next »

[John Sandoval]

animes and richard feynman

[Tumetsu]

Yeah, lets make a game about Richard Feynman

[Medevenx]

Anything, to be honest - just live life, but be open to inspiration (i.e. don't just walk around not-thinking)! It works! I swear! Carry a small notebook around. Try to avoid things that are others products for a bit (others music, games, etc), so your own ideas can grow. It's okay to use those for reference sometimes, but most of it should come from yourself

I love this so much. so true. It's normally the gimmick that sets your game apart from others that come from your own idea. Because right after the gimmick, most games share or maybe even possess the same remaining features.

[indietom]

Old games, history, music, books, movies and     random typing down ideas.

[Stwelin]

Reading books

i lol'd at that one

Why? Books are the most versatile tool for inspiration, I think. I have my best ideas when I'm reading something I'm really interested in.

[Maud'Dib Atreides]

ask any little kid, trust me on this one, little kids have the craziest but most awesome ideas

[brettchalupa]

Lately, playing games has been super inspirational. There are somedays where I am really tired/don't want to look at games, but other days it is just as exciting as it always was. I get tons and tons of ideas from playing DS games and older NES and Genesis games.

[J-Snake]

Reading books

i lol'd at that one

Well, travelling around and a lot of reading, that is what shaped and qualified Kojima, the creator of the legendary Metal Gear Solid Series.

btw. Feynman, I like that cocky clown.

[PypeBros]

My last observation is that interesting idea comes from a mix of less-interesting ideas.

An 'ice zone'? ... cliché
A 'food zone'? ... déjà-vu

A food-in-ice zone ? ... I love it ^_^

I tend to keep that in mind when browsing deviant-art galleries. Is a piece looking inspiring to me ? Rather than stopping at the step "I like what he did", I try to go one step further and "which atomic idea could I reuse/import/mix with something else here" ?
If need be, I put that picture in a rotating-screensaver thingy. When I'll be idle, it will show up again with other pictures.

That never works on demand, though. More often when I'm busy with something a bit repetitive and boring... As if my "creative half" had to be frustrated that it's not asked to do enough job to come with a significant idea

[sublinimal]

Getting game ideas is the least of my worries. I constantly get new ones when I'm working on a game I'm supposed to have finished ages ago. Inspiration comes from other games, mainly, like seeing something fun happen with physics and thinking of making a full game out of that.

[pendleton]

listen music, watch cartoon, do exercise, surf web, chat with friends, everyting in life. without game.

[SolarLune]

Getting game ideas is the least of my worries. I constantly get new ones when I'm working on a game I'm supposed to have finished ages ago. Inspiration comes from other games, mainly, like seeing something fun happen with physics and thinking of making a full game out of that.

Pretty much, yeah. Getting game ideas is easy - following through is the hard part since it takes so much time to bring an idea to fruition.

[Paul Eres]

ya, same for me. ideas are easy, i have like 56 designs written down and ready to turn into games, it's just that i don't have time to make them all, so i have to pick the most interesting one to me and work on that one for a couple of years, then after it's done pick another

even if i never have another new idea ever, i have enough ideas stored away to make games for 300 more years

[Manuel Magalhães]

I agree with SolarLune and Paul Eres. I think that get an idea is the easiest step in making a game. Expanding that idea, however, is the hard part.
(e.g. I got an idea in seconds about making a sidescrolling, fastpaced, NES-like platformer. Exploring that idea with levels designs, enemy designs, difficulty level, mechanics, etc. takes a lot more effort to think about and it takes more than seconds.)
And then there're the technical aspects like sound, art and programming, which can be easy/hard depending on how good you are on it.

[FrankieSmileShow]

Ideas arnt just easy. Ideas are a problem!

Ideas are always more likely to pop up as you work on an existing game project.
If you cant find any idea you like, just go with an idea you don't like so much. As you work on that, you'll be thinking about the simple game mechanics, you'll be experimenting with em a little, just enough to spark inspiration. Don't look for original ideas, look for any idea that just works. The original ideas will come up as you work on that more generic one! It might be ideas for turning the generic project into a more original one, or it may be ideas for completely different games. Just trying to come up with ideas in a vacuum is a lot harder, you need inspiration.

The problem is, this is why people get stuck in a vicious circle of starting new projects and never finishing their previous ones. You always get cool, new, sexy ideas for new games juuust as your previous idea starts to feel stale, just as you start on the tedious details of testing and polishing the previous project. As your interest on the previous project starts to wane, its going to become more and more tempting to give it up and go on the next cool idea. This is a pretty nasty problem, one that a lot of people underestimate!

Another good source of inspiration is contests and events like Ludum Dares and the like. Youd be surprised how much a given theme, contest rules or a steep deadline can help inspiration. Constraints really do boost creativity.