Sources of Inspiration

Inspiration is a slippery thing. My early ideas for a game come so quickly one after the other that I cannot tell you if I started with a component, a mechanism, or a theme. (I don't think that's what the question "Are you a theme-first or mechanics-first designer?" means anyway.) Where that spark of an idea comes from is perhaps best left to philosophers and neuroscientists. What I can say for sure is that those sparks usually occur after a period of contemplation. I don't consider this contemplation to be brainstorming in the classic sense. I do have lists of ideas, but I almost never reference those. Writing something down is a way to get it out of my head; reading my lists would just invite those ideas back in. Instead, I spend time contemplating (and sometimes discussing aloud with my husband) along three lines of thought: aspects of published games that I like, aspects of published games that I don't like, and areas of life that I am passionate about. In other words, my sources of inspiration are derivation, dissatisfaction, and passion.

Derivation and dissatisfaction go hand in hand. Every artist builds upon the artists that have come before them. That's derivation. (I know that being derivative sounds like the opposite of inspiration, but stick with me.) Dissatisfaction is what drives us to create something of our own. If I was wholly satisfied with my game collection, I wouldn't be trying to get my games published. (Granted, some people may be doing it solely for ego, but I doubt those people make it very far. This is of course the origin of the term vanity project.) 

Most of the time, what I derive or am dissatisfied with is mechanical. For example, I started my forthcoming game, Deadly Dowagers, with the desire to take an aspect of Citadels—buying and building buildings into a tableau—and make that more of a focus. Disassembling elements of various games and reassembling them is the essence of derivation. However, I also wanted to develop on the tableau building of Citadels (and 7 Wonders) to make the buildings more interesting after they are built. I wanted buildings that were less static and more dynamic. Importantly, I felt this way about Citadels before I had the inspiration to design 'Inheritance,' the precursor to Deadly Dowagers, a game about how the aristocracy built its wealth. (NB: Deadly Dowagers is no longer centrally concerned with how the aristocracy built wealth, but those concepts are still present in what gets built and how buildings interact in the game.) I contemplated what I liked and didn't like in Citadels and those feelings made their way into my design. I developed a refreshable tableau that is akin to an engine builder without quite being one. Someone playing the game today might draw comparisons to 7 Wonders because they are both drafting games, but would likely never realize that my real starting inspiration was Citadels. 

For me, my passion is theme. Readers of this blog know that I am passionate about thematic integration. My dissatisfaction of theme in existing games drives me to write this blog and attempt to design games closer to my vision of how theme should work. (I don't pretend to be a brilliant designer; I've been designing less than three years.) However, my passion for theme is also a passion to design with specific themes. Every design that I have spent more than a week on has a theme I am deeply interested in. For Deadly Dowagers (and its earlier version), my interest in 18th and 19th century Europe and European Literature drew me to ask the question "How did the aristocracy become wealthy?" For my designs, I want to work on games that don't bore me. More than that, if the theme is something I care deeply about, I am more able to craft the experience I want from the game. Thematic integration is also easier. This is because I am emotionally invested in the theme and that comes through in my designs. 

Obviously, not all design work can come from all three elements at once. When working with co-designers, studios, or publishers, the slated project has to come before one individual's inspiration. I am not lauding inspiration (indeed, I have written about how little inspiration is worth compared to execution.) Since I have also stated my dislike of brainstorming, I thought I would dedicate today's post to what does work for me in terms of generating ideas. Contemplating problems—things I like, don't like, or love—and asking interesting questions is how I get my ideas. Derivation. Dissatisfaction. Passion. Interrogation. No lists or concept maps needed.