Hi, I''ve been thinking alot about game design and I always encountered some problems to make design happened, so I just wondering have you guys ever had this kinda problems before in designing game.. Well, first out of nowhere you were inspired with somekinda design.. and deep inside you know that it''ll be great.. but then after you think about it over and over again to fill up the details.. you are beginning to doubt your idea.. the longer you think about it, the worst it gets, ''till you finally discard your idea.. I always get this kinda feeling, have you too ?? In the end.. I get nowhere.. and that sucks !! Is there a way to invigorate urself when trying to implement ideas into reality ??

It''s just as easy to be excited by your ideas as it is to be discouraged by them.

Just like an artist whose first instinct is the best, looks back at the picture, thinks of a way to improve one little area, and ends up ruining the picture because he thought noone else would appreciate it the way it was.

If you really want to know if your idea is a good one, then present it to people and see how they feel about it. But sometimes even that isn''t always an accurate measure.

How to invigorate yourself? Good question. Anyone have any ideas?

Usually the best way is to write your design or idea and leave it aside for a month or a month and a half... and start immediately in another idea... And so forth and so on with all of your ideas

WHen that month passes by you read what you wrote back then and you''ll see if you like it... you''ll see what''s wrong with it and you''ll discard it if its not good...


But if it is good you''ll rework on it and get yourself a good idea... you''ll have an archive of ideas you can go back and check on later and your work as a game designer wont stop :D

Try posting snippets of your ideas into a forum like this. I''ve noticed people getting lots of good suggestions that way.

Also, sometimes you just need to finish an idea, whether you think it''s the best you could do or not. You''ll learn a lot by trying to really get all the pieces fit together. When I was younger I''d only get 5% of the way through my ideas. Once I got the experience and courage to simplify my ideas so that I would be able to actually finish them, my skills as a designer increased considerably.

Atlas
Developing Genetica, a tiling / seamless textures generator

Q: How long an idea can last ?
A: As long as you want it to.

Know what helps me? A whiteboard. Put it somewhere you''ll see often. Scribble out your ideas on it. You constantly be presented with them - they''ll stay in the front of your mind instead of drifting away.

Also keep in mind you have to be the source of your own motivation. Nothing is intrinsicly boring - you make it boring. Don''t let that happen.

I have the exact stylre of designing as you so all this comes from experience.

I have gone thru many many game ideas. It starts out with a sudden inspiration out of nowhere and it seemes like the best idea ever made to you. Then as you think about it more and more you begin to encounter problems with the design, and once you work thru one problem you encounter many many more untill finally you have to discard the idea.

My advice is if you have design problems do not hesitate to discard the idea. The truth is, and most dont like to admit it, is most game ideas you have arn''t good. Although most seem excellent initially. So if you have problems throw the idea out the window and wait patiently for a new one.

For a long time i was in the same boat as you. None of my ideas seemed to be working, but i was noticing they were getting better and better as I went along. But that is no longer because a game idea came to me which is flawless, for now, and in my opinion extremly fun sounding. And it is starting to get into the more minor details and it is still goin strong. For a while I was having troubles coming up with a strong plot for it (its an rpg) but today out of the blue my entire plot jumped into my mind.

The question is how do you invigorate yourself, the answer is to think up somthin good.

So my advice is if the game isnt goin good discard it and get a new idea, and learn to accept that your ideas arn''t allways good.

You know your game is good if you dont get tose feelings.

Yes it does suck but you do get somthing out of it, experience and better ideas the next time.

So keep on truckin'' and hope you get a good one soon.

The best advice I can give is what I do myself. Whenever I get into what I percieve as a great idea worth persuing, I think about it all day and work it out in my head in as many seamless ways as possible as to how it should look, work, and weither it can be constructed in a relative way to actually coding it. So if I say I''ve got a good game design, I''m saying it because I''ve experienced it in my head and I want the rest of the world to experience it for themselves relatively like I imagined playing it.

- Chris

"Shallow waters may go deeper than they first appear."

I think an idea stays around as long as it is interesting. What you are talking about is at the heart of the creative process. Ideas captivate us and evolve with us over a great time sometimes. I look for interations of the idea evolving over time as an indication of it''s worthyness, but I think about the idea for some time before I decide the degree of implementation it merits.

I always give every idea the basic chance to become fully fleshed, out, so I give it slightly more time than a day; though that might be considered appropriate for many; I could see that.

Rather I give it some time and if I can bring it to at least a basic outline and treatment stage in 2-3 days. I''ll know how much work (approximately) the idea needs after I''ve seen it as fleshed out as I can get on it in three days. Then I decide if I want to draft the model to another degree of detail. Of course, you have to ''plot quickly'' as they say in order to be able to do this, but I believe this is how creativity works anyway.

This requires a lot of documentation, but if you''re good at it, it can only help. I am reminded that Da Vinci wrote more than any other artistic discipline. This is really a case for ''if it''s on the page; it''s on the stage'' I think as developers we know when we have feasability with our complete infomation architecture to go ahead without a complete plan at a certain point confidently.

In the meantime while relying on real time creativity, supplementing that with creativity support activities like writing and art design (any way you dev it) makes game design itself a enjoyable multifaceted process.

I use also as a litmus test how easily the idea will not subside due to new ones. I have some projects that have not progressed past the basic outline and treatment stage for over a decade, but am glad I can produce my current version of work.

A little dev patience is warranted in idea design, and I''m wagering the same holds true for game design. Any good idea is worth persuing, it''s the y axis drill down into the material that permits clues to which to dev and which not. It makes it possible that though you may have twenty ideas that you really want to produce badly, but each is neck and neck of the starting gate of the dev process, you can still develop satisfactory progress on just a few ideas at the same time, and build a production schedule you know is not a waste of time, talent or content.

This ''blue pen'' phenomenon has pervaded the writing business for years, and is symbolic of the ''semi-carnivorous'' attitude that can often be healhty for all design development.

I also make part of my litmus test the amount of time it might take to develop different feature parts of my design brief (every idea deserves at least a two page design brief; that alone should give you the conceptual merit angle, as well as indications of the next stage of development).

I like all my ideas, well, some of the are flat, I''m not Da Vinci by any stretch of the imagination, but I am a consistent creative individual, and give due diligence and discipline to my artcrafts, and their basic requirements of word, image and structure, character and circumstance. This degree of development no matter what other efforts I make, puts me in a place to develop it properly someday if I wanted to.

You document your ideas long enough to a design bried degree, and pretty soon your going to have an arsenal of content within which to lab. These ''initial layer'' of concept docs will eventually form what is called the concept basis of your first creative theories about how you are going to approach design for the rest of your career as a creative entity.

After thinking very deeply for about a decade, and you pass into your second decade of focused and standardized creativity support, eventually you reach the ''supertheory'' stage, and some of the best ideas you''ve ever had come to you, and you get into the ''masterpiece'' zone potential.

If you''ve documented, recorded, or captured while along the way, you''ll have a vast resource of personal technique which to call upon, and though the project may not be complete when implementation is committed by you, but is supported by an amazing amount of detail derived by you without regard to it''s content during the original creative phase (this activity is based upon the creative theory you are not Da Vinci every day, no matter how in tune with your work you are) that will lend perspectives, angles, potentials, clues and anticipatory appetizers to you reinvigoration of creative efforts upon the extant data.

I consider this gravy in the creative idea world. Well documented ideas over time yields great description, which often disguises itself for great thinking. I have taken this cobbler''s approach to design since I can remember. By devving each idea with it''s own merits in the degree to which the idea initially represents itself to the first degree of detail I have something to work with effectively in the future, and in that our creative processes work quite subconsciously at times, this description efforts cements the neurons towards the creative problem we are considering solving.

Wow, didn''t mean to rant, just wanted to create the realization creativity is a very long cycle skill, and support for the volatility of that cyclicality is critical in the faculty''s long term success.

Addy