Arctic Flower

Most of us have creative blocks occasionally when it’s hard to come up any new game ideas. This kind of problem led me to ponder some different ways how game idea can born. Developer can start their idea from theme, game mechanic or story. What are benefits of these different ways? How to feed your imagination? Some of my thoughts about these subjects I have written for you to think about.Themes

Many games have started from certain theme. Usually developer first thinks different themes before venturing to design actual gameplay. In my opinion, this may be the easiest way to come up new game idea because many themes have potential for interesting gameplay. Themes are also easier to find than pure game mechanics. You can find themes all around you; just keep eye everything around you. Did you notice those ants in your backyard? Or how water drops move on window glass when it rains?

Good thing with themes are that you can find them everywhere but it often requires much thinking how to make game from certain themes and will they be fun to play. In order to come up really original concepts using this approach you have to have imagination and not just think “Theme: Aztecs, Genre: Platform” Of course Aztecs is good overall theme, but try not to choose too easy solutions when developing it further. Try to invent original gameplay features which still are strongly related to theme itself. In other words, try to build gameplay around the theme and notice what it requires to work and which aspects you should leave away.

Game mechanics

This approach is more difficult than theme. When themes are pretty practical way to start planning, game mechanics are more abstract. Instead of thinking what there is in game, you should think what you can do in game. You could example first think you how player can move blocks or gems in puzzle game to clear them out. After you have created basic game mechanic, you can move to find good theme for your basic mechanic. In other words, you have to build theme around basic gameplay.

I personally like this method eventhough it’s little harder way than theme approach. I think that when this is harder, it also often creates something more unic because you start from scratch. When you think theme first, there is often some “obvious” ideas. When designing first the gameplay without thinking too much theme, you can more likely create something original. Many puzzle games are probably developed this way.

Story

Third way to start a game is to think it’s storyline and characters and then build theme and game mechanics around it. I have used this method only with my project Paradox and I think it works best with RPGs and adventure games where gameplay itself is often more or less same. You should use this method only with bigger games or if you have good writing skills. Story can hook player efficiently if done correctly, but if it’s rather poor and gameplay and theme are pretty generic player will get bored quickly.

When using this method I would recommend also pay attention to game mechanics and theme. Good theme can provide some interesting material for story and good gameplay keeps player playing until story graps s/he or it can make poor story more tolerable. Starting from story is probably hardest to make correctly because many -especially new- developers tend to make it too big or complicated and don’t pay enough attention to planning gameplay.

Feeding your imagination

Above I have talked about different ways to start new game. Now you might think how to come ideas themselves? Well, you should first educate yourself in various ways. Read books, watch movies, play games (try especially indie games to find inspiration, shareware games are good for this purpose), and leave your computer alone and go out to look nature or city whereever you happen to live. I myself get many new ideas when walking in nature and looking different things. Just look around places and you may find something interesting which will stir your imagination.

Conclusion

• There is atleast three ways to find new game concepts: themes, game mechanics and story.
• Each of these ways are good in certain areas and game genres.
• Keep your eyes open and don’t just sit next to your computer. Go out to see how world works and you may find something really interesting ideas.

And there it was. Hope it helps you to come up new ideas and concepts. Feel free to comment and make suggestions to add this article.

Tumetsu