From Idea to Game part 1: where do ideas come from?

When I decided I wanted to make a board game I had to come up with some ideas. I hadn't really been into the hobby for a long time, I'd mostly been focused on video games, except for regular games of Chess and Settlers of Catan. Even that I mostly played online. I knew I needed to do some research so I could start generating good ideas for game play and mechanics, as well as themes. Generating ideas starts with gathering inspiration, then brainstorming, and finally focusing in on a vision that compels you to bring it to life.

Let's get a few tools together before we begin. We will need something to record our inspirations, and it should be fairly convenient for us. I tend to use an online note taking tool so I can record ideas on any device I happen to be near. During the brainstorming phase I like to write and draw with by hand, so I use a notebook and pencils. Once I start to get focused, I'll use a variety of digital and analog tools to paint my visions, from photo editors to flow chart software, even construction paper and crayons. Whatever I can get my hands on that I think will let me quickly create and test my ideas. For now, have something handy to take notes and make sure you can keep them a bit organized. A voice recorder, note book, note taking application, or even an online scrapbook are all good choices, use what's most comfortable.

Inspiration should be collected from all over. Start with books or internet searches and look at images and stories and research on things that interest you. Its best to stick with your interests at first because you are familiar with these things already and it is easier to stay interested. Don't be afraid to explore new interests as they come up. Try researching more about these topics by looking into historical information, other artists or media, or by going to museums and talking to people. Take plenty of notes, save links, images, and photos; Start a folder or scrapbook and paste in things that you like and inspire you. Art galleries, movies, theme parks, playgrounds, libraries, the list of places you can go to draw inspiration is endless. Pay attention to different senses, stay in the moment and take in the stimuli around you and think about how each one might be related to a turned into a game.

A photo posted by @|<+;0(\) Games (@aktiongames) on May 4, 2016 at 12:41pm PDT

Another thing that's important here is playing games, and reading about games, game mechanics, and play. There are a number of excellent books including "Rules of Play" and "Challenges for Game Designers" to learn more about games, game play, and game mechanics. Take notes while you read and think through ideas. Don't be afraid to steal, sample, and remix as many good ideas at this phase as you can. There is nothing new under the Sun, great artists steal, and we all stand on the shoulders of giants. And don't forget to play games, seek out new games, go to a meetup or organize a game night. Play new games as often as you can.

Fill up that tank.

Now it's time to brainstorm. They key to brainstorming is three-fold:

1. Take copious notes. 
2. Don't be critical, just put it all down. 
3. Give yourself plenty of time.

Two other things you should do:

• Exercise, get outside and walk or bicycle or do whatever exercise you like to do. 
• Also, take plenty of showers, or baths, or meditate. Showers always give me great ideas.

Once you've got lots of great ideas you should go gather more great ideas. Let the ideas noodle for a while. Find folks with similar interests and talk about the ideas. Get them out there! Its only through contact with the outside world that your ideas will truly begin to take shape and form into something truly compelling.

Eventually, there will be a group of ideas that you will be thinking about all the time or an idea that seems so incredible that you are compelled to explore it. Stop right there and listen to me because you need to do two things right away: focus on that idea and develop it out but you need to do this without falling in love with the idea and getting married to it. This sounds counter intuitive because you need to love your idea to carry it through, and trust me, over time you will fall in love and that is fine. There's a love at first sight thing that happens with our ideas and it's not really love, it's lust. Just like you shouldn't marry someone after a first date, don't marry your idea. It's just a starting point, and you need to be ready to chuck it out if you find it's not a good fit or if a better idea comes along. Trust me, this is harder than you might think, but you can do it.

After a while this becomes natural and you'll find yourself constantly rotating through drawing inspiration, brainstorming, and focusing your ideas. You almost won't be able to stop (I can't!) Keep writing down those ideas! Beware saying yes to new ideas too soon, it is a distraction. Stay focused on completing your goals or working through your focus until you hit a dead end. You'll have a lot of ideas, everything you say yes to takes a little time away from every other idea. Choose wisely, decide on your goals, commit, and then carry it through! It's important to remember that we need to finish something and ship it in order to change the world, even just a little bit.

Now that you've got focus you can start to develop your idea into a prototype. I'll talk about that in the next part coming in a week or so. What's your creative process? Where do you find inspiration? How do you come up with your ideas? Let's talk in the comments.