Ideas & Metaphors

Start creating a schematic of an Idea System – a systematic method you can start to deploy in your game design activities. Is it like a Machine (an Idea Machine)? Is it a world, or is it embodied by a set of inhabitants? Can it be embodied as a Quest? Start fleshing out this Idea System in your journal. Where are you now in the ideation process for your gaming project? Sketch this out as a journey and show your progress and possible problems you may encounter.

After spending some time recollecting previous experiences of my creative attempts, I've come up with a map of what I think is a pretty accurate representation of my thought patterns in my creative process. Note that this mindmap isn't only representative of my creative process in game designing, but is applicable to anything that requires me to unleash my creativity.



One interesting thing to note about my ideation process is that the creative bits often come not in the early conceptualisation parts, but in the parts where I flesh out and fine-tune the product (the third and fourth phases in the map). This realisation struck me sudden and hard after my first year of game designing, but it brought me to focus alot more on unleashing creativity through the execution of concepts rather than through the novelty of my concepts. It is difficult to conceive of something entire new in this day and age, but easy to conceive of new ways to do old things and bring brand new ways of looking at age old things.

I wouldn't consider my ideation process mechanical though, because even though the processes behind ideation remain mostly the same, my ideation process focuses heavily on user experience. Art is, afterall, made for humans, so I make it a point to ensure that whatever I do evokes the right feelings and emotions in my audience. Machines use logic to reach a decision, but my ideation process focuses mainly not on whether things can logically work out, but whether they give out the right feeling to the audience. My ideation process is more like a little world--governed by certain ground rules and "laws", but with inhabitants that quite frequently do things that surprise me in both pleasant and unpleasant ways.

In my studio project, I forsee that the entire process will be similar to the way I laid out my ideation process in the mindmap. There will, of course, be problems met along the way in the form of initially conceived good-on-paper ideas that do not work, which means there will be a need to find solutions for them. There will be many of such problems, some of them small, others big and crippling; but in the end, I believe that no matter how much problems surface, they will all be fixed to a degree that is at least acceptable.

Is your personal system of ideation effective or are you using the same old recycled methods? How do you think you can be more efficient in getting top quality ideas, and to have good criteria for quality? In what ways can you boost the quality of your own ideas? How do you choose the right (and best) idea? How do you know?

I think that my personal system of ideation is quite effective, as it is organic and constantly yields me pleasing end results that are not quite what I've expected in the beginning. I have to admit, though, that it is far from being the best ideation system.

Some of the best ideas that have been conceived in the world did not come from ideation systems, which requires what I like to label "compulsive thinking" on the part of the person formulating the idea. These ideas were spontaneous--they came out in moments where the mind was still, as perfectly organic reactions from deep within the person. Einstein himself was once quoted as saying that thinking "plays only a subordinate part in the brief, decisive phase of the creative act itself" when asked to comment on his working methodologies.

I believe in spontaneous ideation because I have benefitted from it in many instances--moments of my life where I attempt endeavours without a "grand plan of success". My best presentation speeches, my best DotA games, my best socialising attempts--they were all achieved with minimal planning and expectations. I believe that my state of mind during these instances was free of the burden of plans, and thus it was functioning at full effectiveness in coping with whatever was needed of it at the moment.

I have yet to find a reliable way to factor in the power of spontaneity into my ideation system (largely because having an ideation system is having a plan, and being spontaneous means having no plans), but I believe that it can be done. When that happens, I believe that my ideation system will take a great leap forward. Right now, one of the ways I'm attempting to insert spontaneity into my creative process is by putting myself in places and situations that I've never been before. Not only can this potentially serve as a good source of inspiration, it's a great excuse to have for attending parties and such.

That said, let me reiterate that the best ideas are spontaneous ones, as they are the most natural (and as a result, best) reaction to what nature throws at us (this paragraph was to answer the last two questions, in case I haven't answered them with the wall of text above).

Consider the metaphor that your life is a game (and a really important one at that!). How then are you playing your life? What are the obstacles in your way? Who are the villains and helpers in this game? How can you play this game better? Explore this metaphor in conjunction with Question 1, and come up with more questions to answer on your own.

If life was a game, I would say that I've just learnt how to play it the right way, since I've been continuously working towards achieving the things I want in life, and I've been seeing positive results. In this sense, I believe the only obstacle in my way is my own confidence in myself, because it has been a huge determinant in whatever I did in life. Having confidence in life means succeeding, and succeeding means getting what I want, which leads to me being happy. Happiness then leads towards more self-confidence, which leads to success, and so on...

While this entire imagery of repetition that I've made up about my life may seem boring, I think it is a little blueprint that gives me fulfillment in life, and improving my life means finding ways to sustain this cycle. For some time now, I've been finding reliable sources of happiness in my life, because happiness is like a fuel that powers this cycle, and it is easily lost if you derive happiness from the wrong sources. The past few months of my life have thus been dedicated to finding the little things in my life that are worth being happy about--the rest of my life will continue to fall in place if I guard this aspect well.

Semiotics and the World of Ideas

Go to the net and do some research on the Structuralists, and get familiar with some of the ideas they have expounded. How are these ideas useful to you as a game designer?

Structuralists, simply, are people who approach the study of human science by attempting to analyse a specific field of human life (e.g. mythology, linguistics) as a complex system of interrelated parts.

As a designer, I think that the structuralist way of looking at the world has provided me with valuable insight as it reveals to me another paradigm with which to look at the world at. Understanding how to see the world from different viewpoints helps me to reach a greater understanding of human culture as a whole, which is always beneficial to me as a games designer, seeing that an integral part of games designing is creating new experiences for the users.

I do think, however, that the structuralist's way of thinking can be detrimental to creativity in certain instances, because structuralism seems to me as though it has an unhealthy obsession with finding patterns in things. Some aspects of humanity can never be quantified--at least not by humans themselves--and this is what structuralists seem to be trying very hard to do (in my opinion).

Compare the idea of an idea, from a "normal" point of view, as opposed to the idea of an idea, according to Semiotics.

In society, an idea is often met with positivity. Ideas are associated with intellect and creativity, and people who put out ideas on a regular basis are usually seen as more capable than their more mellow peers. We forget that the idea can be preceded by the word "bad". That being said, my idea of an idea, expressed in as layman a way as possible, is this: a conception of an something based on prior understanding of the subject or subjects at hand. The semiotic take of an idea is probably not very much different; from my understanding, their take on it is that an idea is something that can be signified by signs (i.e. expressed in language, pictorials, etc.)

How are metaphors useful to your work? What are some metaphors that you are familiar with, know of, or use, in your daily life? Illustrate 3 metaphors in your Blog Journal.

Metaphors are useful in helping us imply certain ideas or invoke certain imagery in the minds of people who are playing my games. The human mind is something that enjoys inserting its own inputs into the things it perceives. In the case of games, having metaphors in a game causes the human mind to have more of an attachment to the game, as giving out messages in metaphorical form forces the mind to "fill in the blanks", making it feel a sense of belonging to the game. Using metaphors to give out messages also gives more depth and intrigue to the messages being sent out.

Metaphors also pervade our society--it is almost universally accepted, for example, that roses represent love and passion; that lions represent pride and strength; and that monkeys represent mischief.

On paper, conceptualise an Idea Map to map out the scope and limit of your own knowledge, not just of play/gaming, but of the larger known world of ideas. What are the Peaks and Valleys in your Idea World? What are the Swamps of uncertainties and Stormy seas of the unknown? Explore this world and journal your thoughts on this journey.

Upon drafting out an idea map, I've realised that the scope of my knowledge of this world can be categorised into three groups: knowledge of social issues and workings, conventional science and awareness of spirituality. I'll expound on each of these.

Knowledge of social issues and workings basically encompasses what its name implies--how well versed one is when it comes to interacting and dealing with people, and how much one knows about the events happening around us, both locally and globally. I like to think that when it comes to interacting with people, I'm quite aware of the various subtleties behind human communication, like the little nuances of body language. I can be, on many instances, aware of what people are thinking when they are communicating with me, though I have to admit that when it comes to dealing with difficult people and situations, I am lacking. I am also pretty oblivious to worldly events, except the most significant ones, like the recent swine flu affair.

Knowledge of conventional science is basically the understanding of how our world works--physics, chemistry and biology. Out of all of the conventional sciences, I am most fluent with physics, having a rather clear understanding of the ideas behind Newtonian mechanics, Albert Einstein's relativity, and a little bit of quantum mechanics. My scope of knowledge for chemistry isn't as advanced, though I do possess understanding of basic chemical methods and how they work. I have to say though, my grasp of the ideas of convential science does not go deep--for most cases, I only know their concepts, and am unable to apply their formulae to derive answers (except for Newtonian mechanics).

Awareness of spirituality refers to how much understanding one possesses of the world's variety of religions, and why people seek them so. The reason why I titled this category "awareness of spirituality" instead of simply "understading of religions" is because religions all offer pretty much the same thing--a source of happiness that is independent of the happenings of our world; something which everyone needs. I have explored this aspect of life quite abit and learnt much about religion as a result. While I do not claim to know very much about religions, I can safely say that most of the mainstream religions in the world point towards the same thing in different ways; and what is this thing that they point to, you ask? It points to achieving a state of mind that can be at peace regardless of what the everchanging wolrd around us brings.