clearing creative road blocks to keep the creative juices flowing
DESCRIPTION
Years spent constantly producing creative work causes nearly every game developer to hit the occasional (or perhaps frequent) creative roadblock. The question is how teams and individual developers get past these frustrating periods and productively move forward with creative ideas and products. In this session, Alexander Shen from Mochi Media will discuss tips and tricks to overcoming these periods of creative drought.Presented by Alexander Shen of Mochi MediaTRANSCRIPT
Smashing Creative Road Blocks
Presented by Alexander ShenMochi Media
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INTRODUCTIONS – MOCHI MEDIA
• Company’s mission is to build a ubiquitous game monetization and distribution platform
• Free platform APIs:– Monetization via Ads– Distribution– Microtransactions– Leaderboards– …and more!
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INTRODUCTIONS – MOCHI MEDIA
• MOCHI GAME DEVELOPER FUND– A $10 million fund to support Flash and social game
developers to build world-class games and businesses.
www.mochimedia.com/fund/
MOCHI GAME Fund Examples
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WHAT IS CREATIVITY?
• Creativity– Mental process involving the discovery of new ideas
and concepts. It is the ability to create.– How is it measured? The distance between two
separate nodes/ideas in your brain. The further the distance of which these ideas can be connected, the more “creative” it is.
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WHAT IS CREATIVITY?
• Creativity– Mental process involving the discovery of new ideas
and concepts. It is the ability to create.– How is it measured? The distance between two
separate nodes/ideas in your brain. The further the distance of which these ideas can be connected, the more “creative” it is.
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WHAT IS CREATIVITY?
• Creativity– Mental process involving the discovery of new ideas
and concepts. It is the ability to create.– How is it measured? The distance between two
separate nodes/ideas in your brain. The further the distance of which these ideas can be connected, the more “creative” it is.
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CREATIVITY = SUCCESS?
• Creativity– A “very creative” idea does not necessarily equate to
successful Idea
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G.E.E.K.
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G is for Game
• Go out there and play games.• Not the games you always play to kill time.• Play games you may not have picked up before.• Do NOT forget about traditional board games, card
games and table top games.
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E is for Experiment
• Prototyping is extremely important!– An idea is only as good as its
execution, so build something playable.
– Many tools available:• Adobe Flash• Multimedia Fusion 2• HTML5• Game Maker• Pen and Paper
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E is for Encourage
• It is very important to go out there and encourage other people’s ideas and they shall encourage yours.– Community is very important in absorbing new ideas
and bouncing ideas off others.– Resources:
• TIGSource• Indie Games Blog• Experimental Gameplay Project• Ludum Dare Competition• Gamestorm (gamestorm.tumblr.com)• Any Flash game place (Mochi Media forums, Kongregate
forums, FGL, etc.)
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K is for Kill
• Kill all thoughts that your idea is not worth pursuing.– Your worst critic will always be yourself, especially
after the first three phases.– Unless you actually try, it will always be a dream.
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K is for Kill
• …but also remember, that sometimes you’ll have to learn how to let go too.
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G.E.E.K. in Review
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Other resources… books with words!
• Other fun resources to check out:– The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses (ISBN 10:
0123694965)– Challenges for Game Designers (ISBN 10:
158450580X)– A Theory of Fun (ISBN 10: 1932111972)– Game Inventor’s Handbook (ISBN 10: 1600374476)– Game Kickstarter
(www.shengames.com/flash/gamekickstarter/)
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Contact Information
• E-mail:– [email protected]
• Website:– alexandershen.com
• Twitter:– @alexandersshen– (there are two S’s)