作者：Asa Roos

了解我的人都知道我的设计和制作模式主要从思维角度切入。我之所以喜欢方法、工具和理论，不是因为我经常使用，而是因为我喜欢解释我的方法和我的世界。

本文主要谈论大脑面对创意挑战或问题时的运作方式，以及解决困境的有效工具，这主要基于我的设计知识及多年业内经验。

下面是本文将涉及的话题：

* 面对创造挑战时大脑会出现什么情况？

* 问题描述或挑战定义。

* 系列工具，如视觉思维、分解和记录及头脑风暴等。

* 某些有助于自我发展的阅读材料

大脑运作情况

大脑运作情况(from gamasutra)

下面是我所简述的创意过程。

1. 理解挑战

当大脑面临挑战时，在我看来首个最重要的任务就是彻底把握问题和挑战。

2. 收集信息

在此阶段，大脑处于高速运转状态，主要致力于收集某话题的相关信息。你是否曾想到同你所面临挑战或所要解决问题相关的书籍、文章、物品和人物？这就是大脑试图帮你寻找所需信息（游戏邦注：这个过程通常处于下意识状态）。把握相关信息能够促使大脑更好为你服务。

3. 进行思考

思考是个颇受低估的过程。让自己尽情消化所进行的工作，不要赶进度。但这过程也有系列推进方式。

4. 猜测——继续异想天开

让我们跳脱挑战或问题，进行幻想。若技术限制不存在？若你有无限时间？若你能够奇迹般地完成某事？那么你希望传递给玩家什么体验？

5. 推进游戏理念

这令现实碰撞理想，让奇思妙想变成实际理念，得以运用至游戏架构中，令游戏构思回到游戏架构中。

6. 选择游戏构思

7. 落实游戏构思

游戏架构

从根本来说，这其实是设定项目或所面临问题的限定条件。这包括：

* 技术限制

* 故事限制或叙述限制

* 题材

* 通俗性

* 发行商要求

* 时间、资源和质量限制

所有这些限制因素都是我创意过程的架构，我发现这些限制因素促使我以前所未有的方式思考，所以我个人非常欢迎这些因素。

下面是系列涉及定义问题或创建框架的问题。

* 确定作品所要呈现的内容——应用/服务的最终目标是什么。作品呈现什么内容？

* 描述作品的基本功能——什么是主要功能？

* 以用户角度审视作品——若你明确用户将如何获得作品，实现目标就简单得多。

* 描述用户和游戏角色——谁是目标用户？游戏角色如何“化身”用户？

* 形容游戏如何以不同感官呈现——其感觉如何？其味道如何？其听起来如何？是否稳固、健全，给人高质量感觉。

* 形容作品如何影响公司形象——这是否是步好棋，尤其是在面对软件或实际产品时。游戏内容会如何展现公司形象？例如，“女权主义娼妓”传递《死亡岛》和《Deep Silver》开发者的什么理念？“热咖啡”MOD（游戏邦注：“热咖啡”（Hot Coffee）是网上流传的一个《侠盗猎车手：圣安德里亚》的MOD）给Rockstar North带来什么影响？《Dragon Age 2》中的同性恋关系给BioWare塑造什么形象？

* 确定定义和形容作品质量层次的元素——游戏道具如何呈现所运用技术？这是否应该体现？此技术是否重要？还是不重要？

创建框架的一个渠道是撰写功能分析报告。这是个不小工程，目前我只有在制作实体产品时这么做过，但这确实有助于创建架构。

撰写功能列表，试着将其减少到只有动词和名词。例如，“激发兴趣”或“提高可操作性”。在罗列系列你期望道具具备的功能后，你就能够获悉你所追求的元素及你希望突出什么特性。

定义挑战

这同架构联系密切。把握创作目标非常重要。把握需要解决的问题能够促使你创造更杰出的作品。

Jesse Schell写过一本叫做《The Art of Game Design》的书。该书旨在鼓励大家提问问题，以各种视角审视作品。Schell谈及各种问题的目的是希望大家能够定义挑战，定义游戏。

有时看似困难的问题，其解决方案非常简单。我建议通过下述问题寻找解决方案。

* 游戏目的是什么？

* 谁是目标玩家？

* 你希望玩家体验什么？

* 你希望带给玩家什么感觉？

* 玩家应该何时体验？

* 游戏费用多少？

通过这6个问题，你能够深入把握项目。这些都是非常有用的问题。我建议你经常思考这些问题。答案无需非常深刻。有时只要足以“招架问题”便可，至少你会因此知晓游戏这些方面的相关情况。

做研究

大脑并非处于真空状态。你需要通过新鲜元素建立某些重要联系。有时你会从极其古怪的想法中获得灵感，所以值得注意的是寻找灵感时不要过于局限。

就我而言，我觉得参加展会，观看表演、读书、看电影和散步都能让我获得灵感。在寻找灵感时，我常让自己感情超负荷，只是为了确保我的大脑有获得合理补充。

我也试图寻找我在“正常生活”中鲜少遇到的经历，即那些与游戏完全不沾边的内容。

当你觉得自己脑袋快爆炸时，就是时候该运用这些工具。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Opinion: Tools To Help Me Think

by Asa Roos

[In this reprinted #altdevblogaday-opinion piece, Avalanche Studios' Asa Roos looks at what happens in your brain during the creative process, and suggests steps you can take to solve your project's problems.]

Nobody who knows me would deny that my approach to design and production is a fairly intellectual affair. I like methods, tools, and theory, not because I use them very often, but because I like to be able to explain my methods and my world.

So basically this post is all about trying to explain a small part of how the brain works when faced with a creative challenge or a problem, and the tools I myself have found very useful when in a fix, drawing both from my industrial design background and my many years in the games business both as a professional and as a teacher.

These are the topics I’ll touch upon in the post:

* What happens in the brain when being creatively challenged?

* Problem description, or definition of the challenge

* Some tools, such as visual thinking, scrap- and notebook, brainstorm etc

* Some reading material you can use to move forward

What Happens In The Brain

This is the creative process, in layman terms.

1. Understand the challenge

When the brain is faced with a challenge, the first – and, to my mind, most important – task is to understand the problem or challenge thoroughly. I’ll get back to that.

2. Gathering information

In this phase, the brain goes into high gear, focusing on finding out as much as possible about a specific topic. Ever experienced that you find books, articles, items and people relevant to a challenge that you’re facing or a problem you want to solve? That’s your brain, trying to help you find what you need. Often this process is subconscious. Knowing about it will help your brain do good work for you.

3. Think about it

Reflection really is an underrated process. Give yourself the luxury of digesting what you’re working on, and don’t try to push it. There are, however, ways to do that too. I’ll get back to that.

4. Speculate – go on a flight of fancy

Let go of the challenge or problem and make a wish. What if? What if that technical limitation didn’t exist? What if you had unlimited time? What if you could magically make something happen? What experience would you like to instill in the player then?

5. Develop ideas

This is where reality meets dream, and where the flight of fancy turns into an actual idea that can be used within the framework, a connection going back to the framework.

6. Select your idea

7. Implement your idea

The Framework

Basically this is where you set the limitations on your project or problem that you want to solve or work with. These can include, but are by all means not limited to:

* Technical limitations

* Story limitations or narrative limitations

* Genre

* Accessibility

* Publisher demands

* Any other limitations such as time, resources and quality.

All these limitations serve as a framework for my creativity, and I find that a strict set of limitations usually challenge me to think in ways I might not have done without them, so personally I welcome them.

I have a couple of questions that are related to defining the problem but also to set up the framework. I thought I’d share them.

* Identify what the product wants to be – What is the goal of this item/software/service you want to make. What does the product offer?

* Describe the basic functionality of the product – What is the main function?

* See the product the way the user sees it – If you define how your audience is supposed to receive the item you’re making, the goal is easier to reach.

* Describe the user and the personality of the product – Who is the user? How does the personality of the product “complete” the user?

* Describe how the product will be experienced through different senses – How does it feel? What does it taste like? How does it sound? Is it strong, is it robust, does it have a sense of quality, etc.

* Describe how the product impacts your company’s image – This is a good step, particularly when working with hardware or actual products. What will the item say about the company? (As an example – what did the “feminist whore” debacle say about the developers of Dead Island, Deep Silver? What does the Hot Coffee mod say about Rockstar North? What does the option of homosexual relationships in Dragon Age 2 say about BioWare?)

* Identify the elements that define, and describe the level of, the experienced technical quality of the product – What will your item say about the tech used? Should it be showcased? Is tech important? Is it not important?

One way of setting up a framework is by writing a functional analysis. It’s a bit of work, and so far I’ve personally only done it for actual physical products, but it actually helps setting up the framework.

Write a list of functions and try to reduce them to verbs and nouns. For example “awaken interest” or “optimize accessibility”. When you’ve got a list that you feel is defining what you want the functionality of the item to be, set a prio number on each item in the list. This way, you’ll be able to figure out what you’re really after and what qualities you actually want to shine through.

Define The Challenge/Define The Problem

This actually goes slightly hand in hand with the framework, but still. Knowing what you want to do is important. Knowing what problem you want to solve is critical to creating something stellar.

Jesse Schell has written a book called “The Art of Game Design”. It basically encourages you to ask a number of questions, to look at your game through a set of lenses. What Schell is really asking you to do by using these kinds of questions is to define the challenge, define your game.

Sometimes the solution to an apparently difficult problem can be very simple. I recommend using questions to figure it out.

* What’s the purpose of the game?

* Who is the player?

* What do you want the player to experience?

* What do you want the player to feel?

* When should the player play?

* How much should the game cost?

etc, etc. Using six basic questions, you can get pretty far. Who, why, what, how, how much, and when are useful questions. I encourage you to ask them often. The answers don’t have to be ground-shattering profound. Sometimes it’s enough with “to entertain”, but at least you’ll know that about your game.

Do Your Research

The brain does not work in a vacuum. You need fresh impressions to make vital connections. Sometimes you’ll get inspired by the weirdest things, so the important part is not to limit oneself when looking for things to be inspired by.

For me, I find that going to exhibitions, watching performances, reading, watching movies and taking long walks in the city inspire me. I almost go for sensory overload when looking for inspiration, just to make sure my brain is properly stuffed and fed.

I also try to find experiences I’m not usually looking for in my “normal life”, meaning that games – or at least computer games – are not on the menu.

When your brain feels big enough to burst, it’s time to pick up the tools. That’s my topic for the next post.（Source：gamasutra）