Design tools?

I usually use a text editor (nano or emacs or kate or kwrite), GIMP for sprite work (some people use Photoshop), and for concept artwork I tend to use a pencil and paper.

I also would recommend Inkscape.

Quote:

Original post by DakeDesu I usually use a text editor (nano or emacs or kate or kwrite), GIMP for sprite work (some people use Photoshop), and for concept artwork I tend to use a pencil and paper. I also would recommend Inkscape.

Thanks for the input. Why are you rated 738?

Quote:

Original post by Nytehauq Quote: Original post by DakeDesu I usually use a text editor (nano or emacs or kate or kwrite), GIMP for sprite work (some people use Photoshop), and for concept artwork I tend to use a pencil and paper. I also would recommend Inkscape. Thanks for the input. Why are you rated 738?

Because people tend to remember the bad more than the good.

Mindjet's Mind Manager
Wizflow Flowcharter
Smartdraw
Microsoft Office
Adobe Photoshop
is what i'm using mostly

Pencil, paper, text-editor, and good friends to bounce things off of.

I find Mindjet MindManager my most valuable tool to keep things clear and organized.

I just started to use SmartDraw - it has great potential for everything that involves flow-charts.

PhotoShop for fake screens (mock-up screens).

Pen and Pencil (TM) for all things before they make to previous tools. If it looks good in my mind and on paper it should get recorded.

MS Excel for a lot of things.

MS Word for the general design.

Notepad for always having a small document to write things down fast - a few words about an idea that crosses my mind.

Waiting for bus, and moving through public transit. You have a plenty of time to think.

As for tools, notepad is wonderful because it doesn't have a load of unnecessary features you doesn't need and just hog the memory. (The same memory that is needed by prototype running behind.)

The only bad thing on it is, it doesn't have autosave (It might be nice at some occasions), so for any long work, or fragile work, I use jEdit. It has two types of protecting the file, so if electricity grid would go down, at least one of the two is working.

Digital camera and GIMP are nice for image works. In fact GIMP supports 50+ MB large images, so you can have a large sheet of paper of proper shape.

Graph paper ftw!
I use Macromedia fireworks to draw my ideas and concepts, however I tend to program most of my design ideas. Then again notebooks are always good, I've managed to fill whole notebooks with notes for my game.

I used to use MS Excel for listing out content ideas and game objects for maps, but I just write it in my graph book now along with drawings.

FreeMind is a good freeware alternative to other mind-mapping programs.

And DIA should suffice for flowcharting etc, although it is a bit clunky to use in Windows.

If you really want to stop theorizing and start applying. Start out with a two player game concept. Like a board game. Make something and get all the mechanics working out like. Think D&D but make your own system. Mabe even your own dice rules. Its really good to always think of new idea. Never let any one tell you what can and cant be done. If it cant be done now it might be able to be doable later. Just always challenge yourself. Also something that really helps is break games down. Find out what makes that game successful. Talk with your friends and some people you don't know about your ideas. See how they like it.

For me this is more of a proof of concept since I haven't tested it, but I am thinking of using TADS to write stories; I was using a wiki, but for branches in the story the wiki is not well suited.

If you want a free software spreadsheet program (infact if you want a free software office suite) check out Open Office.Org

Another piece of software to check out is Media Wiki--one of best wiki softwares out there... then there is also moinmoin... I personally don't like it, but then, I haven't gotten into it.

A common piece of software for documentation is doxygen.

Also a format you should be aware about is POD. Plain Old Documentation. It is rather underrated IMO.

Also some sites to check out:
docs.google.com/ (I've used Writely as a sort of scratch pad with others on atleast one occassion)
sourceforge.net Good for hosting--as long as it is a Free Open Source Software project. They don't much care for personal servers running on there, browser games running on there or personal homepages. However, I have been known to get server projects hosted on there and with browser based games you just simply have to explain that once you have more than just the development team using it you'll move to another host, they are pretty generous.
wordpress.org and wordpress.com : One of the blogging standards. For some reason people on this site think you'll be questioned on your intergrity if you don't keep a blog on every little morsel of code you've done