Have you been ever been so deeply engrossed in research?

[pandamyc]

Well, research concerning to your game. And wow, it's amazing. It's like submerging myself into an entirely different culture, like I kind of have a bit of cultural shock honestly.

This experience actually happened yesterday. I was searching on youtube and I've come a cross a video concerning Julius Caesar's greatest military battle victory.
And I'm just overwhelmed.

I know that he was good general, but damn.
I didn't know he was THAT good.
I know it was from a little bit of luck but...

He built a FORT around a FORT.
Who even does that????

For those who are interested in the video:

So my question here is:
Do you have any researching experiences for your game that completely overwhelmed you or was just seriously awesome that you wish to share?

[FonaCall]

Hm, research research research...

Well, there was this one time when I wanted to look up a bit on the trigrams that are used in a bagua, for an otome VN idea (which is on our idea dump thread, by the way...), in order to get ideas for names and personalities for the guys...

And then Wikipedia gave me that info dump on the I Ching. Whoopee.

I got so overwhelmed with info, that I decided to just take the basic stuff, like the written characters, the elements they're connected to, the directions (apparently, they differ in arrangement too, depending) and then mostly wing the rest. I consulted a dictionary for the characters and possible name readings and play-on-name-meaning-and-personality opportunities, though. That part, I had fun with.

I'll let people know if I experience something like that again. He he.

- Piet

[MimirollCookie]

Yes! Search here. There.
I sometimes search for Assignments or story ideas!

[Fox Lee]

On of my game ideas right now is based on a Finnish folk story that my husband's surrogate grandpa used to tell him when he was a kid. It's about a girl who married a bear to placate its spirit when it was killed, which makes her this weird sort outside-the-law woman and she goes on an adventure to meet the king and save her village.

I wanted to find the traditional version of the story, so I read a whole pile of animal-based folk tales from Scandinavian countries. I still can't find the original - we're pretty sure now that his grandpa might have made it up, which is also pretty durn cool - but I did find something which reads like the precursor to the Puss-in-Boots story, along with a bunch of other great ideas for animal-based minions my heroine could collect on her way.

...Still haven't produced anything for the game though >3>; Just a whole lot of reading!

[pandamyc]

@FonaCall
I have no idea what a bagua is, but I am overwhelmed already. Wikipedia is a great place to visit, despite common teacher saying, but it has so much info that honestly it's kind of difficult to know what kind of information is important and what is not. So I basically try to record things in a more simplistic manner that would probably be more explainable to a child, maybe keep the info in a notebook.
So far I'll try to check out your idea dump, hoping for a childish explanation as to what these words mean, haha.

@MimirollCookie
Yes! A lot of the research I end up using ends up as an actual major plot device. Even though I never planned it, writing it into an actual product is actually kind of mind blowing. When you first began, you can only wonder how you got so far.

@Fox Lee
Nothing wrong with that! Reading is very welcomed here, haha. So far it's been more than fascinating to hear tales of old, and it really says something about a culture's values, much like how advertisements reflect a modern day country's value. I hope you may find the original, or perhaps something similar in that context.