A longer sidestory, you could skip this. This post will be about the basic pillars of how-my-brain-works-in-creative-processes-like-this. Maybe a bit boring. And incoherent.
As an architect, and mostly because I usually work in films, I could really say that creativity is the key at my professional life. I see almost everything in this light. I love to explore new fields in life, but after I reach even a tiny depth, I always catch myself thinking; how could I ‘invent’, to develop, to experiment, to design some new, to figure out how could it be better, how to fix what maybe isn’t broken at all.
So this is the first aspect – I’m eager to invent.
At uni we learned in detail, how to make something, from nothing. Yea the main focus was on buildings of course, but the abstract process could be pulled on anything. In my understanding, the main steps were; identify the problem, describe the needs, get inspired and research a lot in the subject matter, draw the first insecure lines, do the concept, do the first draft, and from here “just” develop the project organically, then show them when the deadline arrives. And show them again in deeper detail, then correct, modify, and again, and again, and publish when the final deadline appears – however it stands.
Again, this could be true for any project in our lives. Yes, any. Or at least this is the main pipeline of how I like to do things.
So this is the second aspect – I’ve learned how to create.
A few years ago I started to write a book. Yes, maybe at this point you could tell that I may be more of a dreamer than a doer, haha. (I could see this changing tho, hopefully this blog will be some kind of witness to it.) So back to the book: it starts with a story about a woman and her family, set in the far future, after human civilization collapsed countless times.
My goal was almost nothing else, just to get to know this world. The stories in it. I was curious what will happen. Curious about the world I will create. I guess this approach could sound a bit strange (or not, I haven’t been talking to anyone in similar shoes), almost like a split personality or whatever. But, my main point here is, that on projects for which I am really enthusiastic, I tend to follow these tracks; like reading a book, I just want to discover the world. But in these cases these worlds do not exist yet, only in very rough sketch lines, in my head. And then I dive deeper and deeper, and things just pop out of my mind as it runs free, and I just enjoy how I uncover this world.
(Note: when the world is ready in rough lines, and things start to get “serious” and I should work on the nuances and figure out every detail that’s important to the project in subject, and I have to modify and cross out stuff – then I tend to lose my enthusiasm. So when actual work has to be done, haha.)
So this is the third aspect – I’m curious.
There is a smaller fourth aspect, that I really like to imagine things. Visualization is key in every part of these projects – from my desire to accompany my notes with sketches, to where I tend to visualize the final product even in the first steps. Also, or following from these, I always try to plan/think about the overall picture of the project – so for example, in this game the artstyle, colors, figures, tiles, vibe and mood – from the beginning. (I tend to derive this part of me from that I’ve read a lot in my childhood and early teenage years, but this is for another conversation.)
So, I’m visual.
Now. After I was inspired by a couple of board games and made the connection with my existing idea of that beaverish, simple but epic scale turn based strategy game, then I started to explore this world.