I spent this week going through the puzzles that are currently in the game, and filling up a Google doc with notes and annotated screenshots about stuff that needs improvement.
This is a time-consuming process (actually not finished doing that as of this writing). It’s also a bit discouraging as it reminds me how much more work there is to do, even just from a design perspective. But it is necessary work for me to really triage what’s in the game and figure out what I should focus my efforts on first. It also helps me get back into the zone of thinking about the game after having taken so long away from it.
Sadly I don’t have much visually to show for it, because I don’t want to just post up a bunch of annotated screenshots of puzzle solutions, so instead what I will show you is…DOODLES!
I keep a notebook of graph paper that I use to try to find more ideas for puzzles when I’m away from the computer. A lot of times I’ll work on finding new ideas in the early morning or late at night. I pretty much just fill up pages and pages of tentative ideas. Most of them I throw out, but it’s worth doing because occasionally there’s a eureka moment and I find a mechanic or puzzle idea that’s worth taking the time to implement into the actual game. There perhaps is a better way to make this time more productive, but it’s what has worked for me thus far.
Alright, I’ll be back next weekend, hopefully with something more to show. Actually if I get fully done with the audit, I may be able to stream something. (Cause once again, I don’t really just want to stream myself going through and solving all the puzzles in the game.)
Taiji 