Just want to share some of the planning stage.
Who else out there starts their game design with a pencil and paper? Especially on graph paper. Don’t neglect this step as doing it will cut down on development time-lines.
This is a basic grid for the Arduboy screen. With isometric tiles 32 x 16 pixels. Made for assigning height or unique graphics to a tile. Can scroll values in 4 directions depending on game type.
Anyone use this kind of system?
I wish I was that organised when coding. I usually start with a prototype made with quick and dirty code that I promise myself will be throw away code … but of course that code always ends up staying and for the entire project I curse myself for not starting afresh early 
These days I tend to work on things other than games but I still use pencil and paper extensively.
I’ll also do things like inheritance diagrams on paper, or just listing classes and methods, though it depends how much I feel I actually need those for whatever it is I’m doing.
(I tend to write more one-off ‘throwaway’ programs and things I never actually intend to publish or fully develop, in which case I don’t spend much time planning those compared to what I’d spend on something I actually do intend to publish.)
I tend only to use gridded paper if I’m doing something for a voxel-based game like Minecraft or Dragon Quest Builders 2.
I did it the same. Helps to make room in the head for other stuff like math.
Getting nostalgic when seeing this. I drew the very same grid when I did an isometric game.
