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My Textbook Brainstorming Idea Rules

Discussion in 'Game Design' started by alanchanGD, Jun 3, 2017.

  1. alanchanGD

    alanchanGD

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    I am reading this textbook for fun, Entrepreneurship: Successfully Launching New Ventures by Bruce R. Barringer. As I am reading chapter 2, I just figure out almost all of the creative ideas and business practices needs to be a carefree idea like your customer should not be worrying too much about your human and society with your product.
    In chapter 2, the Rules for a formal Brainstorming session states...
    1. No criticism, because the human society criticism will take away creativity and criticism takes away a large proportion of a fun freedom flow.
    2. Freewheeling, because you need to have more carefree of ideas that is taking away from following the rules.
    3. Keep on throwing more ideas faster, instead of thinking too much. But, just keep on spreading out your ideas and feelings.
    4. Leapfrogging is encouraged by quickly jumping forward with your ideas around.
    Basically, my main point is when almost all business practices should have no human society criticism at all, except for a real life solution like a product that can help your health.
    It is strange that I have heard from a psychologist saying most post modernism people have got used to be very picky on having their stuff being almost perfect on what they want. Like, many people will over panic when their internet is not working for a while. Also, the psychologist have said those post modernism people can be very different from those people during in the great depression times, because they have a full sense of awareness and criticism like those bootlegger was illegal.
     
    Last edited: Jul 9, 2017
  2. Deleted User

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    Wow. That is super helpful. I've always been critical of my own ideas. Didn't know that was something to avoid!! :D
     
  3. Kiwasi

    Kiwasi

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    Its standard idea generation 101. During the brainstorming session nothing should be off the table.

    However make sure you read the rest of the book. Brainstorming is not the end of the process. After you have generated ideas, you need to affinitize. That is to group all of the ideas into similar themes and patterns.

    Then its important to go through phase of critical evaluation. This is where you throw out ideas that won't work, and refine ideas that will work.

    Key takeaway: Being critical of your ideas is super important. But the best ideas come when you separate the idea generation phase from the critical evaluation phase.
     
  4. alanchanGD

    alanchanGD

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    As I continue reading this textbook, I believe it is hard to make a indie game for a living, because basically most of the successful entertainment companies is trying to sell a high end luxury experience with a low price. Is like Hayao Miyazaki, who makes a high end production anime when he is making a low profit.

    I believe I have find a solution from this textbook to solve this problem. I think the only way is to solve this problem is to make a primary research, instead of a secondary research. Like you should do a primary research by hiring a business smart person to help you know your people to create your pitch for you, unless yourself is a smart business person who can figure out your ideas that can break plenty of rules in this industry. The primary research is when you are doing a business research to find a new fact. Sometimes, the business people is not really like a skillset person who will create a production. Making your game with the secondary research only can be not good enough marketing research in this game industry, because the secondary research is only finding your past reference that the other people have already been made, like you are only copying some game ideas from the Google image searching website. So, when you are just using your secondary research, your game product will might looks like a duplicate of another boring game.

    In this textbook, it also tells you how to protect your new ideas. To protect your game idea, you should have a saved idea file inside your computer disk with the right date on it, you should have no other people who have voluntary you to make your game idea for free, unless you have paid them, you should have a trust worthy person who have witness your new game idea. I disagree to keep your game ideas by yourself to avoid for more feedback, unless you have not protect your game ideas yet.
     
    Last edited: Jul 8, 2017
  5. Kiwasi

    Kiwasi

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    I really think you need a new book...
     
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  6. alanchanGD

    alanchanGD

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    Why? In this book I have learned there is too many game content is being too duplicated. While making a game for living is too hard, because in my Toronto city area I need like at least $90000 CND per year to support a exspensive house.

    And do not get me wrong, I think to make a game for a living can be a tricky business and confusing to have enough earnings.
     
    Last edited: Jul 8, 2017
  7. SoundStormLabs

    SoundStormLabs

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    I tend to disagree with this, having talked with numerous multimedia designers across different fields and a wide variety of college professors. Criticism, as long as it's constructive, makes you better at what you do, because it points out the flaws that make your services or products less desirable, and thus allows you to recognize what to improve to make more money from them.

    Mm, not quite, I'm sure that plenty of game designers here can attest that creating a game means hours of tedious coding to say the least. There are some professions where you spend a lot of time coming up with ideas, like writing, engineering, psychology, graphic design, but even in those fields there's still a lot of grunt work to be done.

    However, during the specific process of early brainstorming, it is important to be open to many different points of view, because analyzing multiple possibilities simultaneously is the quickest route to solving a problem. But as time goes on, you want to establish what it is you or your group/company is looking for and focus in on it.
     
    Last edited: Jul 9, 2017
  8. Kiwasi

    Kiwasi

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    Ideas cannot be protected. Here are a few reasons why:
    • For every idea you have, a dozen others have had the same idea
    • There is no legal protection for ideas. So proving you had it first, or even that someone else actually stole the idea from you, are both irrelevant. Neither will hold up in court.
    There are also a few reasons why you shouldn't bother to protect your ideas:
    • Your ideas suck. So do mine. So do every bodies. It's only by exposing and developing ideas that we can refine them into something useful.
    • Ideas aren't really important. 99% of successful games are just iterations on earlier ones.
    • Unexecuted ideas generate no value to anybody.
    • Everyone else already has similar ideas anyway.
     
  9. SoundStormLabs

    SoundStormLabs

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    I think you have a point about ideas not being protected, but the rest seems overly pessimistic. How many different gem matching crush games have been released? Probably thousands, and yet out of nowhere comes a completely generic kind of game, Candy Crush, that becomes like most popular mobile game, and even with Angry Birds, that's been done many times before too. There's always room for ideas that can make something unique or take it to the next level.
     
    Last edited: Jul 9, 2017
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  10. Kiwasi

    Kiwasi

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    My point was Angry Birds and Candy Crush didn't succeed because of a brilliant, well protected idea. They succeeded because of a brilliant execution.
     
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  11. SoundStormLabs

    SoundStormLabs

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    Okay, that's a fair enough point. It's still very easy to argue in favor of idea brilliance playing a factor though, Tetris was a brilliant revolutionary idea when it first came out, and then Zelda was a brilliant idea when it came out and then Doom was a brilliant idea when it first came out and so on. The market is more competitive nowadays, but really that's an incentive to come up with more unique ideas for games to make them stand out, in addition to executing them well.
     
    Last edited: Jul 9, 2017
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  12. alanchanGD

    alanchanGD

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    Sry, what I mean from my quote from before, is I am trying to explain most custumer do not really want to care or worry too much with your product, like most customers in this new generation will not always like to think too much criticism. The only way to attract customers with your criticism is to make your product with a solution into a real life situation. I was not really talking about the workers not caring much when they are creating their own ideas.
     
  13. SoundStormLabs

    SoundStormLabs

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    Customers will definitely criticize your products, they're the most likely to of anyone else. They don't always tell you their criticisms, but if you ask them they're usually more than willing to express them, which you can even see first-hand right here in these forums
     
    Last edited: Jul 9, 2017
  14. alanchanGD

    alanchanGD

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    Wait, I was referring criticism meaning as a criticism lens with those human society stuff. I do not mean criticism as a agurement. Sry, for me not putting what my word term criticism means.
     
  15. alanchanGD

    alanchanGD

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    I think Hayao Miyazaki did a good job explaining how to make a multimedia with a humunity and society that is not really criticism anything. Because, his film characters is acting more like a real life human being, instead of characters being too objectify and fake, like his characters is not doing any transformation, or he does not always make his film with a clear enemy and a hero, or adding a attractive character with the fake cartoonish movement and style, or he does not always use a god or magical force for fighting but he uses the magical force as a moral lesson, or he does not add too much random movement in his film composition to attract the viewers attention but he add in more focus film scenery with much lesser moving actions to it so he can create a more settle emotions. Also, I believe Hayao Miyazaki used to take a social science and politcial school.
     
  16. SoundStormLabs

    SoundStormLabs

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    I really have no idea what you're trying to discuss, you keep shifting your definition.
     
  17. alanchanGD

    alanchanGD

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    I never really did shift my definition, you just never did understood what kind of criticism I was talking about, because before I forgot to explain what kind of criticism I was talking about. I was always talking humanity and society criticism.
     
  18. SoundStormLabs

    SoundStormLabs

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    What kind of criticism is there other than from those who are a part of human society? Raccoon criticism? Alligator criticism? It just doesn't seem like anything you're saying is relevant to game design anymore.
     
    Last edited: Jul 10, 2017
  19. alanchanGD

    alanchanGD

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    Some of my discussion is about how to add humanity and society criticism properly or not to add it into your game at all. Humanity and society critisicm is one of the most common critisicm. In this video, it shows that the games can also have a society criticism as well, but I dought that most game with a criticism should not make a gamer worried too much of a criticism into their real lives.
     
  20. SoundStormLabs

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    I don't see anything inherently wrong with criticisms of society in games as long as they aren't biased or they are at least executed well as part of the game's story. Criticism takes place in many different mediums beyond games, like artwork, comedy, literature, music, all of which have been successful mediums in society for hundreds or thousands of years, there's no reason a random developer should be prohibited from making it a part of a game they're working on if they feel it is a good fit, because the expression of varying ideas is what allows them to be discussed and developed. Some people intentionally modify games as propaganda, or they make poorly educated assumptions about certain groups of people, and I don't think anyone on this platform advocates for that.

    Skyrim for instance has plenty of criticisms of varying points of view like of anarchy, the role of government, the evolution of society, abuse of power, militarism, conflicting morals, struggles of the poor, class elitism, etc, and it's been wildly successful. Bioshock or Portal has criticisms of the pursuit of science, the absence of art and morality, class elitism, the role of artificial intelligence and it's been successful. Mass Effect has criticisms of the struggle for power, defining morals, the evolution of artificial intelligence, the diplomacy of clashing cultures, the pursuit of science, and it's been successful. People don't even notice these criticisms in a game that's been executed well, they just fit in as a natural part of the games' story-line or adventures.
     
    Last edited: Jul 10, 2017
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  21. Schneider21

    Schneider21

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    So the book is saying that your game shouldn't take a stance on anything? Because even if your game just represents one opinion in a positive way, that's indirectly criticizing the alternative viewpoint, isn't it? Playing it safe is fine for things like puzzle games and Flappy Clash of War Crush Saga games, but any serious game that tells a story is likely to (required to) touch on some sort of human element that is bound to take a side.

    If the original idea of this thread was about brainstorming, sure... No idea is bad. But once you get past that step, you can and should take a critical eye to every facet of the idea and explore it as fully as possible. But I'm not sure if that's what we're even discussing here or not.
     
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  22. ImperativeGames

    ImperativeGames

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    No one wants criticism of anything printed on burgers, because it's not their role. If you are making desk - don't carve "Allah is one true God" on it. But when we are talking about Art: books: movies, computer games, point of views (of different charactes and sometimes, author, narrator) are part of the product.
     
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  23. Kiwasi

    Kiwasi

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    In my last industry we had to do focus tests on fish, mice and rats. If they died, it was considered damming criticism of the product. In fact, their criticism was taken so seriously that many products were cancelled because the rats didn't like it.

    Really depends. There is a huge market for religious items. Check out halal meat for example. There is money to be made by providing customers what they want, regardless of the objective value.

    So don't bother too much about the correct role for the item you are producing. Rather tailor the item to match the audience you are selling to. If you are selling it to Christians write 'In God we trust' on it. If you are selling it to Muslims write 'la ilaha illa'llah'. And if you are selling it to men aged 15 - 35, throw on a woman with exaggerated sexual characteristics. If you are selling to teched up urban millennials, challenge the values of previous generations.

    While spreading a message can drive cultural change, its more often a case that the messages spread reflect the underlying culture of those receiving the message.
     
  24. ImperativeGames

    ImperativeGames

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    I wrote that post and only after that thought that I wasn't specific enough and someone could mention stuff like items for religious people. Ofc, if you want to sell something tagged "religious items", in that case you think what defines that particular class of religious items, you don't add your own views on transgenders in the military (for example).
    That's what I meant.
    We could expand that conversation further with talk about items having several purposes like pants with Star Wars characters, or using patriotism to sell T-shirts, but I would prefer to make my game more ^^
     
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  25. Joe-Censored

    Joe-Censored

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    It is not possible to build a successful product, such as developing a game, without taking in a lot of criticism. Idea generation though is only a very small part of that process, and yes not focusing on criticisms at that stage is important, as any new idea may have merit.

    It is when deciding what specific idea to commit to, that is when you not only need to consider criticism but also encourage it. Criticism can take many forms.

    For example, someone on your team has an idea to create a new Star Wars space combat game..... well that is all fine and good, the idea itself isn't bad at all. Star Wars has a large following, most people love it. You can go on and on with ideas for how to implement that game, etc. But your entire idea vetting system is simply broken if you don't have someone on your team point out that EA currently holds the license for Star Wars video games and is unlikely to either take your team up on that project as an outside contractor, nor is your team likely to get the license from EA. You can even investigate the possibly of that, but you wouldn't even get there if you didn't allow that criticism in the first place.

    Criticism is a healthy part of the process of vetting new game ideas, and is in fact required.

    The same thing can be said about game ideas that are too vast in scope for your team to practically handle in a reasonable amount of time. Yes the idea may be good, yes it may be successful when complete. Someone though needs to have had the freedom to criticize the idea's scope early in the process, so that the idea can possible be scaled down, or if not that it can be shelved early enough so as to not waste too much of the team's time that could have been going into an idea that is actually viable.
     
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  26. minta2

    minta2

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    Thank you! This is really nice. The first point is the most interesting one. In my opinion, there should be the criticism to some extent BUT it should be taken as facts. Some people like to blame themselves instead of looking at their mistakes as the possible field of the improvements. I think criticism directly influence personal development in the career. My friend has been criticized for a period of time after that she was struggling to go on the interviews to get the workplace. I assume it influences her personal capabilities to be good during the interviews and use self-branding in the right way. Did anyone experience something similar where the social criticism influence the career?