Anybody got any ideas or resources for stimulating the creative process? You know... exercises to do, books to read, things to look at, etc. (Not the fluffy advice that some places talk about such as "do a good deed every day, eat well, allow love to enter your mind and creativity will flow through you"... I''ve seen way too much of that on the internet recently ) [ MSVC Fixes | STL | SDL | Game AI | Sockets | C++ Faq Lite | Boost ]

smoke a bone every day, eat well, allow love to enter your mind and creativity will flow through you

--- krez (krezisback@aol.com)

Every time you travel observe the prople around you and imagine a story about one individual.

If you lie or say something untrue as a joke, try extending the lie back through time to imagine a self-consistent universe that accommodates the lie as truth. Little lies aren''t very well suited for this purpose; lies to children about how the world works, or whimsical excuses for not doing homework are great.

Basically, anytime you see something interesting (or uninteresting if you see a lot of that), examine it closely and think about what would happen if some small part of it was changed. How would that affect the world and our culture?

I agree with Dracoliche.

Playing "What if" can be a fun exercise as well!

Also look at works you admire(movies, etc) and play with them.

Break something, your choice. Then when you''ve broken it look at the pieces and try to envision recombining them into something completely different.

My daily exercise is breaking a lego model I made the previous day, and making a new one.

This is not entirely a good example however, try to find an object that is not so malleable. Be careful if you break glass.

George D. Filiotis
Are you in support of the ban of Dihydrogen Monoxide? You should be!

For me:

1) Taking in a lot of new data. It doesn''t really matter what the data is, just that it is fairly new to me. Take a day and gorge your mind on a few books, or movies. Or go to somewhere you haven''t been before like a national park and just walk around, absorbing as much as you can (images, smells, sounds).

If you do the books or movie thing then get some from an area that you don''t normally view. I like SF, but drift over to the horror or history sections when I''m looking for something different.

2) Any exercise that can be done for an extended period of time and doesn''t occupy much thought like walking or running or sorting mail in the mailroom at work is good for me. I can let my mind wander while getting fresh oxygen and blood to the noodle.

3) A big dose of caffeine followed by a long shower. I often lets me spawn a new idea or two. Doesn''t make sense, but it works surprisingly well.

HTH

read lots of books. sounds simple right? it is.

read a book again, and when you go through it, imagine turning points going off in different directions. Right now i am reading lord of the rings again (greatest book EVER!)...at the end of the fourth book, frodo gets stung (for the two of you who haven''t read it); sam thinks he''s dead. what would happen if sam had left to finish the quest himself? imagine it, alone sam struggling through mordor, the burden of the ring, the burden of the loss of frodo and the rest of the company weighing down upon him. i think that would make an amazing story.

if you want to get ideas, i suggest doing stuff like this. take a story you like and change it at some point. you never know, it may spark a great idea. or it could just be a fun exercise.

<(o)>

Lying is a much better exercise than "what if" when it comes to creative stimulation for games. Creating something new is a very easy process that even a mental retard can perform. (I''m not trying to offend anybody, it''s just an expression.) The real trick is to create something out of nothing, and make the others believe in that it actually exists. So you should not start the creative process by asking "what if ?" because it already placed a doubt in the respondent''s mind.

I''m not encourging anyone to actively lie to others, but it is the best exercise... use it at your own risk and be prepare to suffer the consequences for it. I would suggest something like going on MMORPG games and then make up your own fictional monster then try to convince the people there that it actually exist.

Take out some paper and draw a character. Then, question what could have happened to a normal person to make him/her look this way. A scar above the eyebrow, a pained expression, etc. Though, you may need an artistic hand to do this... If thats not the case, write up a 1-2 page short story that does about the same thing, a character in a single event, "Joe goes to buy cigarettes at the corner store and fights with his neighbor on the way." You stumble upon characteristics and justifications that can help when you sit down to write up a game story. As for inspiration if you have a block, I suggest watching a movie/reading a book of some intelligence. Start with some 80s action films like MadMax or BladeRunner, then try a few 90''s dark comedies, Fight Club, Snatch. Meander about and learn about other characters.

:: Inmate2993
:: William C. Bubel
"Please refrain from bothering Booster."