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Some game design tools and info I found useful


I wrote a post some time back wherein I was discussing my issues with figuring out a good way to handle the low level design for my big game project. Now, after grinding on it for a bit longer, asking for advice from a friend and doing more research its finally starting to come together for me.

One of the problems I was having was figuring out what application/materials to use to collect all the high level and low level design data- I tried OneNote- I tried Scrivener- I tried a few others but none of them were doing what I needed-

I reconnected with a game designer friend I hadn't talked to in awhile and asked him what he used and he pointed me to Articy:Draft- I had looked at it some time ago but at a glance I didn't really know what you were supposed to use it for- I thought it was for writing dialogue in-

Well, Articy does a lot more! Yes, you can create your dialogue trees in it- as well as draw your maps linking all your items, Npc's, quests and more! It's the perfect application for what I was looking for-

You can use it to manage all your high level AND low level design- There are video tutorials and doc's BUT they don't do a very good job and explaining/demonstrating the full power of the application-

I've spent the last week pouring my data into Articy and its finally starting to come together-

Now, there was another thing that had me sweating bullets- What order to do certain things in- Do I create lists of the level objectives before I draw a map of the level?

This article was VERY useful- it explains a workflow that I'm using now that makes a lot of sense to me- especially the bubble thing and the macro charts-

That same article points to this video which is GREAT- on my own I have been developing the game in a way similar to the way he describes given my reliance on pre-production in animation/filmmaking-

So just wanted to post an update to say that I'm figuring it out ^_^

If you are struggling with your design like I was check the links and grab Articy!




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