{"id":399,"date":"2014-05-30T15:04:00","date_gmt":"2014-05-30T15:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/2014\/05\/30\/how-do-you-decide-what-projects-to-design\/"},"modified":"2021-11-16T00:41:59","modified_gmt":"2021-11-16T05:41:59","slug":"how-do-you-decide-what-projects-to-design","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/2014\/05\/how-do-you-decide-what-projects-to-design\/","title":{"rendered":"How do you decide what projects to design?"},"content":{"rendered":"
How do you choose what projects to design?<\/b><\/o:p><\/div>\n
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That\u2019s a toughie. I could say something trite like \u201cthe designs choose me!\u201d because it\u2019s kind of true. If I have an idea, I try to take it to execution. I might put stuff on the backburner but I always try to work on things periodically, keep old projects in mind, and take notes. Google Drive is a huge tool for this. I have loads of unfinished ideas lurking in a folder on Google Drive where I will take notes and log ideas.<\/o:p><\/div>\n
Here are the major things I think of, honestly, when it comes to deciding whether I proceed with a project.<\/o:p><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Do I have ideas for it?<\/b><\/o:p><\/div>\n
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If I don\u2019t have ideas for a project, there\u2019s no point in working on it. If I\u2019m in a rut, I can dig at it, but often that just keeps me digging deeper instead of finding my way out. There\u2019s a lot to be said for having inspiration and enthusiasm for a project, and without those things, it\u2019s just toiling, and I don\u2019t design to toil. I design to create things people will enjoy, and if I don\u2019t enjoy making it, it\u2019s not my best work. <\/o:p><\/div>\n
Now, it\u2019s one thing to design something that is hard or tedious, but I\u2019m talking complete lack of interest. If you ask me to design something based on politics (like bureaucracy) or something with strict history guidelines, I probably will have a lot more trouble and enjoy it a lot less unless it\u2019s something I find fascinating.<\/o:p><\/div>\n
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Do I have an audience for it?<\/b><\/o:p><\/div>\n
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I have loads of ideas just hanging out and waiting to see if there is someone who wants to play it. With Girls\u2019 Slumber Party WOO! I am anxious because it\u2019s kind of a niche game. I have ideas and enthusiasm for it, but I don\u2019t know whether there\u2019s a big enough audience to sell it, which is why it may end up being a free release once it\u2019s done. One of the keys with having an audience is having playtesters, and we all know that having playtesters is a struggle for designers. If you can\u2019t playtest a design, you put yourself at risk of having design flaws. Yeah, it can be done, but I\u2019d rather find obvious design flaws before I put my games in the hands of people who paid for it. This is why development for Clash and Tabletop Blockbuster have taken as long as they have \u2013 we playtest, we find flaws, redesign, and playtest again. Rinse, repeat. <\/o:p><\/div>\n
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Is there interest in it?<\/b><\/o:p><\/div>\n
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It\u2019s one thing to have an audience. Having an audience means there are people out there in the demographic and with preferences that means your game might appeal to them. Having interest is a whole \u2018nother deal. Interest means that there are individuals or groups out there that receive your pitch and say \u201cYES. Let\u2019s DO this.\u201d You don\u2019t want to be putting something out there and have people bored to tears or uninterested because you didn\u2019t design it to appeal, or because there\u2019s just not interest in what you\u2019re selling. You want people picking up what you put down, right? <\/o:p><\/div>\n
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Can it make money?<\/b><\/o:p><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
This sounds shallow, but frankly, I like getting paid for my work. To put it in perspective, I was not going to sell Clash. I was going to print it out and give it out for free. Then a few IGDN members went \u201cOh, no no no!\u201d and gave me what-for about it. They showed interest in the game (see the last question), and gave me reasons for why it was a money-making possibility. Subsequently, I invested tons of time and some of my own money in getting it to ashcan state over six months, including taking it to cons, paying for scenarios to be written, etc. I still think free products are great, but I also think that models like Patreon are appropriate for people making \u201cfree\u201d games because I think it\u2019s fair to pay people for their efforts. As much as it would be great to just create and be free of societal expectations of financial responsibilities, we still live in a world where living \u2013 just living \u2013 costs money. Design work isn\u2019t magical. You still have to eat while you\u2019re designing, and keep the internet and power on. When I\u2019m working on design, I\u2019m not working at my day job or doing freelance writing, but I\u2019m still using power and burning calories. Something\u2019s gotta pay for that. This doesn\u2019t mean that I\u2019ll never release something for free, it just means that I\u2019ll try to create products that can pay me back for the work I do.<\/o:p><\/div>\n

<\/b><\/div>\n
Does the design concept work?<\/b><\/o:p><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
I\u2019ve written down some really silly design ideas. Some I saved, some I deleted. The thing is, if your design concept is flawed \u2013 like bad math or too much complexity or too much simplicity \u2013 there\u2019s no point in pursuing the design as is. You either need to redesign or dump it. And there\u2019s nothing wrong with dumping a design! Generally when I dump a design I put it in a Google Drive folder just in case I want to pull it out and pull ideas from it at a later date \u2013 I\u2019ve saved every revision of Clash, every draft of Tabletop Blockbuster rules, and a bunch of other stuff. <\/o:p><\/div>\n
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Do I have time for it? OR Will I make time for it?<\/b><\/o:p><\/div>\n
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I\u2019m super busy. I work and go to school and have this blog, plus I do freelance writing and design. So, stuff I\u2019m working on personally has to have a lot of value for me. I have to either have free time, or make time. And whether I make time really depends on whether I like the product.<\/o:p><\/div>\n
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Do I like what I\u2019m working on? <\/b><\/o:p><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
Some stuff this is a quick and easy \u201cYup!\u201d like Girls\u2019 Slumber Party WOO! Some of it is harder, like certain aspects of Tabletop Blockbuster (like GM rules, which were quickly handed over to John, my partner-in-crime). While designing is something I have found passion for, I still need to like the stuff I\u2019m doing. This is different than having ideas; this is more an emotional investment. I need to want to pour my soul into what I\u2019m doing.<\/o:p><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
In the end, it’s about whether I like the project and whether I feel like it’s worth investing in.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
What helps you decide what projects to focus on?<\/u><\/b><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How do you choose what projects to design? That\u2019s a toughie. I could say something trite like \u201cthe designs choose me!\u201d because it\u2019s kind of true. If I have an idea, I try to take it to execution. I might put stuff on the backburner but I always try to work on things periodically, keep … Continue reading “How do you decide what projects to design?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[390],"tags":[28,164,10,71,12,163,18],"class_list":["post-399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive","tag-briecs-on-design","tag-clash","tag-game-design","tag-playtesting","tag-rpgs","tag-tabletop-blockbuster","tag-tabletop-rpgs"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paHOcG-6r","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":203,"url":"https:\/\/briebeau.com\/thoughty\/2017\/02\/creators-in-need\/","url_meta":{"origin":399,"position":0},"title":"Creators in Need","author":"Beau J\u00e1gr Sheldon","date":"February 20, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"To be added to next month's list please respond to this survey by March 5, 2017, midnight, EST.I recently posted on Google+ asking that game-related creators in hardship respond to my post with their various product sales pages or portfolios. 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