[Question] Standalone Game Design Application

Hi guys.

Currently I'm working on a standalone application for Game Design / Non-linear story design application.

The application will feature following functionalities:

- Drawing non-linear story diagrams (flow charts) with a "card structure". Each card contains placeholders for different media: images, audio, dialogues (txt), notes, tags.
- Organising game design concepts and assets (characters, items, actions etc.)
- Different view options
- Different export options
- Collaboration?

Well, I know there's at least one application that does that. The problem is, that it is either too expensive or it's way too complicated.
I am striving to make something indie-friendly (dedicated for small/medium teams), with a nice, clear user interface and intuitive user experience. I want to keep it simple, functional and extremely comfortable to use. I want to make an app that I'd love to use myself.

My question is: does this idea sound interesting to you?
Would you find it useful? What features would you love to see in order to make it even better?

I'd be very interested to hear your opinion.

 

So your making a Post-It-Notes application?

Its going to have to be pretty clever to draw me away from my current pen and paper approach.

 

I would also love to see having a "to-do" list where you put in assets (models, scenes, scripts etc.) and have a nice way to display how far they're done (in percent).

 

Hey! Thanks for comments.

Well, it's not going to be a notes app per se. I'd rather say it's a "sandbox" for game & story design.

You can model your game idea, story flow and all the details in the app, making it easier for you to:
- communicate with other team members about your idea (programmers, artists etc)
- keep yourself on the track
- organise your game's structure (levels, missions, dialogues)
- brainstorm and come up with new solutions for your project


Its main focus and "flag feature" is ability to design non-linear games. And that's what most of the "post-it-notes" apps, such as Trello, cannot do.

 

I think it would be more useful as a webpage app..(access from browser, without plugins (for easy copy & paste data), also including mobiles etc.)

 

Are you referring to Nevigo's articy:draft? articy:draft 1 is indie-priced, but development of new features is only going into articy:draft 2, so 1 feels like a neglected orphan. I think quite a few people here are familiar with articy. How does your concept compare? (If you say cheaper and/or simpler, that's good enough for me. )

A web app would be great. If you're thinking of taking it commercial, you could offer subscription access. And web apps make it easy to collaborate.

articy doesn't have much in the way of mind-mapping or brainstorming tools. They'd be helpful as a way to capture ideas and feature suggestions.

It's not too difficult to put concept art and storyboards into articy, but it would be nice to have it more front-and-center. They're really important for getting everyone on the same page.

The ability to export is crucial. Speaking of, perhaps you could import and export from other tools, such as Chat Mapper for dialogue, rather than reinventing the wheel for a lot of them.

What about tying it into project management or task lists ("to do" lists) with the ability to assign tasks to team members?

 

Indeed. Also, Articy: Draft does not support Mac OS which I believe might be a deal-breaker for some people.

Also, Articy can be an amazing solution for fairly large teams, but for the smaller ones it might feel a bit too overwhelming.

There are plenty of solutions for this problem already, no need for another to-do app per se.

All I'm trying to do is to fill the little gap in non-linear game design tools, since Articy might not be an answer for everyone.

That's correct. It would be more straightforward, more intuitive and more story-oriented.

Please bear with me if the thread lacks some in-depth details about the project - all I'm trying to do is to find out if there's any demand for it.

 

So kind of like Scrivener, only without being linear (and presumably using a template like for screenplays)? Can't say I've really seen something that does it well, so I definitely wouldn't argue against it.

 

I would say I'm moderately interested, especially if it's web app or at least available on OSX.

 

Me too. I work primarily in Windows, but it would make it easier to collaborate with OSX team members. I think you have a good concept. Please keep us updated if you decide to pursue it!