I've made a couple of games now.
Starting from basic hobbyist projects like snake , I advanced into platform based games, board games, turn based games. While doing the latter of these projects I had to spent a lot of time redesigning certain concepts, sometimes even throwing away certain logic. So always I've felt the time wasted could have been avoided or at least reduced, if I had properly planned each and every stage of my game.
Though i can try to do it on paperwork or by a word file with bulleted points. I think there ought to be some other way of game design.
Do help me with suggestions and other game design patterns being followed, either as an indie-game developer or as a game company. I can learn from both. I am not looking for game design e-books, since there is already a thread for that. I would like to get suggestions and game design patters. Thank you.