I got to just say I hit a slump maybe three weeks ago in thinking of new ideas. But I then remembered what Steven King does. He writes at least ten pages a day. So I started writing down ten concepts a day since then. Well I must have around 200 concepts now. Not all will be gems but the more you write them down as they come the more diamonds you will find there. Since I have made myself do this, the ideas will not stop coming. It's crazy how that works. Your creativity is a muscle that you must work out daily. The more it grows the more you benefit. Build Box really does have unlimited creative solutions but you need to meet it half way by being able to generate those ideas with daily work. If you check out my posting on my top resources you will find a diamond there for your creative thinking process. Hope that inspires some of you out there!
I record all my app ideas into the voice recorder on my iPhone, it's great to go back and listen to an idea I had 6 months ago and start to flesh it out with BB.
@Phill Mason I do the same thing for music. When I hear a melody or chord progression in my head I always record it.
Evernote for me. Share that with my compadres and we color code additions so we know who added/suggested what.
Ah I heard of Evernote I'll check it out thanks @AndyG Also be sure to see my post on resources I use. Many good tools there.
I give Evernote 4.5/5. It's only 'failing' is the fact that when you share a note there is no alert mechanism to tell others that something has been updated/changed/added etc., in that note. Hence one reason my team use a color code so we know if and when edits take place.
@Andy Yes Skitch, good mention (which is part of the Evernote team). Highly recommended for anyone on Mac needing to annotate screen-grabs etc. Also for those on Mac using Apple Mail it has built in Markup for images. Very handy for a quick annotation before sending an email. For audio and screen-grabs I also use Audio Hijack and Screenium. ColorSnapper is also a great wee utility for color picking. PlainTextMenu is a great little menubar app for quickly turning copy into plain text and/or changing text case. For animation i use Spriter and for audio work Steinberg Cubase. I would use something called Buildbox Master Collection for that kind of thing but the developers charge a small fortune for it!
@AndyG Yeah I can't afford the Master Collection either yet. But I look at it this way. For your own business that you don't have to pay employee salaries, rent, insurance, etc. this is actually a small amount. When I can afford the Master Collection, I will definitely be investing in it when it's released again. Also think about this. When you invest in this company, they also invest in you the consumer by updating their products, taking feature requests and even becoming a possible publisher for your games. Now all you have to do is put in the work to create A+ games and you have a great possible way to get into publishing. Making good games consists of always learning, researching, asking questions from others more successful than yourself. I've been making games for over two years and it took me until this year to really get the hang of making a solid game. It's taken countless hours, and I have been working on this just about every day since then. I think that the publishing possibilities through this company adds a lot of value and also shows they are here to not just sell you their products but to help you a lot with your business. This is the type of business you can do from anywhere in the world when it's rocking and rolling. So in the grand scheme of things, you aren't just paying for a product, you're investing in an entire infrastructure for your business. I think the new developments in this community are really exciting. Also you got awesome people here who are very accessible to help you.
Its the chicken and the egg scenario @Machine Rises whereby if my first game is reasonably successful and the $$$ are rolling in purchasing something like BBMC is a moot point. However to be successful having BBMC in your arsenal would be very helpful from the kick-off to achieve that. So I agree with everything you say in concept and sometimes you have to speculate to accumulate which I have done with BB and whilst the Master Collection would be nice to have as a "rookie" its a step too far during these early days.
