21. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, or rather, the easiest.

   Yesterday I had a long day off from work. I set myself a target of being super productive.
I intended to work on my board game concepts, organise my YouTube network foundations (so I am ready to go when the project starts) and to look into buying a new computer.

Did any of it get done?
Of course not.

 I was just so overwhelmed by... well... everything!

YouTube has become such a complex entity with the Google+ additions.
I was lost in a sea of technological insanity. I roughly figured it out, but not enough to do anything worthwhile.

A for my gaming concepts...
Brick wall.

No clarity, no direction, no ideas. Nothing.
Call it whatever you want I just could not get the ball rolling.

After a really long talk with my girlfriend I decided to shelve them for now.
At least until I can think of a way to move forward with them.

She did suggest something, which, at first, I dismissed almost out of hand.
Work with something you know.

It didn't make sense at the time.
I blame the pure dour cloud hanging over my head on the day; but I simply couldn't see a way of expanding on the games I was looking at in front of me;
Munkin already has many, many iterations and expansions.
Civilization, Battlestar, Arkham Horror and the like all are vastly complex and have multiple expansions.
The complexity was over my head and the artistic creativity was out of my league in terms of knowledge and understanding.
I could not think of a way to add to either, thematically, mechanically or visually.

Today it hit me.
I was never supposed to.

Maybe she didn't know it at the time, but my girlfriends advice was spot on.
Work with something you know.

The game didn't have to be a board game/card game or RPG's.

Just a game.

Once I had that in my head numerous ideas sprouted onto paper, ready to be made into concept board/card games or RPG's.
Yeah, sure. These ideas may be academic; a learning experience that never actually get made.
But that is the point. I need that experience, to know what I'm comfortable with, what I need to learn and what works.

Today is a good day.

-DH-