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What sparks your creativity?

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Juzek
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Where does your creativity come from?
Some times when I get depressed or stressed, it just goes away. What kinds of things do you do to spark creativity? Is it a set of circumstances you put yourself into? Is it time alone?

It seems I go through ups and downs. How could I possibly make a career out of game design if I can't consistently be creative?

What gets your creative juices flowing?

X3M
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Juzek wrote:Where does your

Juzek wrote:
Where does your creativity come from?
Some times when I get depressed or stressed, it just goes away. What kinds of things do you do to spark creativity? Is it a set of circumstances you put yourself into? Is it time alone?

It seems I go through ups and downs. How could I possibly make a career out of game design if I can't consistently be creative?

What gets your creative juices flowing?


Exact same problem here.
Although, my work starts suffering from having so much work.
No peace of mind, destroys a lot.
And often, people around you who don't understand will only amplify the effect.
Find the roots of the problem and cut them. Also get away from the negative people. Get some rest till you feel so bored from it. Then you could do something you like. Till eventually idea's pop up in your head.

questccg
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I feel like I am less productive when...

I'm forced to play around. I mean that I need to keep track of what I am doing... And it basically sucks a lot of my energy.

Just living normally is better since I don't need to remember what I had for breakfast, lunch and supper.

Not to mention having at least one first in my day... Is also a pain in the @ss.

Hopefully things resume the normal way soon enough. Cheers!

RadarLockGames
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Getting the juices flowing

Good Afternoon Juzek (and ALL!).
This is what works for me, try what you want and purge the rest.
First for me, I can't rush the creative process. If you rush it, the product will never come out the way you want it, it will frustrate you that much more and you have wasted time, energy and maybe broken something in frustration.
Second for me, when I am good to go, I make sure my background helps feed the creativity. Example, I am working on few games, I am working a WWII navy board game so I don a WWII captain's cap, I am working on a modern navy flight board game so I don a aircraft carrier flight deck helmet and I am working on a 1850 trooper/cannon/horse board game based on Iron Maiden's song the Trooper so I blast that as I write... is it silly/dumb? Absolutely! But it works for me
Third, when the fires of creativity die down, walk away from it. Go for a walk, go for a drive, take a nap, think about something else. Take a notepad with you though or a small recording device so that when you have a flare-up of creativity you have something to write down the idea. Too many ideas have been thought up and lost because I thought "I will remember" that. I never remember.
Fourth, This is your game/process, don't allow anyone to ruin it for you.
Dano
Radar Lock Games

questccg
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Juzek wrote:It seems I go

Juzek wrote:
It seems I go through ups and downs. How could I possibly make a career out of game design if I can't consistently be creative?

I think you need to establish a BRAND. A really memorable game with a future with one or many expansions (in some way).

I personally prefer designing very different games, but with properties that include the possibility to build upon a "core".

That's how I feel like games that are designed with branding in mind. An example is Dominion... Just as a point of reference.

let-off studios
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Outside Stimulus

Juzek wrote:
What gets your creative juices flowing?
Sitting in my room, wondering why I'm not doing anything worthwhile, rarely shakes me out of a funk. So I put myself in motion, mentally or physically.

  • I walk or bike in nature.
  • I grab a random book off the shelf, and sit in the sun with it, skimming until I find an interesting chapter.
  • I reach out to others in some way, and ask for input.
  • I use random generators I find on the Internet.
  • In all things, have accountability - and a deadline - to finish. It's either made for me, or I set it up myself.
  • Once you are working, put away the smartphone. Literally: take out the battery and put it in a drawer for two hours or whatever.

For a while now, I've been making video games based on random factors and restrictions, or I request criteria from others, and use those as the main guidelines for the work I make. Maybe it's the place I'm in mentally or emotionally, but I've found that I've finished two video game projects earlier this year, which I find to be my best works yet. Both of them were the result of someone else giving me guidelines, and then me applying my abilities and discipline to those guidelines.

The fact that I received random input helps jar my mind out of its rut. Then the fact that not only am I'm making something for someone else, but that I have a deadline to complete it, forces me to do a part of the project "good enough" and then move on, instead of obsess over perfection.

Oh, and I strongly recommend you read the books The War of Art by Steven Pressfield, and Atomic Habits by James Clear.

tikey
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Juzek wrote:It seems I go

Juzek wrote:
It seems I go through ups and downs. How could I possibly make a career out of game design if I can't consistently be creative?

I've been practicing design for years (not just board game design which is a hobby for me) and waiting for the creative spark is the worst thing you can do. Creativity comes from doing, from exploring alternatives, working on your prototypes, failing, learning and doing, doing and more doing.

Creativity is a muscle. So the more you train the better it gets (and also it gets atrophied if you don't use it). You won't ever be consistent with it but it does come reliably from a design process.

Juzek wrote:
What gets your creative juices flowing?

What you can to train your creativity is to be always exploring, to broaden your interests. The more you know about anything the more stuff you have to create connections in your mind.
Exposing yourself to new things and experiences is a great way to flex your creative muscle.

RawApples09
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Juzek wrote:Where does your

Juzek wrote:
Where does your creativity come from?
Some times when I get depressed or stressed, it just goes away. What kinds of things do you do to spark creativity? Is it a set of circumstances you put yourself into? Is it time alone?

It seems I go through ups and downs. How could I possibly make a career out of game design if I can't consistently be creative?

What gets your creative juices flowing?

This is a great questions and everyone finds creativity from different sources and experiences. You can't control WHEN you will be creative, but you can control the TIME you give yourself during the day to experiment, create, ingest, and let your mind be open and focused.

If you sit down and think "Now, I shall be creative!" there is this immense pressure that if you aren't creative in this time, then you've failed. Visiting new or influential places, talking to people, and seeing prime examples of what is already out there can all spark creativity.

Take notes or sketches during those times and apply bits and pieces from all those moments and experiment with them during the time you give yourself to tinker, sketch, or whatever you might do. This can be helpful so that you don't have to remember all those things you thought of the other day and will hopefully relieve some of the pressure, especially when there is a financial burden.

I hope this helps and good luck!

questccg
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Taking notes also helps too

Like some of the other Game Designers have said, ideas can come at any time from a plethora of sources. The key is to have a notebook handy to write down those ideas.

And when you have some free time to review the notes, this can spark more thoughts on the topic at hand whatever the nature of your notes...

tikey
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questccg wrote:Like some of

questccg wrote:
Like some of the other Game Designers have said, ideas can come at any time from a plethora of sources. The key is to have a notebook handy to write down those ideas.

And when you have some free time to review the notes, this can spark more thoughts on the topic at hand whatever the nature of your notes...

Yes! Always having a notebook with you is an amazing advice.

lewpuls
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You guys sparked me to . . .

make a video for my Game Design channel. It isn't released yet, but this URL seems to work (for me at least):

https://youtu.be/1pGV1KXvZZI

Rick-Holzgrafe
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tikey wrote:questccg

tikey wrote:
questccg wrote:
Like some of the other Game Designers have said, ideas can come at any time from a plethora of sources. The key is to have a notebook handy to write down those ideas.

And when you have some free time to review the notes, this can spark more thoughts on the topic at hand whatever the nature of your notes...

Yes! Always having a notebook with you is an amazing advice.

Agreed. Although my notebook is just my cell phone. When I get an idea, I send myself an email. It sits in my in-box until I have time at home to deal with it, and then it becomes a more fleshed-out discussion in my folder full of game design notes and ideas.

let-off studios
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Own Atomic Habits

let-off studios wrote:
Oh, and I strongly recommend you read the books The War of Art by Steven Pressfield, and Atomic Habits by James Clear.

Atomic Habits is currently on sale (as of this writing: less than US$13). I typically don't purchase or recommend books from Amazon, but there's no other place new copies of the book are available.

Stormyknight1976
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Check out

Check out lulu.com. Not sure if you have heard of this website. My friend got his book Grimmgard put together on this site.

Stormyknight1976
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My creativity

My creativity comes from window Shopping and from anywhere and anything.

Even by a physical act of twirling a cup on top of a marker becomes a game. This design became Cup O' Saucers.

Picking up 3 objects or what ever becomes a game. Even hiding a yellow rubber ducky in the local grocery store and then tell your friends to go look for it. Yes, it literally happened. We came up with this game just as we were shopping for food for dinner. So fun and hilarious.

Do all of our games need to be sold? Nope, not really. Even singing a random sentence and having your friends sing the phrase and then add to it. Goes around the circle by adding something new to the sentence.

That is what gets my creativity flowing.

Jesse

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