How do you get inspiration for a game?

Hello!

I've played many kinds of games lately, some of them are really good, and let's admit it... some are utter **** not worth replaying. Indies, "non-indies", fangames, you name it. Fortunately the games on the bad side are a minority.

I have been fiddling with the software I have, and I lately got to make an experimental game to get familiarized with RPG Maker VX Ace... well, it's a remake of the demo game included in Don Miguel's translation of RPG Maker 2000...

Other than that experimental remake... I've come across a HUUUUUGE creative block, no matter how hard I brainstorm.

I have been playing some other games looking for inspiration, and even though I get good ideas, they're not enough, or they'd make my games look like a ripoff. Especially if the thing I have in mind is a horror game... There's a lot of good ideas, but they have been already carried out. Being chased by a faceless, tall man? Yes, it's there. Being harassed by a blue abomination in a mansion? Done. A night guard being surrounded by haunted robots? Well... <.<

Out of curiousity, how do you fight those creative blocks? How do you get inspiration for a game overall?

How do I fight creative blocks?  Well, my problem is somewhat unique in that I not only dabble in writing stories (like books), but also dabble in game design.  I can tell you right now that even though both contain writing in them, it's a very different experience from one to the other.

So, with that in mind, I've actually come up with a lot of ways to simply get inspiration if I need/want it, and most would work for any medium, but some are specific to specific mediums.

Let's cover video games for the moment.  Typically, when I come up with ideas for a video game, they start out as two or three systems in a game.  Or, they start out as concepts that I either know haven't ever been done (it's not hard to find some of these!  Just drop all sense of familiarity and run with whatever comes to mind!) or have been done so rarely that what I'll be doing will still be unique.  Okay, so I start with some systems and build around those.  Let me give you an example.  Yes, I'm going to use my current game, because I love plugging my own unfinished work as well as it's the most relevant thing I've got at the moment.  Traditional RPGs award experience points, level ups, and stat increases upon level up.  Too familiar for me.  Experience points exist, and they level you up, but levels don't give you any stats.  Okay, how do you get stats?  Complete quests.  Then what's the point of levels?  Each new level unlocks something new in the world.  Mostly shortcuts, but sometimes shops, new areas, new story, and whatever else I think would be useful.

Alright, I've got my systems in place.  What is their point and how do I build a story, characters, and a world around that?  Well, the level up system cuts down on player grind as players will really only be unlocking new paths around the map and nothing truly powerful.  Players won't go out of their way to grind out levels for stats and will instead focus on the narrative and getting stats out of their Quests because that's how you get stronger.  Unlocking new things in the world also provides a bit of excitement to the player to check the map again to see what may have changed once they hit level 5.  Or even level 6.  It makes retreading some of the same ground interesting again.  Alright, so I want players to focus on my storylines and quests.  Well, I'm going to need a massive amount of Quests to get players enough stats to beat bosses, so how do I justify that?  Well, I come up with a storyline that explains why the player needs so many quests, how stats are distributed through the quests, and what the ultimate aim of those quests might be for the endgame.  After I have that fleshed out, I work on the characters themselves and what interesting roles they might have in such a world where constant Questing is the norm.

Okay, lets talk about just general creativity blocks.  For those, I generally just listen to music, or draw maps on paper, or watch TV.  I turn my brain off of the task at hand and just pay rapt attention to anything else going on.  Lyrics in music can be very helpful in painting a picture in your head of locations, places, types of societies, strange concepts, characters and their personalities, etcetera.  Sometimes, though, you just need to shut the brain off and do something else for a while.  A creative block usually means you're trying too hard or what ideas you did have weren't fleshed out enough to begin with... or weren't that good to begin with.  If you're trying to write a basic story, just start with something simplistic.  "Boy meets Girl".  Okay, why do they meet?  Romance?  Fate?  Accident?  What is the significance of their meeting?  Save the world?  Become business partners?  Become best friends?  How is that important to the rest of the world?  Just start asking questions about your basic premise.  Who, what, why, where, how, when, etcetera.  Those questions flesh everything out, they help you build the world, build the characters, inform map design, also help you decide how combat might even work or what kind of "Magic" and "states" might be in the game.

Just start with a basic 3 word premise and build on it.  "Monster eats Princess", "Flying City Crashes", "Slave Becomes King".  Start with three basic words.  Build on them.  If you're having trouble moving forward in a current story, just start asking the questions outlined above.  Fleshing out your world is the fastest way to end writer's block.  Which can, in turn, help you flesh out a game world and all its myriad systems.

Not sure if it'll help, but you may want to take a look at this topic.

http://forums.rpgmakerweb.com/index.php?/topic/45816-where-do-you-get-ideas-for-a-game/

Have you ever had a dream where you thought, that would make a nice game?

I have action filled dreams and are pretty unique (I think). Perhaps a bit silly, too, but it can give you some inspiration.

Just last night I dreamt of searching a treasure in a pyramid and suddenly found myself chased by hordes of nuns with tubas. I escaped in a giant parrot.

So what to Do with that? Maybe the player has a giant bird as pet and fights some kind of inquisition, while searching for ancient artifacts. That's not much, but maybe something you ca start with.

It also doesn't matter of some elements aren't completely new. What matters is the composition and presentation.

The night guard and the hunter automatons? Keep the night guard and use ghosts instead. The gameplay can change, too. Instead of "Five nights at Freddies", make it a sidescroller horror game.

One thing a lot of people forget to use and exercise is their imagination. This is part of the problem with getting older is that your mind becomes more critical in a sense and the imagination doesn't run wild like it does when you were a kid. That being said, there are a ton of creative people around here that you can use to draw from. Similarly as misery loves company, so does creativity. So now you are probably thinking "But Doc, how do I exercise my imagination?". It is as simple as just making stuff up. Just anything really, doesn't matter how ridiculous you think it is. Part of the problem with this is that you are your own worst judge at all times, and will be the first one to tell yourself that an idea you had is ridiculous and stupid. Discard those thoughts! Sometimes if you just roll with something in a certain direction you will come up with some crazy stuff and maybe in the end you will not use all of it but there might be some cool ideas that come from whatever it is that you came up with. There is a form of poetry called stream-of-conscious, which is a style of writing where you just write out the first things that pop in to your head, and that can be applied to what you do here.

As I was saying about other creative people around here... play someone else's game. Try out a few. Look for ideas within those games. Sometimes you will see something or do something in a game that can give you the spark you need to develop something new for yourself. Don't outright copy things from someones game but you can use it as inspiration for what you are working on.

Dreams are a good source as well. Many people forget most of their dreams shortly after they wake up. When you do wake up, don't move, just lie there in bed and try to recall as much of your dream as possible while it is still in your short term memory. Once you start moving, all the muscle memory you have for simple things like walking getting dressed etc start to take over and you will begin to forget more and more of whatever you just dreamed about. Keep a notepad beside your bed too so if you have a cool thought you can write it down.

Don't force it. Never hesitate to take a break and do something else. Go for a walk, watch tv, cook some food... do literally anything else. Sometimes if you have a block you can get over it with a 'eureka' moment. This is something scientists and such do when they are trying to figure things out. Reason why it can work is that whatever your problem is, even though you aren't actively thinking about it, it will go into your subconscious and still gets a bit of thought processing, and then all of the sudden and idea will pop out and then you start rolling again.

Lastly, never hold others as a benchmark for you. By doing so you are already placing limits on what you think your potential is. Undertaking a game can be daunting, but the more you limit yourself by what others do, the more you set yourself up to fail. Use others accomplishments as something to strive for in yourself and always always always never forget to HAVE FUN. That is the whole reason we are here and why we do this :)

Hope this helps!

-Doc

PS:

This sounds terrifying hahahahaha xD

I get a lot of inspiration not from games, but movies, books, music etc etc.

Usually when I'm trying to come up with ideas for something I avoid looking to the same medium.

If you want to make horror start thinking about what kind of horror you want (mystery, gothic, monster, realistic...) and then look up as many works related to the genre as you can. You don't have to read everything or watch everything, but read some summaries and watch some clips or trailers. You might get a few ideas, enough for a premise. The gameplay can be designed around that.

The horror genre is really broad. This is just my own bias, but it would be cool to see a game inspired by Suspiria.

Usually an hour before going to sleep or even closer. Very random and mostly just one special mechanic, character, plot or world.

And then there are these games, that have nice concepts, like a cool class, buildings, mechanics, but in my eyes don't fulfill their potential in their current game.

But that doesn't happen too often and the limitations of the rpg maker are way too strict for most of it anyway.