Mind Mapping for Game Development

Challenge and Selection

In recent years I have been involved with the development of games in special for tablets and  smartphones. Games are a tough market and at least 50% of games being sold today will make  less than 2500 USD a year in revenue. Since games have a huge amount of genre, applications  and market, our goal was to find the niche we could explore with better success. We had tons  of data and insights, but no start point for our project. We started by writing our key ideas in  paper and arranging them like a mind map. The mind mapping strategy is great to explore large  amounts of data – it enables us to have great visualization of key concepts and pain points. Also,  by using this technique, it´s possible to rearrange topics fast and drill down on topics that were  not explored at all. Visualization was key for this project. This is the reason we select the mind  mapping: it´s a tool used to deal with large amounts of data and has outcomes towards patterns  and insights. Although Mind Mapping is designed to help the “what if” phase of design thinking,  it actually produces very intense insights that are powerful as well in reviewing the “what is”  phase.

Application

First we started our project by creating ordered lists of topics. Although the lists were a good  starting point, it was difficult for us to create relationships within the elements. Also, by focusing  on a list we left a lot of good insights and information out of the project. We then decided to  write on post-its single ideas from the lists on each sheet. By writing ideas individually, some  patterns and common ideas started to emerge among the participants. We limited this to a  couple of hours to avoid overthinking the problem. Idea generation has to be “fast and furious”.

Second part, we set all the post-it on a board, where all common ideas or patterns formed a  group. From that group we started adding the other related topics and subjects, creating  references and links among them. After a few hours, we could definitely see a very  comprehensive visual map of our problems and specially opportunities. On the next days and  hours, we started shaping ideas and creating a “mental path” between different concepts.

Each session would be at least 2 hours, but no more than 4 hours. This gave us enough time to  analyze and still remain fresh about new ideas and topics.  As the “Mental Path” evolved, we  turned each one into their own smaller “mind maps”, allowing us to better see specific problems  and solutions individually.

The exercise was like a drill down on each one of the topics and themes. For the last part only 5  final concepts were scrutinized. We evaluated based on a set of questions: 1) if the idea was  original 2) if the problem was being solved, 3) if was feasible, 4) Time and Money, 5) Return. The  mind mapping tool was extremely successful in turning ideas into something we could see and  evaluate.

Insights

The mind mapping tool allowed us to better organize our ideas and thoughts. Also, by having  the ability to visualize the connections within the maps and insights together, we could further  explore on individual topics.

For me, one of the key elements was the beginning of the process:  when we started everybody  was writing their ideas on a post-it – and suddenly we realize topics and insights that were

common to many. Also, since mind mapping is quite a “loose” process, we were able to build  very interesting connections between the elements. For us, the major insight was actually  discovering a niche inside games for adult education, that became the basis of our current  projects.

Approach

Mind Mapping is quite an easy process to apply. After this initial session, we have been using  every opportunity we can. The path to success is actually having someone that is the guide to  the process, stimulating the group into the insights and connections. This person has to be  neutral on opinions but question the group towards an outcome.

Also, time-framed sessions work best to delimit the initial scope and force participants to  produce. From our sessions, every time we did not have a “time pressure” to finish, we started  to ramble and our insights were not as powerful or strong. Also, for next sessions I would use a  mix of paper and software (mind map) to organize ideas.

Only paper can get confusing if the topic is complex. Also, have someone recording or writing  down the insights as they occur. We lost a lot of them in the initial discussions and was hard to  retrieve the information after a while.

