Week 4: Battling Creative Block
While creating the game, I’ve had several incidents where I found myself struggling to find a good place to move forward. Whether it be in finding a unique gameplay loop to implement to finding an art style I wanted to adhere to, I found myself having to work through a lot of blocks in inspiration. Thankfully, I’ve found strategies that help me consistently work through these times of slow progress.
Finding inspiration in games I’ve played before helps immensely. Analyzing the ways Zelda games work around a core idea to promote player expression or the parts of Pokemon that make the game as appealing as it is to a wide-ranging audience allows me to break down the major aspects of my game that makes it fun to play. Creating a web of ideas and seeing how they connect or support the core gameplay loop of collecting creatures and having engaging combat that utilizes the different playstyles of said creatures also helps me add new ideas that would better support the game’s main goal.
Additionally, rewatching and breaking down the techniques used in animated films helps me find inspiration for what art elements I want to add. Whether it be dynamic movement and aggressive stylization used in movies such as The Spiderverse films or the use of VFX that stylizes elemental powers seen in films such as The Elementals or Frozen 2, these movies serve as examples for me to break down and attempt to replicate. Movies that directly represent the style of the game characters such as Detective Pikachu are also helpful as they are direct inspiration that I can model against and add a twist to. Exercises such as simply trying to recreate certain characters lets me gain the skills to brainstorm new and unique characters to implement into the game.
Game development remains a creative pursuit with technical roadblocks, and the transition from coding to art always serves as a time for creative blocks to prevent progress. Thankfully, the use of these techniques mostly limits their effect on my productivity. The best ideas and art usually come spontaneously and keeping a good record of these ideas is essential so that I can refer to them when the ideas simply aren’t flowing.
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