Game design fail

There are a couple of game design projects that I would love to do, and when inspiration strikes I'll occasionally sit down, nut out some ideas, and put them down on paper.

Distractions then inevitably intervene.  

Two to six months later when I think "ah yes, I must get back to that little gem of mine!'' I generally find I've misplaced the notes I made, or, on the rare occasions I haven't, the ideas now seem boring, pointless, or stupid, and often shocking combinations of the three.

As an example, a few months ago I came up with a nice little battle game.  The plan was to use this for the tactical part of a 2nd Punic War Iberian campaign.  It could be played solo to completion in about ten minutes, relied on dice and some player input which could be randomized for solo purposes, and generally seemed to do about what I wanted it to.

The problem was that it was not especially exciting in its own right, and so as my interest in the campaign flagged I put the project aside and concentrated on something else (the rugby, probably!).

Now that I want to revisit and tweak it I naturally find that the paper I'd jotted the ideas down on has gone missing and in my feebleness am unable to remember much of what it was that I was doing or thinking at the time.

It's a little frustrating.

Thirty minutes of searching later, I'm going to give up and call it a night.

So here they are, my poor boys all set up to go, but with the grand poobah having lost the rules!

I think that's what kids these days call a fail?