"Because, Science" is getting really really big and the ability to do things depends on what other things you have done in the game. Some things you can do from the start but others rely on multiple items, or tasks that take place beyond locked doors and so on. So to keep the game straight in my head, I have needed to keep a "puzzle dependency chart". It is a simple "flow chart" of what things need to be done and in what order. In this chart the blue area is what you can do from the start of the game, green area is what you can do once you have restored power to the elevator and the purple is what you can do once you have the red keycard and so on. I have hidden a lot of things as I don't want to give away too many things, but you can see the rough idea from the chart below.
Parallel to this and something that helps keep me on track is the digital annotated map. It is an edited screenshot of the level editor which I placed in photoshop.
I didn't want to show too much because, you know, spoilers. It is essentially a map of the game which shows where the items are and it is digital so it can be edited again and again. Seeing the whole world at once allows me to have a clearer idea of what I need to do and how the placement of different items could affect the game.
Using these two systems have been incredibly useful in the planning and re-iteration of the design and would probably be impossible to complete the project without them.
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