You are developing a game on your own. You have a detailed design laid out, a lovingly crafted storyline with developing characters, literary themes and meticulously planned gameplay mechanics. How do you start? Sprites? The engine? How do you go from a fantastic idea to actually getting stuff done? What are the first steps? Give your best strategies for breaking through the first wall of game development.
Prototype prototype prototype. Don't set out one some huge endeavor (or even a small one, actually) until you've prototyped the ideas you have in mind and are sure they work. This comes before rounding up team members, before writing music, before concept art, before anything else.
If you work out a successful prototype, then you're game. Share that prototype with the people you want to work with, explaining best you can how this will work out to be a game, and then start structuring and desiging the game around that prototype.
From a personal standpoint, I value sketching
very highly, and assign most of the credit for the amount of work I get done to sketching. I write notes, draw diagrams, make lists, and have copious amounts of the game designed on paper and filed before I ever touch the game's code or resources. Usually it goes something like this...
1) Sketch your prototype ideas and general functionality, deciding how it will work and the rules of how the prototype will operate. Revise your sketches, making sure to locate any problems/loopholes beforehand, so you don't run into them after you've already programmed a whole bunch. And remember: flow charts are your friend.
2) Program the basic prototypes and refine them further. You'll always run into unforseen problems and opportunities when programming that never occurred to you while sketching, so come to expect it. Quite often this is where the best ideas come from, because you get a feel for how your prototype behaves, and more ideas for the game start forming in your head.
3) Back to sketching. Take a step back from your prototype and get out of programming mode. Think of what your game should be, what would be fun to play, and how you can best use this prototype to create an enjoyable gaming experience. Refine your ideas as much as possible and keep your information organized and presentable so that you can share and discuss it with your teammates or other people for feedback.
4) Now we get to creating the game. I've always made a point of programming the game's basic engines and layout first, and worrying about sound, music, and hefty resources like backgrounds and extensive animations for later on, or last even. Separate your game into specific goals, and write these down. Take on these goals one at a time, so you can concentrate on each aspect specifically and refine it the best you can. From this point on, the flow of the project is pretty specific to what you're making, but you should be getting a hang of the project workflow now, so things should take off on their own from there.
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