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[eiyukabe]

What do you guys mean by "vision"? As in, you just get inspired to make something and don't fully know/remember why?

There's a drug joke in here somewhere... 

Hey, whatever works 

[Riley Adams]

I tend to come up with my best ideas when I'm under time pressure, and other constraints. I love Ludum Dare for this, since it gives me a random theme and a strict time limit. Without constraints I tend to get overambitious or lose interest, etc.

[Core Xii]

Two simple factors, my mood and available resources. Certain times I'm more inspired by some ideas than others, usually coinciding with playing others' games of roughly the same idea. Like right now I'm planning an RPG having played a couple recently. On the other hand inspiration alone cannot hold motivation for long, for I am one man and simply do not have the resources to develop certain games at this time. As such, I'm forced to work on projects I can actually realize; Generally that means minimal or abstract art direction and music that I'm comfortable composing.

However, I never stop working on any of my projects. They're in there, somewhere, slowly constructing in my subconscious as I consume inspirational material and educate myself on various techniques in game development. The most notable of such projects is the RTS I have been refining since I was 7. It's gone through several reiterations and epiphanies, yet I've yet to write a single line of code, because it would be fruitless - I lack the resources to materialize that game right now.

[Taugeshtu]

My way is a bit different:
I don't play games to decide "what I'm going to do next", I watch movies. I capture details and atmosphere from whatever, then I let my head came off and roll on the ground, blending my own "somewhere-inspired" thoughts into one Universe with it's own rules and magic.
That's the way to set up some atmosphere, some "setting".

Then I place myself somewhere in this universe - maybe I'm space trooper, or just a barman, or a storywriter (why not?).
That's the way to set up point of view.

And only after those two steps done I just turn "universe simulation" on and let something happens there. And THAT (with "mask" of my resources) tells me, what game I'm planning to work on. All gameplay cores, details, surround, scenes - everything comes downwards from the whole universe.

But! You can do it upside-down, in reverse order - it works too. Actually, right now I'm using "ping-pong" passes - imagine universe, where you place yourself in it, what happens, how it affects on you, how you affects on universe, how universe reacts back to you, how you forces new situations and so on...

There is one advantage for this way: you ALWAYS are working not with game setting or just gameplay, you're working with game universe, so you can place another game in same universe, and even merge those two (three, four...) games into one big game about one solid universe.
But that's hard.

[Klaim]

 1. Most of the time, the games I start to work on are made of collisions of different ideas that I had before and that make sense together. That's how I get the game idea. So the sources of inspiration can be anything that smashed together in my head. I think that's why I'm bad at short-term compo as I don't have time to smash ideas I didn't have yet.
 2. To decide if it's worth, the game should meet some criteria :
 2.1. It should have the potential to allow me to discover it even if I did make it. Often that involve providing edition tools for people or making it in ways that allow me to discover the subtilties of the rules once I get the prototype.
 2.2. It should not have been done before. If I want to learn about a genre, I could try making something with the same system than a game of this genre, but then I will certainly add or change something in a radical way. I need to explore while building.
 2.3. It have to be obvious and recurrent in my head. What I mean is not that it have to be clear, only that the game SHOULD EXISTS and I'll be (internally) angry because IT DON'T until IT's DONE!!!! Ok this is about obsession. 

Note that I rarely work on short-time projects. (other than in Jams)

Other than that, some little devils haunt me. They stop only when I finish the game. I'm going mad.

[baconman]

1. Most of the time, the games I start to work on are made of collisions of different ideas that I had before and that make sense together. That's how I get the game idea. So the sources of inspiration can be anything that smashed together in my head. I think that's why I'm bad at short-term compo as I don't have time to smash ideas I didn't have yet.
 2. To decide if it's worth, the game should meet some criteria :
 2.1. It should have the potential to allow me to discover it even if I did make it. Often that involve providing edition tools for people or making it in ways that allow me to discover the subtilties of the rules once I get the prototype.
 2.2. It should not have been done before. If I want to learn about a genre, I could try making something with the same system than a game of this genre, but then I will certainly add or change something in a radical way. I need to explore while building.
 2.3. It have to be obvious and recurrent in my head. What I mean is not that it have to be clear, only that the game SHOULD EXISTS and I'll be (internally) angry because IT DON'T until IT's DONE!!!! Ok this is about obsession. 

Note that I rarely work on short-time projects. (other than in Jams)

Other than that, some little devils haunt me. They stop only when I finish the game. I'm going mad.

This, strangely enough, is pretty much how I "prework." And yes, I'd LOVE to mash out some short-term projects with preconcieved framework and simple object creation scripts (for jams and compos). I really, really would! But I too, have a tendency to make mountains of molehills, and I'm still spending a lot of time in my "Assemblee: Part 1" phase of creating assets like sprite art and tilesets for the time being. Which I have the patience for... I just hate having to have the patience for it, you know?

It's still quite aways off, but I want my friggin' functionals/playables!

[Klaim]

I understand fully 

I have to be more precise however : the whole process of mashing ideas is really unpredictable and occurs exclusively in my head. I never did try, as you say, to mash up starts of projects, only ideas that starts to work together in my head.

I have also identified some specific subjects, or kind of subjects, or way of thinking that I think would make some games more like personnal expressions (for example I don't like human characters, or they have to be non-human (maybe super-human) mentally).

[cynicalsandel]

I have a hard time coming up with game ideas, as all of my ideas are for game stories rather than gameplay concepts. It makes sense though, since my favorite genre is turn based RPGs. There aren't many ways to innovate gameplay wise there.

It is just frustrating when you want to make something a tad bit simpler than an RPG to learn the ropes, but you cannot come up with anything.

[Alec S.]

Usually I've got a few ideas on the back burner.  When it comes time to start a new game, I'll usually pick one, but end up getting suddenly inspired to try something out with another and suddenly I'm building and building on that one (although this can lead to problems later on as I started the game without as much planning as I should have had).

[Retrogames]

Like most hobbyist/amateur designers, I have my big pet project I continually work on. However, I make it a point to stop work on said project whenever I'm stuck, frustrated, or uninterested on said project (Yes, you can lose interest in a design. No, it does not mean it is a bad idea). Usually it's because I've been staring at it for too long.

For those times, I have a slew of other projects I work on, and I make it a point to keep them all very different. For example, there's a city-building concept I tinker with, an action platformer, and a flight/adventure game. I pick from those based on whichever catches my eye or seems particularly lacking.

If nothing jumps out at me, I try lurking around the Devlog forum here to give advice on any particularly promising or inspiring projects (for example, I've written a ton of PMs to Gabriel Verdon for his Archer project).

If I'm having a hard time focusing on a particular project, I'll usually just start writing just for the sake of the creative act. That's how this little nostalgia piece on arcades came about.

When all else fails, I find something insanely pointless to just vent creativity into. Sometimes it's making a map in Halo's Forge, sometimes it's revamping or inventing zones for a certain MMO I find particularly lacking.

The point is, Don't Stop Creating. Even if you're creating throwaway stuff that you'll never use; just the simple act of creating can lead to inspiration or help you decide what you want to work at.

[Qbopper]

I think up an idea when my teacher is teaching difficult lessons/when I'm in bed.

I then doodle some ideas and they fall into Oblivion. No, literally. I play Oblivion when I intend to make games.

I need to work harder. I have 2 ideas and I thought one up last night after reading Ender's Game for the umpteenth time.

I think I'm going to put off my science project right now and work on a game or just play around in BYOND/Game Maker or something. (or I might get my project done seeing as it involves playin-STUDYING Roller Coaster Tycoon 2)

[Vulf]

I think it's less about choosing the game, and more about which game chooses you.

(If I can open the project up the next day and still want to keep going, it's a winner.)

[iffi]

(If I can open the project up the next day and still want to keep going, it's a winner.)

If I even have a project to open the next day it's a winner.

[tergem]

(If I can open the project up the next day and still want to keep going, it's a winner.)

That rule sounds like it applies to me... never thought of that.

[Sakar]

(If I can open the project up the next day and still want to keep going, it's a winner.)

This

I've created many projects,most of which just sit there collecting virtual dust, only being opened when I want to try and salvage something from them.