"What happened to me?" I ask. You know, when I was eleven years old, I designed a board game for math class that everyone liked. I think it was called "Polygons" or something. Nobody had any problems with it, and I got good grades on it in class. (It was an assignment, and a very cool one.) When I was 13, I read Dune, and immediately was inspired to design a game called "Guardian," which was a real triumph to me. Sadly, I have long lost that design, and the only memories I have of the design is the experience I had writing it, and of a little vision I still have of the game in action. Gone forever. For cryin out loud! I''m 18 years old, and I have yet to repeat that experience! Whenever I come up with an idea that might be good, I always want to criticize it, or, perhaps worse, optimize it. I always think about what other people are going to think. It''s irritating! Then, if I don''t do that, I try to mix morals into it, saying that "this is immoral/violent/wicked, so you shouldn''t do it." Morals are important, but I want to create! What happened? What can I do?

stop thinking

start doing

...and remember, THE MATRIX HAS YOU

Get a grip. You''re 18. You should be worrying about getting caught with alcohol and trying to get laid. Go outside and enjoy life a little. You can''t force inspiration. You have to let it come when you aren''t expecting it, and if you are sitting around pining about it you will only become more frustrated.

Remember, talking like a loser makes you a loser.

I had what I thought were good ideas for games only a few years ago myself. Two years ago it all went SPLAT. No explanation. Just gone.

Sometimes, it seems the more convinced you are that you can do anything you want, the less you are able to do it. Strange.

Don''t create any self-delusions, and embrace what touches you.

Listen to your heart and all that jazz.

It''s teenager angst. It''ll pass once you''re in a fraternity.

quote: Original post by Anonymous Poster
Remember, talking like a loser makes you a loser.

Well put.



James Simmons
MindEngine Development
http://medev.sourceforge.net

I''ll tell you what happened. When you were a kid, you didn''t have that little voice in your head telling you that your ideas were lousy.

I''ll let you in on a little secret: in any creative art, everybody makes crap on their first attempts. Nobody is born skilled. The only people who get to be skilled are the ones who didn''t stop practicing when they noticed that they were making crap.

So, you need to learn how to keep developing an idea even when you are convinced that the idea is crap. This will be hard, I know.

Also relax a little? CodeMunkie is right, you''re only 18.

quote: Original post by Anonymous Poster
It''s teenager angst. It''ll pass once you''re in a fraternity.

No sir. This is not teenager angst. It''s not angst at all. But I''m in a creative rut right now, and I need out of it.

At least, I would like to be out of it.

I find that the best way out of a creative rut is to stop thinking about game design for a few days and do something fun. My theory is that anything fun has the potential to become a game (which explains the plethora of drinking games). You know how watching Star Wars is fun? Making a fun Star Wars game is incredibly easy. Making a fun original game is of course more difficult, but it requires practice. Do something fun... like picking wild berries (yum!) then make a game out of it. If it sucks, then figure out why it sucks and rewrite the game. Keep rewriting it until you''re certain the concept has no potential to be fun, or it becomes at least a mediocre game. The key here is to practice, so that you can more easily think up a decent initial concept, and make better revisions. Only about 1 in 10 of my ideas are worth prototyping, and only 1 in 5 prototypes becomes really fun. Yes, 98% of my ideas suck. It''s the remaining 2% that are the reason I make games.