Prototyping

I've done lots of prototyping for a classic pen and paper role-playing game for years now. Lots of ideas were tried, some very radical, but now I feel I have a good sense of where this game can go. Looking at the shelves of hobby shops, studying the games already there and on their way, I've done lots of research. It's about time to start getting the content together.

I suppose one way to get things moving is to get more in on the project. There aren't too many people I know that are interested in design, though. Most of my friends that are interested in what I do are more suited for development than ground-level design. Perhaps I simply need to crack down and write it all out myself; not out of the question, I got this far on my own, but I see myself making my goals more years from now with this method. So far what I've done is take something that's bugging me, and fix it in a week. Baby steps.

Compounding this is what little free time I have I need for my many interests, hobbies, and chores. It's much easier to take out the trash and talk to friends than write out power balancing formulas and conditional modifiers. I have a friend who's really worried about my happiness, so much so that every time I see her she asks me if I have a girlfriend, and if not, what I'm doing about it. That subject is for a whole new post.

Overall, I'm happy with what I have done, but realize that what's there is only the skeleton. Satoru Iwata once said at a game developer's conference, "...making things easier for players, makes things harder for developers." Since doing this self-education on game design, I couldn't agree more.