Making the Complex Clear

Editor's Notes

1. (1: "Water Pollution" Mindmap) I was/am making a game on the topic of water pollution and environmental health. Knowing literally nothing about the topic beforehand, I mindmapped my research as I went along. Mainly this was to gauge, roughly, areas of interest within the subject domain in the one space. I find mindmapping on paper easier than digital, because I'm usually too worried about placement, composition, scale, etc. of the text, whereas on paper it's so rough and drafted that I'm content with just drawing. Because it's also on paper and not in a digital format, I didn't feel I was committing to specific topics to cover yet: it gives me breathing space to digest the information. (3: "Engagement" Mindmap) Similar to the mindmap in (1), I was looking at the topic of Engagement, and what exactly I wanted my game to "engage" people with. If anything, by making a mindmap such as this, it helped me to comprehend the challenge of defining "engagement" for my specific needs. Had I ploughed through research and started writing, I probably would have found myself hitting brick walls very quickly. With the mindmap, I was able to connect certain terms and show where topics were connected, while realising the uphill battle with defining and implementing "engagement" effectively for my research.
2. Act 1 Overview After the DHack prototype I kept using the same style as the game grew. I would make these diagrams and take them to meetings so we could get a good overview of the how the game was shaping up.