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Struggling with creativity

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by loureirorg, Nov 13, 2020.

  1. loureirorg

    loureirorg

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    Hey guys,

    I'm a senior programmer starting to develop games as a hobby. I have no problems with coding, but with ideas and creativity, I'm just a void. I'm 0% creativity, 100% coding.

    I'm pretty sure people often have the inverse problem. They have many ideas and have to learn Unity and programming in order to execute their ideas. My situation is the opposite.

    Anyone else ever had the same issue? Struggling with creativity? Any ideas on how to get inspired? How to develop the creative side? How to overcome the lack of ideas?
     
    Lars-Steenhoff likes this.
  2. MDADigital

    MDADigital

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    What games you like? Look to those, maybe there is something missing in that genre?
     
  3. Havyx

    Havyx

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    This might be useful to you. This is a video by Sebastian Lague who made a decent idea-generator.

    Video


    Idea Generator
    https://seblague.github.io/ideagenerator/

    Here are a few examples:

    - A mashup of the basketball and hockey game genres with a grappling-hook mechanic.

    - A blend of the platformer and survival game genres in which you need to collect memories.

    - An unusual little educational game about technology and life after death.

    - A stealth game about exploration, where you play as a faction of kings in an ancient hotel.

    - A mix between the clicker and helicopter racing game genres designed with speedrunning in mind.

    You could also try the subreddit gameideas

    https://www.reddit.com/r/gameideas/

    But there are a lot of "GTA with aliens" and "Skyrim but in the year 8000".

    or youtube "devlog" and see what other people are creating - this might give you some inspiration.
     
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  4. EternalAmbiguity

    EternalAmbiguity

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    Welcome to the club!

    If you just think developing games sounds cool but you don't have any ideas, you could join someone else's project. There are always people looking for others to help them. Right now there's one going on directly with Unity, and I believe it's gonna be put online somewhere (Steam?) when it's completed, so ya know, notoriety and stuff.

    I confess I too struggle with coming up with ideas, mainly for actual "games" (in other words, gameplay). In my case I have a few specific stories I want to tell, and my challenge is mostly finding a game genre that works for the story.

    More recently I wanted to create a small game and put it on Steam, which is outside of the realm of my grand projects. I actually asked for help on here. I wound up just going with something I've been interested in, so there wasn't any special trick I can share, sorry.
     
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  5. ippdev

    ippdev

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    You don't code a game. The game requires code to work in the manner envisioned by the games rules and mechanics.. You produce code based on the games requirements. Find some mechanics via experiment and R&D that you like. Then develop a rule set and goals for victory and methods of defeat based on said mechanic. Throw out all your enterprise coding rulebook and use Unity as it was meant to be used when you do code. It is a component based, frame dependent architecture. Used in this manner it is suited for RAD and building mechanics, collation and comparison necessary for game creation prototyping.
     
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  6. Ukounu

    Ukounu

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    Don't. Just because you own a PC and know how to program doesn't mean you should make video games you have no ideas and inspiration for.

    A lot of kids these day think that owning a smartphone and knowing how to tap on camera button automatically equates to being a content creator and entertainer, so they register a TikTok account and start uploading daily videos, without knowing why and what for. Don't be like those kids.

    Every single day there are a few thousands new games popping up on the App Store, Google Play, Steam, most of them coming from people who had zero inspiration and zero original ideas, but who still overcame it and forced themselves to produce something. Overwhelming majority of these games about "something" end up being forgotten next day after release and never played by anybody, not even by their own creators. We don't need yet more people "overcoming" their lack of creativity, actually.

    If you don't have inspiration or original ideas for a game, don't make any games, that's the correct answer, I think. Do instead what you enjoy without "overcoming" your lack of inspiration, be it growing plants in pots, or playing tennis with friends, or fishing, or whatever else.
     
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  7. loureirorg

    loureirorg

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    That's cool. I like it. It looks like a brainstormer to ignite ideas, not that the ideas presented there are great, but at least they can be a start. I will definitely take a look at it, worst-case scenario, it will be fun to think about the ideas.

    That's a good one too. Most ideas there are not too realistic to be implemented, but I will keep an eye there.

    Thanks for the suggestions.
     
  8. loureirorg

    loureirorg

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    That’s what I am thinking too, to join forces with someone, preferably a game designer that is reasonable and good to work with. I think that would be great for both parts.

    My goal for now is just to have some fun, as a hobby, but I wouldn’t discard a career change, to get a job in a game studio. Who knows? In this sense, I am thinking to produce some showcases. Games that can be relatively easy to develop and that can show off skills. And of course to have fun in the process. That’s what the industry wants: talented programmers and talented game designers.

    The creative part is not essential for me, as I find joy developing as a part of a team, but is definitely something I would like to improve. Especially doing games just for fun, for myself and not for a company. Anyone can be creative it’s just a matter of stimulus, of training, of keeping it on you during life, otherwise, it gets dormant. I used to be one until I started working in a profession that doesn’t require artistic creativity, and it naturally faded away. But it is just a matter of training back to be creative again, and that’s something I looking for.
     
    Last edited: Nov 14, 2020
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  9. Billy4184

    Billy4184

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    I have to agree with Ukounu here, if you are not inspired to do something, why do it? Surely there is something you'd rather be doing instead?

    I don't think anyone would say that liking the idea of being someone who does something is a good reason to pursue it. Most things in life are 10% enjoyment and 90% hard work, and if that 10% is not fulfilling enough on its own to make the other 90% of your time worth it, it's very hard to make any sense of the entire thing.

    That said, game development is a discipline made of many different components that tend to attract different minds. If you are inspired in some way to create something in one area of game development, then I think the best way to move forward is to simply work on that with a bare minimum of effort in other areas, and look for opportunities to use assets or work with other people to build out the rest of your game. There are so many people in game development with incredible skills in any area, that with enough money and some basic management skills you can bring any idea to life.
     
  10. angrypenguin

    angrypenguin

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    If I were to hypothetically go jogging in the morning the point wouldn't be to get to any particular destination, it would be to enjoy the activity of jogging. I get where @Ukounu is coming in the context of "don't churn out shovelware because you feel like you should churn out something", but it's entirely possible to enjoy the activity of doing programming for games without being interested in other aspects, such as designing them.

    And given that there are so many teams who do have specific ideas and don't have all of the skills or resources they'd like to realise them... well, the idea of giving up on game dev because you don't have your own idea just strikes me as a missed opportunity. Scouting out good hobbyist teams who could use your skills and see about joining them.

    The catch is that finding a good project to join is actually quite hard. Three things I'd look for are existing progress towards a clear vision, having some kind of project management in place, and formal handling of expectations and obligations. With the exception of open projects such as that run by Unity, I'd expect the latter to involve signing a contract of some kind.

    In order to be accepted onto a team who knows what they're doing, I'd expect to have to show that I, too, know what I'm doing. So while you're looking for a team I'd put together a demo or two of game stuff showing off the kind of work you'd ideally like to do with a team.
     
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  11. Billy4184

    Billy4184

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    That's why I put the last paragraph in, I think it's most important to do the part you enjoy, and build the rest of the game around that by other means. Nobody on a forum can say what it is that will come into existence if you sit down with a computer and follow the thread of your imagination along the path of your capabilities.

    But I do think it's worth saying that creativity is not something that you can 'get' from somewhere. It comes from within like a dream, and while its exact form adapts itself to the capabilities you have, the raw material is always there.

    I don't want to sound negative, because I think people are typically more creative than they have ever learned to express, but it won't be given to you by anyone. If you want to find it, a blank piece of paper and a pencil is a better place to start than the internet.
     
  12. MDADigital

    MDADigital

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    You also don't need to be unique, take us for example we are doing a shooter for VR. We and another company were the first todo that for VR so in a way we were unique since no Shooters in VR existed back then. But it's a mil sim so nothing unique there.

    We just try to make every feature best in show, you can stand out in that way too even without a unique idea. Also a mechanic that seems simple on the surface can be executed in many different ways and the result differ greatly.
     
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  13. loureirorg

    loureirorg

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    Exactly. I used to enjoy creating games, that's why I started a programming career. In the 90s I partnered with another person to create a game together using C and a library called Allegro. It was fun, but we never completed it because it was way beyond our skills. That was not my first interaction with creating games, I did it for years, but that made me realize that I would have to improve my coding skills first. So I started studying, which led me to work in the software development industry, which over time faded my creativity, but I always wanted to go back to what I used to have fun.

    Creativity is just a matter of exercising, of provoking it until it blooms. If you don't stimulate it, it gets dormant - that's what happened. And I totally agree with what you say about having fun not doing the game design, but other tasks related to game creation. I currently have fun developing apps for startups, I enjoy creating them even though they are not my original ideas.

    If I go over a path to get a job in the game industry, I would have fun creating games that are not my ideas. For now, I am just looking for a way to wake up back my dormant creativity for games, so I will have more fun developing things that I created myself. Playing more games is one thing I will start doing, I have not been playing a lot over the last years. Joining teams would be another one, but of course I will have to have some showcase to show what I am capable of.
     
    Last edited: Nov 14, 2020
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  14. angrypenguin

    angrypenguin

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    Note that the showcase doesn't necessarily have to be fancy. Just showing that you can apply your existing software development skills in a game dev environment to solve game dev related problems should be a solid start.

    Personally, the other thing to demonstrate (not necessarily directly in code) is a willingness to adapt and be open minded where game dev is not the same as other software dev. The good news is that there's plenty of stuff many game devs can learn from "traditional" software development, too, so your background there is probably really valuable to a team who is similarly open minded.

    Have you considered doing some kind of creativity workshop? I did one at a game dev conference a couple of years ago now and even in a one hour session teams who hadn't even met each other before were coming up with pretty decent stuff.

    A good idea doesn't necessarily lead to a good game, but the idea is you'd come up with a bunch of ideas and then filter or test them to see which are likely to make good games.
     
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  15. Antypodish

    Antypodish

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    It may be also, your mind is exhausted and need more rest.
    You spent full time with software dev right?
    Then you try do that and put strain on your brain after work, making own game and tinkering about ideas.
    The question is, when you have time for your brain, to give a rest?

    Other than that, you may be good in coding, but it can be, that simply creativity part is not your thing.
     
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  16. angrypenguin

    angrypenguin

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    One thing I've been having creative fun with lately from a design perspective is thinking about how to take thematic elements from AAA games and turn them into fully fledged mechanical elements.

    For example, Watch Dogs: Legion is a cool enough piece of entertainment, but the whole thing about running a resistance cell is basically cosmetic. So it's got me thinking about how I'd design a game where that was the central mechanic. I'd imagine things like organising safe houses and deciding when to abandon them, having to manage resources rather than just having an unlimited supply of drones and guns, and so on. When you take a region the opposing force should actively try to take it back rather than just ignoring whatever you did.

    That would make it less accessible to mainstream gamers, so I understand why the game didn't do that. But indie developers don't need to hit a AAA size audience, and a massive publisher has just validated that there are loads of people interested in that particular fantasy.

    And it's just one of many examples. So what games interest you, what do you think could be done better in them in a way that the industry doesn't typically tackle, and is there a strong chance that plenty of other people feel the same way?
     
  17. dogzerx2

    dogzerx2

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    Are you stressed out by any chance?

    Stress is how animals respond to a predators in nature, it redirects all your body and mind resources towards alertness and be ready for danger. This is great, it increases your chances of survival. Except this system wasn't designed to be activated 24/7 and our primitive brain can't distinguish a predator from deadlines, traffic, health, anxiety due to any number of things that our body isn't necessary evolved to deal with.
    While you are under stress, the body thinks there's no time and resources to spare for creativity, and creativity is actually very taxing to the brain even though it's rewarding. So if you are stressed out, you will have a hard time focusing on creative ideas.
     
  18. marteko

    marteko

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    LoL, my case is the opposite. After the first contact with Unity, 3-4 years ago, I did some tutorials and small projects, and I've decided that for my future games I will need to develop art skills, which seems bigger challenge than programming to me, because includes wide variety of knowledge and needs more time. But even before to start my art adventure, I already had a list with over 100 game ideas, so seems the creativity from art skills isn't so important for (or related to) game ideas creativity. The art skills will help later for better visual appearance of the game idea. Maybe it's more about the personal life experience and mindset, the ability to immerse in own imagination and feel the game idea like own baby, and take care of it. :) Yes, try to develop your creativity and if that doesn't works, you will need an idea guy or team. (P.S. Sorry for my English, no time to improve it, too many things about game development to learn first, you know.)
     
  19. neginfinity

    neginfinity

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    There's also 3rd possibility. You have ton of ideas, and learned everything you needed, but now have zero energy to implement it.

    "What would you want to play?"

    That's the basic thing. Imagine what you'd want to play in your head.
     
  20. BrandyStarbrite

    BrandyStarbrite

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    Brandy's advice:
    Don't burn yourself out with trying to come up with creative ideas. Doing that is a tiring yet stressful process, and it will cause you to waste more time. Worse, if you are a game artist.