Ideation in Game Design
In which I discuss how I come up with game ideas and the things that clog the machine...
The Creative Wellspring
The first stage of creativity, at least for me, is coming up with ideas. The “art” of ideation—or generating ideas—is often messy and wild. Inspiration can strike at any time, any place, for any reason. Sometimes it’s overwhelming, taking all of my focus until I’ve written down the idea. This, I think, is my brain’s way of preserving the idea, preventing it from getting lost in the ebb and flow of creative energy.
I said in my article on the “Highs and Lows of Game Design” that “at any given time, I have ideas for at least five games,” and this is absolutely true, if perhaps lowballing the number. So, it makes sense to talk about how to generate ideas—or, at least, how I generate them. As with all things creative, there is no one-size-fits-all approach. It’s a process of trial and error. I hope that the…ideas…I present here will at least get your mind rolling. Let’s jump in and see where the current takes us.
The Idea Generator
For me, ideas often come from the various media and art I consume. Of late, I’ve been most inspired by video games. I’ve played a fair bit of Intelligent System’s Fire Emblem over the last six months (five titles to date). There’s a whole article about the differences between a TTRPG that leverages strategy like Fire Emblem, Tactics Ogre, and Unicorn Overlord and wargames, so I won’t get into that here. Suffice to say that, while playing Fire Emblem: Three Houses, one of the ideas that became Bright Crescent Company was born. In Three Houses, your fielded units are often limited in number (usually around 8-12), while the number of units in the army is much larger. One of the ways this is circumvented is by assigning inactive units as adjutants. Adjutants offer bonuses based on their class, such as follow-up attacks, damage negation, or healing.
In Bright Crescent Company, your Commander leads a small company of four other units that offer similar bonuses. The Pike unit gives attack advantages against 4-legged and serpentine enemies (inspired by real-world pikes and art of St. George and the dragon), while the Chirugeon can clear conditions (like poison) and restore hit protection. This mechanic simplifies combat to the Commander’s rolls (hit and damage), while still allowing the company units to have important functions.
Of course, Fire Emblem and Jake Zemeckis’s AP of Blackoath Games’ Over War also gave me ideas for a more tactical solo TTRPG with a bit more focus on individual units and/or squads. Over War does a great job of emulating Tactics Ogre/Unicorn Overlord style gameplay, but I wanted a more grounded set of units and more streamlined mechanics. I spent all the waiting time at a recent appointment jotting down ideas and play-testing them on my phone. It produced something I think could be fun with a bit more refinement.
Ideas can also come from conversation. Recently, SolumProtocol posted a note about wanting to experience feelings from a variety of video games in their solo TTRPGs. In the comments we discussed how one might create a TTRPG that emulated the experience of The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. The ideas immediately started flowing in. There’s a lot to be said about creating in community. At least for me, having someone (or multiple someones) to mutually bounce ideas off of not only produces new concepts but helps to sharpen and clarify existing ones.
Toward a Morrowind experience: A d100 roll-under skill-based resolution mechanic would be the foundation for a game like this. Travel wouldn’t require a roll, though encounters and encounter likelihood would. Combat would be tough to emulate from the video game (since it’s active and not turn based) and would definitely be crunchy. Expect a post about this sometime soon.
Clogs in the Machine
Ideas can come from almost anywhere, but one of the quickest ways to clog up the ideation machine is consuming the wrong things. In this modern world of smart phones and social media promoting short-form content designed to generate views, doom scrolling is a perpetual problem. I know that I struggle with it, especially on days when my motivation is flagging or I’m tired. It’s so easy to open up an app and scroll the inanity of digital existence.
Now, I’m not saying all social media is bad, or that it prevents or restricts creativity. I’ve been inspired plenty by watching creators on the apps make art, paint miniatures, build terrain, or discuss various historical and scientific events. Finding those creators takes a fair bit of effort, though. I think one could argue that there are better things to use your time on. The real take away is that whatever media you consume, whether it’s playing video games or reading novels, scrolling social media or watching tv, you should consume those things that feed the creativity.
If consuming the wrong kinds of content can slow down the creative engine, overthinking is all too often going to burn it out completely. Just like any other kind of work, being creative can lead to burn out. I’ve been there more times than I can count. I’ve worked so hard, put all of this energy into developing ideas, creating a thing, and then, before it’s finished my brain decides that it’s just not capable of doing anything else. I’m starting to venture into this with Bright Crescent Company after the first playtest led me to the conclusion that I needed to rework the encounter/contents tables (expanding from one table with 34 potential outcomes to nine tables with 11 potential outcomes each).
Creativity demands sacrificing your need to be productive.
How do you combat this feeling? By doing one of the hardest things ever: let yourself take a break. Do things that let your brain turn off a bit. Take a shower, go for a walk, take a drive, read a book, or anything that relaxes you. I have a hard time allowing myself to rest, but once I do, the ideas begin to flow again, often triggering even more potential projects or mechanics to work on. Don’t expect it to be an instantaneous thing though. Sometimes you need a prolonged break—a week, a month, maybe more. That’s ok. Creativity demands sacrificing your need to be productive.
Regarding a solo tactical wargame I encourage you to check out Danger Close. Haven't started yet but the concepts introduced sound interesting.
Great insights. Sadly my constraint is usually time. I usually have to work in little time frames that make projects take longer, but sometimes I think of something better while waiting to finish a project. I usually don't have a problem being creative.