I'm not usually a flow chart kind of person. I like writing things out, and I can keep stuff in my head/notes pretty well until the time comes to implement.
I've been told that flow charts are a relic of the 90's, a mere blip in the scheme of things, but I've been feeling an itch to do some explicit diagramming of some of the more difficult actions - partly to figure out the best way to go about implementing, and partly just to nail down a tricksy, convoluted process.
I've tried a couple ways of making them, including the built-ins for Excel and Open Office Draw, but it feels slow and clunky. I'm almost down to drawing them on a pad (if I can find mine) or by hand and scanning them in. Anyone have a free tool they like? I don't need shapes or fancy connectors or pretty colors - just something fast and dirty. I can imagine quite a few tools that *might* work - Photoshop's not terrible, except it doesn't allow for easy movement of the graphics.
Or is there something that accomplishes the same goal - visual organization of complex tasks?
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Popplet is a very easy to use, cloud-based service (I think login is required). I've also used the free MindNode (Mac app) once or twice.
ReplyDeleteIf the idea of writing code-like text instructions for a chart that's then auto-generated appeals, you might like Graphviz (also free).
I use CmapTools. It's not super great and lacks some crucial features, but the best part is that it can arrange the flowchart into a nicely formatted tree when you're done so you don't have to worry about placement of the nodes manually.
ReplyDeleteIf you do decide to go low-tech, the method I've always seen at design firms is Post-it notes on a whiteboard, which seems to work fairly well.
ReplyDeleteI too use CmapTools for IF projects. It's handy for working through sequences of actions and their causality. For other projects, like traditional fiction or academic writing, I find Cmap too rigid and limiting, but for IF where you need to think of not only the narrative but also the player/reader actions (that are always, well, limiting) it is a great help. And there's also a light version available, if you don't need the fancy stuff.
ReplyDeleteWhen I've wanted to diagram a project like this, I've used the graph editor yEd. It's not complex, but I've usually been able to accomplish what I wanted.
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