📖Practical Creativity

Study games

Games hierarchy

• A game — unique rule construct

• A reskin or clone — changes presentation or content

• A variant — changes a rule

• A family — a set of variants

• A genre — a set of reskins and their variants

In tabletop games, most of the game are actually new games. For computer games, most stay in some known genre.

Atomization

• Games are made of games → Game subsystems are games

• each input is a game, each subsystem is a game

• build you mechanics library

  • going back to old simple games is useful

  • play mobile games

• distance yourself from the core problem (reframe your problem in a new language)

• books for mechanics library

  • game design patterns

  • game mechanics

inventing new mechanics

• adding statistic can change game

  • e.g., just counting and showing time makes it more likely to be speed-ran

  • (another example is combo count — you try to do more strikes in a series)

  • too much statistics is not always good. if you add new statistic—try removing an old one

• change a dimension

• work in analog materials

• force constraints (constraints improve creativity) → Restrictions enhance creativity

• add new goal

• change input

  • input/control is a game in itself

• change topologies

  • forms of elements / map

• mixing games with similar topologies

• simulate using an oddity. select a non-optimal simulation intentionally

  • e.g., simulate health with territory, simulate 3d with 1d, etc.

• transplant skin

  • action remains the same but it has a different meaning, a new focus

• merge mechanics

art

• theme

  • ask deeper question

    • what game system is about

    • what this mechanic is about

    • what is the goal of mechanic

• start with experience (top-down)

• model an unusual story

  • (goat simulator, etc)

• start from system first (bottom-up)

  • what does mechanic mean? what does it imply?

• use both top-down and bottom-up together — converge at the center

life habits

• creativity is a skill (design a game every day?)

• messy desk increases creativity

• exercise

• sleep

• take notes by hand

• take risks

• positive mood works better (high stress—not)

• read

• avoid homogeneity — introduce more variety in your life

• explain things to other people