[arg_discuss] Tools for ARG developers

[Deb Fuller]

On Nov 28, 2007 12:41 PM,  <marc at thedigitaldemons.com> wrote:

> Hi guys,

>

> I'm in the process of outlining a grassroots game, and I want to do it

> in quite a bit of detail. I was thinking of both spider diagrams and

> flow charts, but I'm unsure how to best document the interactions in a

> game. I'm finding it's incredibly hard to document such a non-linear

> game in a linear form.


Sticky notes and a really big white board.  :)

Seriously, I'm a luddite when it comes to design and find that I spend
more time trying to figure out programs like Visio or Powerpoint and
tweaking things to get it to look like I want than I do on design. And
in the process, I usually forget what I wanted to design in the first
place. The sticky notes allow me to move things easily and I can draw
lines or make notes with the white board. Butcher paper and sticky
notes work as well if you don't have a big enough white board. For
bigger items that don't fit on a sticky note, I use regular paper and
tacky putty. Once I'm finished with my design, I can plunk it into
power point or better yet, hand it off to a graphics designer who can
do a much better job with it than I can.

That being said, Visio is supposedly THE flowchart design program (or
at least for the military) and it does other types of diagrams as
well. You might be able to find a freeware program for flowcharts too.

Deb
Deb