Are there methods of creation I do not employ
that I can improve my own creative process
The Reason for the Question:
Following on from the previous blog post I am continuing to explore new methods of creation. Throughout my time working on models, games and designs I have often found that I have fallen back in step with methods I have always used and have noticed that without a fresh perspective creating unique or new shapes and styles becomes quite a struggle.
To escape this rut, for the past two weeks I have read into new creative methods and theories, these methods range from Brian Eno's Oblique Strategies (1975) which I have previously used and is my go to method for concepts that I would not normally think of, stretching beyond my own style and into otherwise random topics and ideas. R Wetzel, T Rodden and S Benford have written about Ideation cards which appear very similar to Brian Eno's work with Oblique Strategies.
In "Sparking Motivation and Creativity with "Online Ideation Games"" by M Witt and S Robra-Bissantz, they talk about the benefits of ideation methods beyond simple brainstorming, specifically that of using online ideation games, games to promote the creation of other games. This is done by creating motives, or incentives for the player, determining how the player is involved in obtaining these incentives, then analysing the different patterns and behaviours the player will need to adopt and building mechanics around them. This process has the potential to be drawn out and time consuming, I say this due to the prerequisite of needing a specifically designed game that helps promote ideas, analysing the results and distilling them down into usable mechanics and systems.
Discovering A Method
Whilst researching methods for idea creation I have reflected upon my prior learning and found a previous method used in many industry leaders such as Blizzard, Steam, Ubisoft a method which a previous lecturer – Jamie Lack – has taught a similar method to would be game designers during their bachelors. This method involves filling pages full of vague outlines or semi random squiggles before picking through them, spotting shapes or images that stand out or stoke your imagination. From there filling in these shapes to create a figure before adding layers to the image and fleshing out the details of whatever image is created.
The Method
With this in mind I have gone about creating a few pages of scribbles as below. From these rough and honestly terribly non-descriptive sketches I went about circling a few that stand out. The images selected had a shape, or line that was aesthetically pleasing or brought forth an idea of something interesting.
Refining
From this point I refined which pieces to work on. This led to the following series of images:
When looking upon these images I made notes on what they could potentially be built into, from the top left it looks to be a form of slime creature with hard sections almost as mandibles or hard collar.
The second looking to be a strange fruit or some form of spiked creature, being a slug or sea creature.
The third resembling a space craft or skimmer, a similar shape as that used in the Disney movie Lilo and Stitch to create the head of Captain Gantu.
The fourth looking to be a large shielded armature protecting a smaller body. This image brought about memories of a core unit in Starcraft 2 called the "Stalker" as present below. This one struck a cord with me and prompted immediate potential ideas, a great indication of the potential of the method.
This silhouette brought about memories again of another Starcraft model, the carrier, as seen below, an unfortunate outcome as I found it hard to not see this ship in the silhouette due to my fondness of the series. This made the question of where the shortcomings of this method are? Is this a common problem where overexposure of a certain theme or aesthetic influences the creator and inhibits original content.
The Results
Once the silhouettes are created and ideas of what they bring to mind established I went about separating the silhouettes into components and producing a visual representation of what is imagined. Below is the first draft of the silhouette technique, much the same as with game mechanic design this method is about iterations, quickly creating a wide swathe of potential models or images quickly before reflecting back upon the outcome.
Whilst building up this initial model the most important portion of the silhouette was the large shield or defensive arm. This was the first shape created, being held slightly apart from the body of the model. The center mass becoming a compartment of pilots seat small details on the rear for the potential of thruster devices. Upon reflecting on this model I see it as a huge success, it is not something I would create normally, very simple in its design and refreshing.
The next model being a small slime creature, reminiscent of popular culture impressions, a viscous puddle that is sentient and capable of deforming its shape. In creating this model I began to see a trend between the first impression of the silhouette, what was created and the expectations of the curves and mass of each object.
Another successful silhouette worked very similarly to the first, with the initial assumption of how the silhouette should look becoming their final form. Inspiration coming from the initial flow when looking over these silhouettes has appeared to prove invaluable, initial impressions inspiring a winged ship or flying unit.
The Failures
Below are the failures of this batch, those that made it through the first sketch and were selected to create silhouettes, then still holding promise of a potential model or image. The first two images being the spiked creature or plant looked like a serious contender for an interesting creature. The issue that arose was the lack of an overall idea of what the model should be, the object was initially going to be a slug like creature, or a bark like fruit, or even some form of anemone. This vagueness in the design in evident in the results.
This last silhouette is classed as a failure due to its similarity to an already existing object - being the Carrier from Starcraft. These similarities have clouded my capability to think of new or unique objects sharing similar traits.
Conclusion
When looking back on this process it feels like the natural step to include this process within my own method. With my go to method of creation being similar to that of Brian Eno's Oblique Strategies deck of cards when suggesting new topics and mechanics, the inclusion of this silhouetting technique will assist greatly in rounding out assets and inspired imagery and models.
I am genuinely impressed by how effective this system works, having doubted its efficacy due to the time cost associated with the different layers. The final products speaking for themselves with different genres.
References:
Eno, B., & Schmidt, P. (1975). Oblique strategies. Opal.(Limited edition, boxed set of cards.)[rMAB].
Jamie Lack Interview (personal communication, 2020)
Kultima, A., Niemelä, J., Paavilainen, J., & Saarenpää, H. (2008, November). Designing game idea generation games. In Proceedings of the 2008 conference on future play: Research, play, share (pp. 137-144).
Nestok, B. R. (2016). Uninhibited Ideation: Childhood Games as Design Methods (Doctoral dissertation, University of Cincinnati).
Blizzard Entertainment (2010). Starcraft 2
Wetzel, R., Rodden, T., & Benford, S. (2017). Developing ideation cards for mixed reality game design. Transactions of the Digital Games Research Association, 3(2).
Witt, M., & Robra-Bissantz, S. (2012). Sparking motivation and creativity with" online ideation games". INFORMATIK 2012.