To Designers,
If you want to be the next Will Wright or Shigeru Miyamoto you must remember that games are GAMES! They should be new experiences that bring excitement and fun!
The best way to get inspirations for games is to constantly look at life in a new light. If you can view life as you did growing up, designing that AAA title will be easy; making it is a whole different problem.
It’s a huge leap from having an inspiration for something to having a workable design. I’ve been dreaming of this or that kind of game since I was ten — of the 10% that might have been good ideas, none have passed the ultimate test — implementation.
I would argue that implementing ideas in software is not a natural brain function to humans. When we think about worlds and what we would like in them, we think in broad brush strokes. But to create the world in software, we must define ideas and state relationships to such level of detail, we rarely know what they are until the world fails without them.
The only way to write a complex software world, then, is to overcome our natural deficit by learning from experience. Keep at it until you fail–and you will fail. Learn why you did, rewire your brain to match.
Ever wonder why programmers aren’t like normal people?
I have to agree there. I always think about the big picture but when it comes down to the small details sometimes I can’t figure it out. 🙁