Hey all. So i am new to gamedev.net and i thought id start a little journal on how i go from Idea to Game.

Ok so iv been coding and developing games for a little over 5 years now. I have 2 released titles and many games that i have stopped developing because i either lost faith in the project, Got board of it or came up with a better idea that i thought would do better.
So this is what i now do in order to start developing something i enjoy and find fun rather then developing something that feels more like a dead waight task that isnt going to be fun.

Ok so in my studio i have many white boards i use for coming up with alot of ideas. If you do not have white boards just use paper. Anything that will help you visualise your idea will always make it easier for you to understand how your own idea will work and play out.
Now the first thing i do is come up with key words that i find entertaining or fun. I usally go with around 12-20 key words. This is my list for this example.
"Flying, Invisibility, Rope swing, Ninja, Explosive Fruit, Ocean, Special Clouds, Creepy Enemys, Odd Weapon, Super Jump, Wall Jump, Grapple Hook"

Ok now that you have a list of things you find entertaining or fun. Select 3 that you rank better then others.
"Explosive Fruit, Super Jump, Grapple Hook"

Now these 3 words you have select can mean anything to you. How ever for me these 3 words will represent the games mechanics and what to do in the game. With these words i will now come up with 2-3 ideas for a game.
Idea 1:
A Game where the level is endless. The player has the ability to super jump and the grapple hook is used to go down to the ground faster.
The players goal is to last as long as they can in seconds well explosive fruit is thrown towards them at random directions.
Idea 2:
The player has the ability to super jump only if on top of a fruit how ever jumping will cause the fruit to explode. Your aim is to use the grapple hook to fling all the fruit away from your house. Each level gets harder and harder and the area you need to protect with your grapple hook gets larger and larger.
Idea 3:
This idea is a little like basket ball. You are given 3 fruit at a time. Each fruit has a timer before they explode. Your objective is to use your grapple hook to throw the fruit into a metal basket and then close the lid after all fruit are inside to stop them from blowing you up.

Ok now that i have these 3 ideas i will select 1 to expand and work on.
The idea i think will be more fun to make will be IDEA 3

Ok well thats it for this journal i hope i helped someone out with what i do. The next journal i do will be how i make all the assets for my games. Be it 3D or 2D.

Thanks.