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创意并非不请自来 设计师应主动寻找灵感

发布时间:2011-08-25 18:04:54 Tags:,

作者:Owen

不久前我完成了从上个秋天就开始为之努力的合同项目。项目中由我负责的这个部分已经被传输给下个开发者团队,由他们负责完成最后的工作。为自己的项目而工作的感觉真好,我期盼看到这款游戏能够发布。

当我回到开发自己的游戏的工作中来时,我想起一篇有关项目间时间安排的文章。经常有许多玩家问我如何找到游戏的灵感,我想每个开发者对这个问题都有不同的答案,但是我还是想要说下自己的想法。

灵感来源于何处,这个问题很难回答。对我来说,灵感来源于各个方面,我也不确定具体去哪里寻找。有时灵感来源于玩其他的电子游戏,有时是电影,有时是在与好友谈论时事的过程中。

creativity(from peak-ict.wikispaces.com)

creativity(from peak-ict.wikispaces.com)

我认为人们对灵感最大的误解是,你无需去寻找想法,你会自动灵光闪现。我不认为会出现这种情况。灵感需要你做出努力,它需要你有一定的耐心。你需要付出努力,才能够获得灵感。而且,你需要对自己的想法进行加工。艺术师可能需要根据想法画许多草图和小画作,最后才能决定最终作品的方向。我们也必须积极寻找想法,并通过实验进行润色。只有在你进行研究或做出努力并且时刻在脑中处理想法之后,才可能出现那种瞬间的灵感。

你可能会说,这听起来确实很棒,但是我要从哪里开始呢?如果产生灵感需要这些工作,那么要如何开始开展这项工作?当我积极寻找灵感时,我会做如下事情:

阅读有新颖主题的书本;

看电影;

在自然环境中散步;

在城市中散步;

玩电子游戏;

玩桌游;

去博物馆;

去艺术画廊;

写些东西;

绘画;

用手搭建某些东西;

外出就餐;

煮些新菜;

与朋友或家人外出;

去河边听流水的声音;

开始将想法写下来。

你可能有跟我完全不同的做法。但是,我认为这个列表中最重要的内容是:将想法写下来。这种强迫你思考问题的做法会触发灵感。这并不简单,甚至有时执行起来很有难度,但是这种做法会为你指引新的方向和新的解决方案。你写下来的想法越多,你会产生的想法也就越多。你积极构思新想法的做法越少,你能够产生的想法也越少。这就是为何灵感需要做出努力的原因。

但是可能最为重要的是,你需要能够辨别出新想法。当你听到优秀的想法时,你应该要能够辨别出来然后进行深化。这意味着需要有快速决断想法的能力。这意味着你需要与那些与你意见不同的人交谈。这意味着辩论而不是闭口不言。这意味着情感共鸣。因为找到新想法通常意味着从另一个角度来看待问题,理解其他人的感觉,与他人换位思考。

作为游戏设计师,我们需要融入周围的世界。游戏含有互动行为、情感和叙事。这个世界充满了这些东西,我们只是在寻找,努力去发现这些内容而已。

游戏邦注:本文发稿于2011年5月3日,所涉时间、事件和数据均以此为准。(本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译,如需转载请联系:游戏邦

Design Trek III: The Search for Inspiration

Owen

At the end of last week I wrapped up my work on a contract I’d been working on since last fall. My part of the project has been passed on to the next team of developers who will wrap up the final features. It feels great to be able to get back to work on my own projects, and I look forward to seeing the game launch when it’s done.

As I am returning to working on my own games, I thought a post about the time between projects would be in order. I often get asked by players where I find the inspiration for my games. I’m sure we all have different answers for this, but I thought I’d try to explain mine.

Where an idea comes from is difficult to answer. Inspiration comes in many forms for me, and I’m never quite sure where I’m going to find it. Sometimes it comes from playing another video game, sometimes a movie, sometimes discussing politics with friends.

One of the things that I think is most misunderstood about inspiration is the idea that you don’t need to work at it, that it will just come to you in a flash. I don’t believe this ever to be the case. Inspiration takes work, it takes dedication, and it takes patience. You need to work at being inspired. You need to work at your ideas. An artist might do dozens of sketches, then several small paintings working on an idea before finding the direction they want to take the final work. We too must actively look for ideas, experiment and refine them. That flash of inspiration only comes after you’ve done the research, the work, and given it all time to let your brain process the ideas.

Well that’s great, you say, but where do I begin? If it takes all this work, where does the work start? These are some of the activities I’ll do when I’m actively looking for inspiration: read a book about a new subject; watch a film; go for a walk in nature; go for a walk in the city; play a video game; play a board game; go to a museum; go to an art gallery; write something; draw; build something with my hands; go out for a good meal; cook something new; go out with friends and/or family; walk to the river and listen the sounds of the water; start writing ideas down.

You might have your own list that’s totally different. However, I believe that one of the most important items on that list is the last one: write down your ideas. The act of forcing yourself to think about a problem will lead to inspiration. It is not easy, it may even be actively difficult, but working through it will lead you in new directions and to new solutions. The more ideas you write down, the more ideas you will have. The less you work at actively thinking of new ideas, the fewer ideas you will have. This is why inspiration takes work.

But perhaps most importantly, you need to be constantly open to new ideas. You need to be aware of when an good idea is speaking to you, and know to follow it. That means resisting the urge to make assumptions and snap judgements about an idea. It means talking with people who disagree with you. It means debating without shutting out. It means empathy. Because finding a new idea often means looking at a problem from another point of view; understanding someone else’s feelings; putting yourself in someone else’s shoes.

As game designers, we need to be engaged in the world around us. Games are about interactivity, emotion, and narrative. The world is full of all these things, we just have look for it, and work at it seeing it. (Source: Streaming Colour)


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