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anyone use mindmapping software for planning out and referencing etc?
It 's just occurred to me that if there's a way, it might be best for me to plan out and then reference appropriate assist files and reference files online etc for future things to build in a mind map.
Is there a mind mapping software well suited for this? Does it work on a macrapple?
Edit: addition: I've used PersonalBrain for mind mapping film scripts, marketing proposals and game design ideas, but it only has 3 levels of connection to any object: Parent, Sibling and Child. Which seems like it's missing about 3 forms of connection for anything to really help with the crossover from game design to game development.
Traditional mind mapping software, ie NOT PersonalBrain, don't even have the sibling relationship, everything is either parent or child. So I'm struggling a little figuring out which, if any, mind mapping software would help.
eg. A game object, let's say a cube, has a configurable joint, rigidbody, mesh renderer, Box Collidor and three scripts attached to it.
So that's a parent with 7 children, 3 of which are siblings (the scripts), the configurable joint has a sibling connection externally to another objects that doesn't necessarily meet the "child/parent" analogy and the box collidor is relevant to everything on it's same layer.
That's fine, as far as it goes, but try then using a mind map to coordinate with this layout what's happening in gameplay. And then my mind looks at a whiteboard and thinks it's a FAR better solution.
it would be neat to see a $$anonymous$$dmapping framework for unity!
EXACTLY! something that clearly layouts all the relationships between things in Unity to start with. That would do my head a world of favors.
Answer by Makandal · Dec 29, 2010 at 07:49 AM
I use a paper notepad and Excel to build a game. Very efficient... I know, it's not very nerdy but it works.
Do you have a sample of this spreadsheet method you could show?
Answer by Jessy · Dec 29, 2010 at 03:52 AM
The best mindmapping software I know of is Mac-only. Its syncs back and forth with the iOS version.
Answer by Pe-ads · Dec 29, 2010 at 11:37 AM
I use bubbl.us. It's free, online, and they're updating to 2.0 in next week. I don't think they can do the 'cousin' relationship you're describing: that does sound interesting.
If you're looking for more complex relationships, I suggest Makandal's answer: use spreadsheet software and pencil-and-paper. Oh, and don't use MS Office: use OpenOffice... :D
excuse this retarded answer, but how would you use a spreadsheet for this? What would the spreadsheet look like? How editable would relationships and dependencies be? And, yes, obviously not going to use anything from $$anonymous$$icrosoft, I wish for Lotus 123.
No question's retarded! :D
What I meant was having game elements in the rows (e.g. player, camera, car, etc.) and categories in the columns. Then just put true/false in each cell. You could also have columns for parent, child, sibling, cousin, etc. Hope that helps :D
Pe-ads
Answer by GameGuy · Dec 29, 2010 at 01:38 PM
Im using Freemind. It is Easy, Small, Free and for Linux/Mac/Win