So I’ve been thinking of an idea that’s been baking around in my skull for a while, and I’m thinking of building it out as a Flash game to start.

There’s a lot to keep track in this game idea, and so, just like I tell the students, this isn’t something where you throw everything into a pot and let it simmer — you have to prep first.  Thing is, I don’t know what all the ingredients are.

So what do you do if you don’t know where to start?  Turn on Flash and stare blankly at the screen? Nope.  I’m going back to the basics.  I have my pages and pages of notes.  I have vague ideas about levels and mini-games in the game.  I’m going to grab pencil and paper.  When I can’t draw out Evil Onion backgrounds and imagery any more, I’ll switch over to this.  When I’m tired of trying to figure out how to get lots of little bits and pieces to interact, I’ll go back to the onion.

I think that when I’m ready, what I have to do is come up with the game dynamics, fake some animation (little blocks instead of fully fleshed out characters) and get them to move and behave how they have to.  Once that works, I’ll go back and make clean animations.  This is what usually kills me.  I jump straight to the icing, forgetting the cake underneath.  Let’s see if I can be any better this time around.