I'm working with a group on a fan game. I'm not allowed to give out too many details but I can say it's about an RPG from the 16-bit era. But the problem comes from the fact that communication is...just not happening. I, and my fellow designers, don't know what the overall story is. I don't know if the head designer just hasn't had time for it or if it's some other problem but I can't write dialogue for a plot I know nothing about. So, despite the setbacks, I have definitely learned that communication is key and that a post site is probably not the best place to post ideas.
Basically what happens is that someone (lets call them A) will post something on the site and waits for someone to respond (lets call them B). After B has posted his response he has to wait for A to respond which can take about a day. Once A has responded he has to wait for B to respond. Since we're all from different time zones and have different responsibilities, we end up missing each other.
Its like a giant game of phone tag!
So, it would probably be better if we had a list of goals we want to accomplish and chisel those out until we know what we want. Then we need to decide what to focus on first. Once we decide what we need to focus on, we can begin to work. The biggest issue we need to cover is "what is the gameplay experience?" What do we want the players to experience? Happiness? Sadness? Connection? Do want the player to laugh throughout most of this game or be scared?
If we, as designers don't know these things, we start running around like headless chickens. No, not like chickens, more like people tossing ideas into a pit. Then sifting through the messy pile of ideas in an attempt to make a game.
That's another thing I've learned; you have to organize. Well, I'll post more stuff about the game design process later. I'm a bit tired now. See ya!!
