The Game Design Kiss Of Death
Turns out Kyle Gabler and his buddies at 2D Boy, whom we've previously covered here on GSW, have birthed a blog, and there's a new post, 'The Game Design Kiss of Death (or, I hurt you because I love you)', which takes a smart look at art and games.
Gabler laments: "Here’s the problem: I’ve noticed it’s really hard to create a subjectively judged project like a game or music or whatever of high quality if I actually care about it. If I don’t care at all, it’s really easy. What a cruel joke." So sure, it's somewhat about 'writer's block', here.
But it's also about getting so close to something that you have no idea whether it's any good or not. Gabler ends: "What small easy thing can I change to totally change but not change the game so I can play it again for the first time with a fresh perspective? I think I might know of one solution, and it’s the only one I’ve found so I sure hope it works: DISTRACTION." Fun, interesting post - but is he right? [Via Kloonigames]
Comments
This is a superficial commentary on creativity. It says more about our limited expectations than being able to create innovative, awesome stuff. If you want to make quick, light-hearted fluff, the scale works and "totally awesome" is the top. But if you want to go beyond "totally awesome", you have to go through the netherworld - that means you have to be prepared to lose perspective, leave your comfort zone, but still not give up. We make formulaic, rinse-and-repeat shit because we are afraid of the pain of creating those next waves.
Posted by: Grassroots Gamemaster | July 11, 2007 8:22 AM
Beautifully said, Mr. Grassroots.
Posted by: JP | July 11, 2007 10:37 AM
+1 grassroots, very cool!
Posted by: John H. | July 11, 2007 12:33 PM
Oh man, what a cool surprise seeing this on here. Thanks Simon. :)
Grassroots, thanks for your comment- Maybe I should have called it "Kiss of Mediocrity", in any case, I don't think we totally disagree. I continue to find (I think like many people) the best stuff "writes itself" with very little effort, and benefits from the uncalculated simplicity of an initial impulse. It's the second guessing, dwelling on it, and adding unnecessary stuff for the marketing department (ie. my own internal idea of "what sells these days..") that causes the interesting rough edges to get polished into self conscious mediocreness. BUT! That's not to say an initial impulse doesn't require a hell of a lot of work and trudging through the netherworld, it just means it's important not to lose sight of it.
Posted by: Kyle Gabler | July 11, 2007 5:45 PM