Where does Creativity in Game Design come?

...The title is self explanatory and just asks it all...but anyway, how does people like Alexey got to develop Tetris? Where did he get the ideia? what was his inspiration?
Same thing for Pac-Man's developer, where did the little "perceptual-spark" lights up in his mid?

How do these game designers develop a unique ideia - which seems blessed by the gods, by the way.

(I'm asking this because I wanna participate in a game developing contest in my country, and it requires a innovative game design, with a short space for coding - meaning small and effective).

EDIT: By now all I thought of was a 3D turret game, where enemies fly around you and you have a 360 view with your mouse-controlled aim. Does it sound like a contest winner? =/

I suppose you could call it natural, I (and my cousins) are wrapped around the idea of making a commercial MMO (we certainly understand the amount of time, experience, and money required to do so).

I personally get my ideas by brainstorming with peers, and by thinking, while playing a game, through what just happened and how it might be programmed.

I find inspiration from going on walks out in the great outdoors looking at objects and just brainstorming and/or playing great games.

It was easier to innovate back in the day. As great as Tetris is, I'm sure someone else would have come up with it if he hadn't.

So I guess in order to get a good idea to develop a short-game, I should play a lot of them :D

I want to do something related to polygons, kinda like the same graphical aspect of the first Asteroid (only wireframe objetcs), but not in anyway similar gameplay.

Something of an action game. I also have the idea of having a Turret game (the one with 360º mouse-view) - by the way, does a game like this sound boring? shooting enemies and stuff?

Probably you should play lots of weird little flash games for inspiration. Go here for some ideas:

http://jayisgames.com/
http://www.indiegames.com/blog/
http://www.the2bears.com/
http://www.tigsource.com/

And maybe www.pjio.com ;)

Well Pac Man... if you want to know where that came from...
http://www.videosift.com/video/1970s-video-game-designers-were-pretty-much-high-247

I don't recommend this method for modern day titles however. :-)

Oh and Tetris... Alexy was a russian mathematician which is often credited as a key factor in creating the game. Tetris peices were well known to mathematicians and gamers alike as early as the 1900's:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyomino




It sounds like many other games that have already existed, and honestly, no I don't think it sounds like a conest winner, because it's an action game, and I think the sort of game which would win a contest like that would be more of a thinking man's game like a puzzle game or a board game. Ie, something like tetris, or chess.

As for me and how I come up with ideas, the first thing I do is write down every idea I come up with that has some merit. Cause it's hard to come up with ideas on the spot.

The second thing I do is I try to do is take a presixsting game and think about variations which could be made on it. For example, I might think about Bejeweled, and what are the key components of that game, and then try to think of how I might change things up.

With Bejeweled you swap tiles to make groups of three of the same color. You can only swap tiles if they make a match. You can only swap them on the horizontal or vertical. The game is laid out on a grid. New jewels appear from the top when old ones disappear.

So I might think, what if I laid the game out on a hex grid instead? Or what if the player could swap any jewel and not just ones that make a match? Or what if the obejct was to clear the board rather than having new jewels appear from the top? Or what if the player had to clear jewels from the bottom as new ones fell at a constant rate from the top? Or what if each jewel had not one color it could be matched with, but two?

Inspiration can come from many places. Coming up with a cool theme first gave me all sorts of ideas for powerups in a swapping game I developed for someone. Sometimes a whole new game mechanic idea can rise from that as well.

http://www.addictinggames.com for somemore flash games

one of the match 3 but not games already does that cant remember its name but even if there are 5 joined green squares they wont go unless you click on them



sounds like columns ;)



sort of mixed with dr mario then
i can see that working
instead of swapping tiles around you could just rotate to compare all 4 sides

For creative inspiration, remove yourself entirely from the electronic world. Go out into the forest and camp alone for a few days. Sit before the camp fire and silence your mind. Let your energetic systems rejuvenate.

Creativity will flow naturally from a healthy body and a well-rested mind.

Sounds flakey? Try it and see ;-)

Oh, I know there are games out there like that. Snood for example is a game where the object is to clear the board. And one of my other examples was to try to keep the board clear as pieces fall from the top at regular intervals. But they did that in super collapse. :-)

The hard part isn't coming up with ideas, it's coming up with original ideas.

Why just yesterday I thought of combining a word game with mahjong, and then I immediately realised someone else had surely already come up with that, and sure enough, there's a popular game on the PC, Nintendo DS, and every other platform they could get it onto which is based on that concept!

Of course, an original concept is only part of what makes a game fun. Look at Peggle. You just aim balls at pegs and fire. 90% of what makes that game fun are the insane animations and sound effects which accompany your "achievements".

But that's not exactly going to help our friend here who wants to enter a design contest. For that he's gotta come up with an original idea that anyone can see would be fun regardless of the implementation.

thanks sswift for your answer to another post ! :)

here's another interesting article :

http://www.edge-online.co.uk/archives/2005/10/taito_men_talk.php

I agree with DavidDC.

Although sometimes its good to look at other games for ideas, for an truly original idea, its best to stop looking at other games and do other things.

Otherwise you may end up copying an idea unknowingly.

It's hard to come up with something really new these days.

To create a really original game you should create a game that doesn't fit in any known category like First person shooter, Role playing game etc.
Also thinking of new original themes is very hard these days, look how may WW2 games there are for example.

So it's probably 99% chance you end up copying something anyway in gameplay.



This idea is not new, google up the game Incoming from Rage. You have turret levels and levels where you end in another verhicle.

I'm not sure that there is such a thing as creativity. The concept seems similar to Creationism in some ways - an idea that something new can spring out of nothing. In actual fact, what we call "creativity" is akin to the evolutionary process. Seemingly fresh and new and innovative ideas are little more than extrapolations of what has gone before or hybrids, formed from the merging of previously disparate ideas. So, then, this being the case, "creativity" is probably derived from either:

Knowledge and experience; an awareness and understanding of what has gone before, enabling one to build upon (by enhancing or expanding) past ideas.

or

Ignorance; the haphazard, accidental discovery of something new and fresh. Often born out of experimentation with and development of ideas that are commonly accepted to "not work very well" or, at least, to "not work well together".

sometimes something will happen to me and it will give me a great
idea for a game.

For instance, I was outside in the garden watering my plants, when
suddenly a bee came flying straight at me and I dodged to the side
so it wouldn't hit me. And I got the idea for my Bee Dodger MiniGame
in The Time Of The Dark.

Even just listening to music I can get good ideas.
I sat down and listened to all my mod files recently and came up with
a small minigame inspired by each tune.
There was one file that sounded to me like someone died, so I came
up with a minigame to go with it, where you play a group of monks
whos leader has died, and you must transport him to the sacred burial
ground at the top of a mountain.
Along the way several hilarious mishaps will happen, and the monks
must defend their leaders body at all costs. Even if it means sacrificing
their own lives.(Thats why I'm going to give the player a lot of monks.)

As for your contest game, try to do something that no one has ever
seen before. Something so unique and fun, that they have no choice
but to pronounce it the winner.
Or if you take a fairly common style of game,(Like an action game) at
least mix it up a bit. Add some unusual elements to the game that
make it different from the other action games that are out there.
Just be sure to make it as memorable as possible.

And good luck to you with the contest,

The Mighty WERDNA(Lord Of Darkness)

I remember reading in Retro Gamer (I think) that Mathew Smith of Miner Willy fame ate some funny mushrooms while doing Jet Set Willy: which would explain quite a lot of the crazy game levels.

You got it. You don't necessarily have to 'copy' ideas, but they can certainly inspire you to do something similar. Originality isn't the extreme easy anymore.

There are no more einsteins. All ideas are based off others now =P

Thank you all for your posts, great discussion.
Now to develop something! :D

Bee dodging?

Been done:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=KJ-5Mg_12zo

LOL.

What about an RPG where your completly blind?
You can't see ANYTHING!

Has That been done before?
I think not!
(Technically I haven't done it yet, but I'm working on it)

The Mighty WERDNA(Lord Of Darkness)

It's called text-based

I actually thought of doing a game where you were completely blind. The idea was born out of the desire to create something without all those expensive graphics. The idea wasn't to do a text adventure though, it was to make a game where your only description of an area was provided by sound or some kind.

I never really worked out how the game would play though. It always came back to having to have some sort of text element for describing touch, or things you accuire.

I had a similar idea, Shawn! Not really a completely blind game, but one that could be played by blind / mobility impaired people. I was thinking sort of a platformer controlled by sound, where everything has a unique noise and can be thus picked out from the surroundings very quickly. It would leave a door wide open for some quite ingenious musical levels, assuming someone could come up with actual gameplay...

I guess it would have something to do with transporting these items of musical nature, perhaps matching various rhythms and tones, or collecting instruments / learning sounds to get past gates.

It's really just an individual's unique experiences in life which add up to an epiphany. Although there are some people who argue that point I believe it to hold true. Anyone who disagrees has just never had an epiphany. Think of your experiences in life like ingredients in a recipe. The proper combination produces amazing results.

I start out by looking at where things are currently at. I look at current games, current technologies, current approaches, current game styles. Then I start to question it. I really like to get into abstract concepts and lateral thinking and having a deeper understanding of why things have been done the way they have. I like to question why something was done in the manner that it was, what it was trying to achieve, and why it was trying to achieve it. Usually this yields prior steps and foundational decisions which I also bring into question.

I like to really get into philosophy, which is kind of a matter of how you approach a problem, what the problem is, why it exists, whether it really does exist and whether there is a different approach that would be more effective.

I also like to interpret the symbolism in games and what the game `means`. The whole psychology of it all. There are themes, concepts, messages, statements, assumptions, archetypes, ego behavior, deeper meanings etc to consider. I try to find out what those are in order to get down to what is `really` going on. I do that until I come to a deeper understanding. I consider things like metaphysics, the dynamics of the ego, human behavior, etc in trying to find a kind of intellectual comprehension of what it is that people enjoy, what makes for a good game, why certain aspects of a game work and other's don't, in order to come up with a refined `formula` for good games in general. From that standpoint I then use that as a solid foundation to build upon.

I take some inspiration from some other games, but I do believe that there is very limited creativity in using existing material to create something new. That's essentially just regurgitation. If there is going to be something creative, original, and inspirational, then it has to come from *within*. It can't just be a reflection of outward experiences. Creativity comes from within and flows outwards. Usually when I've got down to a foundation and start to build on it, the creativity starts to flow and ideas just come to me.

In a way, I think that my digging down into existing material and questioning it and clearing it gives me something of a clean slate and a clear perspective with which to advance. In that regard I agree that taking time away from computers and especially away from other people's games can be exactly what you need to get in touch with your own inner creativity.

You also have to question your motives and you must consider where you are `coming from` mentally and spiritually. Everything you create is an extension of what's going on in your mind, period. If your mind is cluttered and noisy and distracted, or if you dwell on perceptions that do not yield clarity (I'm putting it nicely), then what you create will merely reflect that. Creativity starts in the mind and then becomes manifest in form, so you'd better be sure that the true source of your creation is itself polished and purified, if that's what you expect your game to be. As within so without.

Your greatest game development tool is not the language you use or the IDE you use or the platform you develop on or the assets you own or the type of game you like to play. It's your mind. Everything comes from that. If your mind is not thinking well, your game is going to reflect it. If your mind as wonderful imagination, your game will reflect it. Whatever you envision you can create.

I think that if you are heavily into playing games and are exposing yourself to games a lot and are being a receiver of game experiences, and if you really `buy into` those games and get into a little fantasy world reality of your own, then you're really not in a position to do anything creative yourself. You have to shed all that old stuff and make some space for yourself for your ideas to flow into. Many many people are really excited about playing games and then think they can create them just as easily, but all they end up doing is copying what they loved about those games because they can't get those games out of their heads. You have to almost be a non-game-player in order to have enough detachment to make clear effective decisions and to create something that isn't already `out there`. That's my viewpoint, anyway.

Some great game designers aren't really players but then again some are. I don't think you have to shield yourself from other games rather you just have to realize when you're recreating something that's already been done.

No matter how you look at it though all creativity is a form of regurgitation. A person basically spits back out what they've been fed ... but everyone's figurative vomit is going to be different because none of us have experienced exactly the same things in life.

@Jeremy - that sounds disgusting ! - lol

The Game IS NOT TEXT BASED!

It is based mainly on sound.

And it WILL be unlike anything you've ever seen before.

The Mighty WERDNA(Lord Of Darkness)

I don't think creativity comes from the past, because that would imply that at the big bang there was a sudden mass event of creativity and absolutely nothing else since then has been added. Rather I consider that all of `time` from past present to future all happens at once and creativity is spread throughout all of time. There are things we're seeing now and will see in future that have never existed in the history of the universe.

Right but it's not different then say the creation of salt. Just a combination of two previously existing things. In game design people just cross two or more previous experiences to create a new one.

You can make salt?
AFAIK you don't make salt, you just extract it from sea water (or mine and refine it).

I think that an idea doesnt come imediately, ideas are constructed, just like a building is constructed, and just like arquitecture, good game design requires knowledge and understanding.

What matters in a game is not the ideas, dont worry about them, rather worry about the player and what you want the player to feel, then after that comes the "how" to make it feel that way, thats the hard part.

This is a forum, but its actually used as a library for resources to learn game design, i hope it helps you.
http://indieart.18.forumer.com/

Nice post, ImaginaryHuman :)

Well, you're right Christian223, I did really get an idea for the contest...but now the "how" is turning to be difficult. Guess I'll work it out somehow :D

I'm glad you got an idea for your game.

If you need any help refining it, I'm sure that everyone here would
be happy to help you.

Good Luck to you in the contest,

The Mighty WERDNA(Lord Of Darkness)

Thank you, kind WERDNA. I'll post the outcome!

Awesome, I look forward to seeing it.

The Mighty WERDNA(Lord Of Darkness)

It comes from your experience with gaming, as well as from life experience, and from the inner toughts (like in a sleep state, when you are dreaming). It's the same with making music. You get ideas when in a state of self zen, and you translate them to the medium that you are accustomed with. For making games, it is best to write down on a piece of paper the sorties, drawings and other artistic toughts. Long ago, there was a game company called Synapse, which understood how to be creative (they had the right company name, no?). It's a brain exercise, but also a social one.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synapse_Software

Sorry for grave-digging the topic, but I thought I owed to this topic to show my entry for the contest: it's a racing game. I called it Mach Speed. Couple of features are the Waypoint guided NPC cars and the ability to play whatever .mp3 and .wav music you put in the AUDIO\MUSIC directory of the game.
some screens:



Got 2 votes already. Average is 1 vote per project. Voting ends in 7 days. Good luck for me :D

PS: The full competition projects may be seen in http://forum.unidev.com.br/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=45359
(it's in portuguese, though, but it's enough to see the screens)

I think that's a bit extreme - but if you can cultivate the ability to shut out the world for minutes at a time to let your mind crawl over an issue/problem and freely associate with your experience and imagination, then you're well on your way to being 'creative'

Just think about stuff, try and find something interesting and see if any gameplay related connections can be made. Sleep on it and see if anything good comes out of it when you wake up in the morning. At which point you might be awake, sober and better able to judge whether anything worthwhile came out of your ramblings.

Tell your buddies about it and if they are as enthused as you, they might throw some other angles at you which establish an idea with broader appeal.

The only thing I can suggest, is dont try to think too hard. (yes this post is now old). If you sit there to yourself thinking "what game can i make", you will probably just come up with ideas of games that you have played before.

What if you took something that has happened in your life, slap a different theme onto it, expand the idea and turn it into a game. Here is an example:

- Building a tower of cards
- theme it around placing girders instead of cards, set it on a building site with cute builder characters / cranes / etc that build your tower.
- add in some special blocks, large chunks you have to prepare for and balance
- what about earth quakes ?
- what about multiplayer head to head with special attacks ?
- maybe have it so you have a rock climber that you have to create a path for in order to collect items ?
- maybe you have to support a crumbling building with scaffolding/reinforcements.

That just rolled off my head by thinking outside the box of "game ideas" but rather "fun/normal activities"


Heres another:
- Opening a door.
- what if you had a screen of various doors on mini houses
- people could turn up and you have to answer the door
- there could people you dont want to answer to, loosing points
- there could people who only stay for a very short amount of time before leaving (bonus points)
- there could be different types of residents in different themed houses, these people would prefer certain visitors (eg hippy house doesn't want to see canvasing politician, christian house doesn't want to see jehovas witnesses)
- more and more people could move into your neighbourhood
- doors could be jammed requiring more work to open
- a frantic click fest.

It's the same as a musician writing a #1 hit song. Constant thought. Thinking. Trial and error. But the main thing is not giving up.