rules, but might return as a variant)
4. Strategy & Balancing -- this gets most use when I'm working on a balancing problem. here I describe what I think the winning strategies/moves are and how various aspects of the game should be balanced
5. PlayTest results (to be honest, I haven't kept a very good record of playtests -- mostly it's in my head and I just remember if a play test "felt right" or if something should be changed). I've also had some play testers fill out questionnaires (based on the doc someone posted on these forums).
6. Card abilities doc -- here I describe the ideas for cards, what systems they should be based on and the actual card texts. This is difficult to keep in sync with Inkscape, where i do the card layouts, because text formatting is not easily copied between OpenOffice <-> Inkscape
7. Ideas for expansions
8. Title ideas -- taking example from Tim Schafer, I wrote down a lot of titles before I settled on Lines of Fire.
9. Theme doc -- where I wrote down some ideas for a theme and some links for further research. I actually ended up using the first theme I came up with (Aztec gods)

But really the main document is the Rules doc, Card abilities doc (although I'm still not 100% sure if I'll include cards in the base game) and occasionally Strategy & Balancing. Some of the documents may fall out of date, but I try to keep the Rules doc as current as possible, even starting to write some rules down before I've fully figured them out.

My process seems to be roughly the same as the previous posters.

Ideas seem to drop into my head with a respectable degree of frequency and I’m also aware of the infallibility of the human memory. From experience, I think it’s fair to say that I possess a relatively good memory in relation to others. However, the rate at which I generate ideas is sometimes a problem.

While I can recall the outline and generalities of a game design the influx of new ideas commonly obscures the subtleties in my designs, making it difficult for me to recall them over time – and in some cases at all.

At the moment I have well over a hundred different game designs on the go, with most of them being about 85%-90% complete. This probably seems like a large amount, but it is the cumulative output of a years sporadic thought.

I ALWAYS carry around a notebook and pen to record ideas as they occur to me.

The format of my notes tends to be very basic. I start with a game title heading – which could be as simple as Game 64 or a working title.

Underneath this I add a sub heading from the categories - mechanics, components (including artwork), theme, potential problems/flaws, production, market entry strategy, or interesting stuff. I also include a 1-100 rating for my general feeling about the games viability in respect to these areas in total.

The notes themselves tend to be fairly detailed. I have an academic background in Business Enterprise and Philosophy. My philosophical leaning has given me the ability to follow a logical stream of thought and this reveals itself in the comprehensive notes I make in my notebooks/journals or computer documents.

Saying this, there are times when I quickly jot down simple ‘off the top of my head thoughts’ which are placed under the heading of junk in my journal(s). These are scrappy and lack any real detail other than the general outline of an idea. They don’t even have to be about a specific game, they could simply be a general theme of interest, a singular mechanic with no follow through, or an idea for an interesting component or presentational medium.

These ideas are never linked to an actual game per se and they exist to be slotted into games at a further date. Junk ideas can also be generated by a failed thought process. I might have an idea for a game, follow it through, and then decide it simply doesn’t have what it takes.

In these situations I will disgregard the game as an active design.

However, I will leave the notes as they are – in case a further idea leads to their development as a whole. I will doodle a little trash can icon next to the title and pull out any interesting aspects that I might one day find a use for in another game. These segments are then re-recorded in my dedicated useful stuff journal(s) as separate entries under the relevant category.

When a journal is full I will add the contents to a computer document(s). Each game is given its own document or set of documents in a folder – rules, artwork, production and marketing notes and so on. I will also add a brief synopsis about what the game is about and a very brief commentary about any items of particular interest in it.

These documents are also backed up on a second computer and two usb flash drives. This re-recording protects my notes from loss and it also allows me to take any separate entries linked to a singular game and combine them into one convenient document or place. Having everything on computer also allows me to add in any artwork I do for a game or any links (or physical addresses) for companies that I intend to use to develop prototype components.

Having everything recorded allows me to dip into the content at any time. If I decide to focus on a game I can quickly print out the documents relating to it. I will then sit down with a notebook, in a comfortable and quiet location (usually the local coffee shop) for a couple of hours.

I love quality coffee and my local coffee shop provides the perfect atmosphere for creating. The women that work in the shop are wonderful, if my heads down and I’m scribbling then they leave me alone to do what I’m doing. If I’m leaning back with a satisfied smile on my face then I’m open to chatting and having a laugh.

In my opinion, finding a comfortable place to sit and think is essential to generating new ideas and working on existing ideas. The coffee shop is where I’ve developed or consolidated the groundwork for most of my current game designs.

During this time, if I’m working on a pre-existing design, I will read the brief synopsis and take what I can recall from memory about the game. I will then proceed to design the game again, using these two sparse records as my launch pad – with my useful stuff journal(s) close to hand.

Only when I’m finished will I read through the detailed notes I previously made about the game. I will then compare the old notes and my new outline together. There are times when the old design stands firm, sometimes the new outline takes precedence and in the majority of cases it results in a combination of ideas from both of them being used to create a new design – a design that is closer to what I believe will be a decent game.

And that’s basically how I go about designing my games and recording my ideas. So out of all this waffle what’s important –

If you rely on your memory to keep your ideas safe you will forget them.

Ideas can occur to you anywhere and at any time. So ALWAYS carry around something to record your ideas with – even if it’s just a piece of paper and a pen. A rough scrappy record is better than no physical record at all.

Include a simple form of categorization in your note taking – so you can combine everything together in a cohesive whole at a later date.

Even a failed design can contain elements that might have value in another game – so never throw anything away completely.

Atmosphere is important to creativity – so find somewhere you feel comfortable to work on your designs.

Back up everything you record.

I currently have a plastic box where I can store flat sheet of paper. When I get ideas, I write the title and the date on it and write or draw anything I want. The papers are classed in a separate file for each game. Some of example of papers for board game design can be found here:

http://ha.lariennalibrary.com/index.php?n=BoardGame.BoardGame

Once done, I revise the written material and integrate it in the rulebook since the rule book since this is the "master" of the game design. I will re-read my rule books but will not be very likely to re-read my notes. I place an IR icon (In rules) on each sheet corner when the notes have been integrated in the rules.

I tried to make a document cycle system, it use currently roughly used. It goes as follow

1. Write the rules

2. Take notes while playtesting

3. Revise test note and write a list of changes (sometimes published on my web site for users to learn more about my game)

4. update the rules with the changes.

Generally, the interest for designing a game drops after the play test. So I try to write my list of changes so that when I come back to the game, I can read the original rules for the play test and see the proposed changes.

Here is an example of changes document or one of my games:

http://bgd.lariennalibrary.com/uploads/Mainsite/GameIdea/GameIdea2010032...

Sometimes I do it more simple and I note a few ideas or write an update text on the page of the game idea.