Jessica Sanner is learning the value of building complexity via small bits that add up to a larger whole, a valuable lesson even for advanced coders. Build components, test, evaluate, iterate.
I am also finding that it is much less overwhelming to build the game one section or concept at a time. I am First adding rooms and their descriptions, then adding objects and their descriptions and finally making those objects move and behave as a final step. This allows for a clear picture for anticipating which actions the player may want to take within your game and also just simply keeps your thought process more organized.
And Gabriel Sanchez has found the power of sketching
To understand this concept, I had to familiarize the basic steps in order to begin the phase of the project by developing a story and the plot on what it is about. This is done on paper in which I work on some type of scenario for the player to play the game in order to accomplished that particular goal in the game (meaning the example “The Legend of Granny Apple”, the player must simply place the apple in the correct bowl as being described in the game for a positive outcome. Mapping the game is so important because the player must know where they are in a Foyer, tunnel or whatever place they are in to go to the place they needed to go. Under these circumstances, it must be drawn clearly as sketch to know where I want the player to go to according to the game’s philosophy (it is also applied for the room descriptions as well).
Nice.