Hitting the Trail
As the shape of the essay takes form, I figured touching base on my research process would be interesting. In short, a whole lot of Google and trawling through the Wayback Machine. I have been trying a new tool this go around and it has been pretty instrumental in organizing the Trails™ (their trademark, not mine) I find myself going down in the research phase.
In broad strokes, the process is a ton of reading, playing, and watching. Take copious notes along the way. Write em or type em. Scattershot the terms, themes, and ideas—make connections later. This is the genius of our brains, it works this type of stuff out on its own in the background. The strength of those connections can be reinforced by laying solid groundwork, i.e good notes lead to strong idea formations. So far I have a cool 8,500~ words as notes (mostly quotes). 😬
With "The Spirit of a Galaxy Game," I knew a prime resource would be the late Satoru Iwata's famous Iwata Asks interview series. The format is still around today in Nintendo's promotional material, but we all miss the man behind the questions. Of course there was an interview series for both Galaxy games.
The trenches of YouTube and Google search also provide good fodder. I found a 2007 talk from Koizumi right after Super Mario Galaxy released. Traditionally, all this searching would look like this in my Safari window.
It's unknowable. I don't even know what lies in that tab bar.
This time around, I'm trying a new-ish browser—Horse. It looks like this.
I've had my eye on Horse since its inception, thanks to following its creator on Twitter back in the day. I finally picked up a copy earlier this year and have kept it in my Dock as a noodling/research browser. It very much still in development, but the core feature – the Trails – is perfect for my brain and workflow. I can see exactly how I got to whatever tab I got to and not lose sight of where this pathway started.
Using Horse has been a boon to my research process for this video. It made my tabs usable. It gave my brain permission to go on tangents without worrying about getting lost. There is value in organizing the madness and doing so at the start of the project has cleared the way for more research and delight. I hope I can convey half of that joy in the video to come.
Until next time...
This letter is one block from the newsletter Memory Card by Max Roberts. Thoughts? Send me an email at max@maxfrequency.net.
Max is the writer and producer behind Max Frequency. cultivate and curate curiosity—both for himself and for others—by delighting in the details and growing greatness from small beginnings.
He's written a rich history and dive on the making of Naughty Dog's The Last of Us Part II, celebrated the 15th anniversary of Super Smash Bros. Brawl with the voice behind its hype, and examined how Zelda "stole" Fortnite's best mechanic.
Memory Card is a real-ish time, raw, drip feed newsletter of his creative process for telling these stories. It’s how The Thing™ gets made.
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