After our sessions during the first week, I decided to make a mind map of some things I am interested in, which ranged from patterns, textures, & silhouette to nostalgia.
I originally decided my four topics would be:
- Tarot & astrology
- Nostalgia
- Edwardian era fashion
- The supernatural
However, I thought I could make these more focused, as these topics were rather broad.
- Tarot & astrology
Having always been interested in this topic and dabbled a little in 2020, albeit with TikTok readings, I finally became more invested since early 2025 and decided to take it more seriously. After discovering a reader, I became more interested in having questions answered and what was beyond the 3D.
- Childhood diary
While organising my room, I found an old diary from primary school transitioning into secondary school. Out of curiosity, I read it and was surprised by how much it affected me. It made me laugh a little as well as cry. I felt as if it was relevant to the topics branching out from childhood in my mind map.
- 19th century opera ballet
After reading a short explanation about the dark side of ballet in the 19th century, I wanted to delve a little deeper into the history of ballet.
- Hanahaki disease
As a sucker for angst and yearning, I believe the hanahaki disease is a perfect blend of both. The trope gained popularity during the 2010s onwards in fandom spaces – starting in the Japanese yaoi genre before spreading to other fandoms.
My Chosen Topic
Ultimately, after researching each potential topic, I decided to follow through with my topic of tarot (focusing on both tarot and astrology felt like it would be too broad). There wasn’t much for me to add to the topic of hanahaki disease, even though it could make a visually compelling game and was overall an interesting topic. I’ve always been interested in anything to do with the more negative side of childhood, as well as nostalgia, and I already had a game idea in mind for this topic. However, it seemed there were already quite a few games (although quite different from my idea) about childhood trauma and the like. I wasn’t as invested in this idea as I was in tarot. Similarly, my passion and knowledge about tarot outweighed my interest in 19th-century ballet. Furthermore, tarot also seemed like a viable topic to follow through with, as many are interested in the spiritual and ‘unknown’, and I felt as though the systems within this topic could inspire more ideas for games.
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