When an idea gets stuck in your head, how do you go about designing it? It could be an art project, a story, plans for a themed party…it could be a lot of things. In my case, “things” means new features on one of my websites. I am better at designing (outlining) a story than I am at designing a major feature for my website. Smaller features are not as bad, but I still find myself stumbling through the design process. For stories, I feel like I am following a set of directions to reach a destination. For major features, it feels more like deciphering a treasure map.

With most stories, I start with a basic idea. Sometimes, the idea is taken from a dream. Other times, it is a vague thought about a concept. I start thinking all sorts of what-ifs. Eventually, this thought process turns into a scenario centered around the idea. The concept stretches both backwards and forwards, to a time before the characters encounter the scenario, and to a time of the aftermath of that scenario.

When it comes to feature design, in this case designing a game engine, for me there is more stumbling around. For Peggy, the concept for this game engine started by envisioning how various game pieces should function. How should the pieces “behave”? How do I track the state of the pieces being manipulated? Where do the pieces start, and how do I clean up the pieces when the game concludes? All these concepts have been thoroughly explored and documented. Unfortunately, like with stories, I have not always stretched out this idea to both the before initiating a game session, nor much thought on what happens after. This is where I have stumbled and procrastinated on Peggy the most.

Once I stepped away from the concept of the game engine and focused more on the characters of this “story” (the players), I started better visualizing what else needed to be done for those before and after bookends. I know this will be incorporated into a webpage. This is like establishing the setting for the main character. Provide a basic layout for the site. The players appear on stage. Now what do they do? They need to create an account in order to access the games. Good. Then what? Assuming they want to play a multiplayer game, and not a game of solitaire, they need to invite other players to play. Okay. Are these supporting players their friends? Strangers? Do these other players have an account? Do they need one? These are all considerations needing to be fleshed out well before the first game session starts.

At this point, let’s assume the game construction and engine is all ready and in place. Players are able to start a game with other players, whether friends or strangers, whether they have accounts or not. Assume all the before is settled. The players are able to play games using the game engine. What happens when players encounter issues with Peggy? What happens after they conclude the game? Can they publicly proclaim a winner? Is that necessary? What do I want to happen next?

I have given the after a bit of thought, too. If players invite others to play who do not have accounts, I hope their friends are enticed to create their own accounts to kick off their own game sessions after their first game invite. Also, I want players to be able to use a similar set of tools I use to tinker with the available pieces to create their own games. And then, I want players to invite their friends to play the new or modified games, too. Maybe players can invent and share their own games, ones not based on my own creations. How should this be handled?

This is where I stumble the most. When it comes to the practicality of this kind of system, am I am I breaking down the design to granular enough levels? Am I envisioning the entire player experience including the before, during, and after moments? This level of design requires something more like world building. When I design my own tools for creating my own games, are they designed at a “good enough for me” level, and not considering what happens when I invite strangers to use some form of these tools. My designs needs to keep in mind what is restricted and what is sharable. How can these tools be shared while maintaining the stability and security of the system? Also, with the overlap of how different pieces have shared behaviors, what functionality can be reused or shared within the system’s own features?

Without enough granularity, there can be unexpected backtracking to pause the creative process, revert to an earlier stage, and incorporate additional details overlooked the first time. Sometimes, these additional details can be tacked on later. Other times, it is better to fix it from the beginning before needing to be shoehorned in later. Then, all these little details need to be captured into design documents and defined in work tickets, so the concepts and the decisions behind these plans are all captured so that they will be understandable when reaching that part of the construction. This is all part of the design process many people do not realize until they find themselves in the think of it. Most people will only see the end product. Few will get a glimpse of the dawn of the idea, and then maybe see the result much later on.

For me, the creative design process is both the most exciting and most frustrating thing, especially when I realize all the additional work needing to be done before getting to the fun stuff. It’s like picturing yourself paragliding near a tropical island, then realizing everything else that needs to be done to reach that part. You need to book a flight or cruise, and get your passport updated, and figure out where you are going to stay, and how you may need to get over your fear of heights, and all the other things. The realization of all the little extra bits is enough to burst that bubble around that initial, wonderful thought. Once you go through all the steps and break it down into more manageable pieces, once you actualize that idea, it can be the most wonderful feeling. Looking back, there is a sense of pride in all that was accomplished to get there. Then, the next time you get another fantastic idea, you have all that experience to help you reach that goal more efficiently. You become better equipped to provide a better design in the future.

How do you approach bringing life to an idea?