Notes
Lecture 4
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- show & tell
- coming up with new ideas
How do you come up with ideas?
- most ideas have never been thought of
- most things have never been done
- BY A LOT
- what people do is explore the space *around* what they know
- most work is derivative
- we look for templates to follow
- so, how do we find sources of novelty?
- how do we break the mould
- first, you need different building blocks
- from outside the domain you're working in
- "cross-disciplinary"
- but is much deeper
- the hard part is translating across domain boundaries
- how do I put this in a game?
- be silly
- seek absurd combinations
- as you explore them, some will seem not so absurd
In game design, we normally want to seek fun
- but fun can be elusive at first
So, to summarize
- pick a domain to work in
- grab building blocks from *outside* the domain
- try random combinations
- play with mixing things up
- be as silly as possible!
- filter the silliness for combinations that seem more than silly
- the maaabye moments
- keep picking apart the patterns that catch you until you understand
why they draw your interest
- then, imagine how that will take you towards your goals (i.e., fun)
- be ready to go down multiple blind paths
- when things get frustrating, try something different
- you may find you circle back