So I've got a real hankering for creating a new game. But thing is, I don't actually know what I want. I obviously don't want to start on a job half-heartedly... I've been playing tons of flash games all over the net to try and get an idea for something I would really really want to do, but nothing's coming to me. Does this happen to a lot of you? How do you get out of that rut and end up finding something what you REALLY want to work on? I guess the best way is to not think too hard about it...

Suprisingly I find inspireation when I impose restrictions. A recent game that I worked on (for a game design competition) had some restiction placed on us from the start (ie min 3 levels, each level had to have a boss, 1 unique enemy each level, etc). These restrictions foccused the plethora of ideas in my head and we were able to focus on the few that fit the bill. Try imposing restrictions similar to these and that might help narrow down some of the ideas.

Interesitingly psycology has determined that too much choice can be bad. The optimal number of choices for humans seems to be around 7 (+/-2). This can be why if you don't impose restriction for the initial concept you can not seem to latch onto one idea. Each restriction that you impose narrows the field of posable choices untill you are able to make a good decision.

This goes for game play as well. If you give the player too many choices they can feel lost and overwhealmed by the game. I have found this to be a usefull bit of infomation.

Hmm, that's some very interesting advice, I'll definitely take it ot heart, thanks!

Me, I like to play games, find their faults, and improve on them. Sometimes after studying several games that are very similar, and all have similar faults, I come up with something that is really new, and I hadn't seen it before.

I just listen to videogame sound tracks. Especially the ones for various memorable RPGs - they bring back the feelings I had while playing tha game and then my mind wonders off to never never land. It also workd when I need to concentrate. And it also works as motivation to keep on going

It's like a triple edged sword... or something

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Original post by Edtharan Suprisingly I find inspireation when I impose restrictions. A recent game that I worked on (for a game design competition) had some restiction placed on us from the start (ie min 3 levels, each level had to have a boss, 1 unique enemy each level, etc). These restrictions foccused the plethora of ideas in my head and we were able to focus on the few that fit the bill. Try imposing restrictions similar to these and that might help narrow down some of the ideas. Interesitingly psycology has determined that too much choice can be bad. The optimal number of choices for humans seems to be around 7 (+/-2). This can be why if you don't impose restriction for the initial concept you can not seem to latch onto one idea. Each restriction that you impose narrows the field of posable choices untill you are able to make a good decision. This goes for game play as well. If you give the player too many choices they can feel lost and overwhealmed by the game. I have found this to be a usefull bit of infomation.

I've never thought about it that way before, but applying that same logic to some of my experiences, it seems very accurate. Thanks!

A few years ago, my college arranged some guest lecture thing by some (mostly self-styled) gameplay guru. Anyway, one of his points that really stuck with me was that games are defined by restrictions. If you don't have restrictions, players just sit there. So you add restrictions in the form of things you have to do, things you're not allowed to do, people you have to work with, and others you have to work against, and sooner or later, it becomes a game.

He demonstrated it by tossing a few baloons out to the audience. They just bounced off people, and fell to the ground, or if you were lucky, someone held them for a bit before losing interest.
Then he gradually added rules, things we had to do with the baloons, and it gradually became a game we were participating in.

So yeah, imposing some restrictions, both in your game and in your design process is definitely a good idea. :)

I think back to a game, movie, song, anything that I found absolutely amazing, and try to come up with a game that captures that feeling. If you strip that feeling down to it's core, a single game mechanic can always create that feeling in the player... you just have to figure out what that mechanic is :)

Rumble Box = Tobal #1 / Katamari Damacy

Restrictions can be as simple as the controls that you decide to use. I heard of a workshop where the designers had to create a simple game in 1 day where the restriction was that the only control that they had was a single button, which could be pressed or not pressed.

Now that is a restriction. :D

Playing older games always feels me with a lot of inspiration, makes me remember when it felt like games had no boundaries.