Meaningful Musings on all things IP Dev Related

Uncharted Paths

Finding a project idea you are passionate about is important, but how do you do it? What is the process of creative exploration that can ultimately lead you to that wonderful idea that inspires you to no end?

Explore the Possibilities

The key to generating great ideas is to:

• Determine the general direction you want to take overall,

• Brainstorm to explore the possibility space within that general direction from as many perspectives as you can,

• Pick out the top ideas from your brainstorming and explore the possibility space within each of them further.

Let’s say that your general inclination is to make a Shooting Game. Start exploring the possibilities by brainstorming and come up with at least 10-20 different ideas based on that general direction.

Even if there is an idea that you are excited about in your first brainstorming pass you shouldn’t settle on it. Instead pick out your top 5- to-8 ideas from the list of 20 you generated and do another brainstorming pass on them to generate potential “Variations” on each idea.

Explore the Variations

For instance, assume one of the ideas you came up with in the first round of brainstorming was the concept of an Assassination Game. What you would then do is  brainstorm another 10-20 ideas for different takes on that Assassination Game, like so:

• Idea Variation #1: An Assassination Game where the player’s bullets can alter the personality of the people shot, affecting the larger gameworld, choices, and challenges players face.  Players must continually change the political climate of the world in ways that meet their organization’s goals by altering the personalities of key people.

• Idea Variation #2: An Assassination Game where the player is blind and can only hear and sense objects they are touching. Their goal is to discern who their target is within a room of people based on clues and information they have and to assassinate them (perhaps by poison or some other indirect method ).

• etc.

And you continue on and on like that until you find something that inspires you or that you feel genuinely excited to work on. If at any point you feel like you’ve loss interest in an idea or it’s variation, then go back up a level or two and see if there were other variations with more exciting possibilities.

In the end, the goal is to end up with an idea that you are enthralled with. Don’t give up and settle until you’ve found it.

Keep Exploring.

-Kaz