Brainstorming

Game Design is a creative industry in which you have talented people with various skill sets coming together to design a product. They bring different talents and ideas to the collaborative table. How do you get them to work together and build something together? Brainstorming is the first step in that process.

In school, most of the time it is about being right. We want to get the right answer and look smart. Sometimes we don't say anything because we don't want to look stupid. We don't want to take the risk of getting it wrong. Getting the "right answer" is antithetical to brainstorming.

In brainstorming, all answers are good answers, even the crazy ones. Why? Sometimes the crazy ideas may not be the idea you go with but it might inspire you to think of another idea that can be used.

These are the basic principles behind brainstorming:

1. No criticism. There are no bad ideas.

2. Quantity not quality.

3. The wilder the idea, the better!

4. Synthesis!

5. Don't interrupt.

1. No criticism means judgement needs to be suspended/excluded. When there is no judgment, people feel more freedom to express themselves and take risks. You don't want to spend time talking about how good or bad an idea is during a brainstorming session. We definitely don't want to say that an idea is bad. That stops the creative process. We don't want to say something is a great idea either and stop to start talking about how it is such a great idea. That's not brainstorming and if we stop now, we might miss an even better idea.

Don't get stuck on one idea even if it is really good. Don't spend a lot of time talking about one idea. We don't want to analyze the ideas during brainstorming. That comes later.

2. The goal of a good brainstorming session is quantity. The more ideas the better. If you have a lot of ideas there's a good chance you will have a good one in the bunch. All ideas are welcomed.

3. The wilder the idea, the better because we don't want normal ideas. We want to come up with something new and interesting that no one has thought of before. You never know when a wild idea will turn into a great idea. We will take the wild ideas and build on them to create something that is unique and special but that's later.

Sometimes its fun to start with BAD ideas. Just put out as many bad, worthless ideas as you can. It's fun and it helps everyone in the team feel safe.

4. Synthesis means building on ideas. Someone might suggest an idea which causes someone else to think of something which is related to it. Sometimes we can combine two or three wild ideas to create something better than we would have with just one idea. For example, Legos is a good idea, Star Wars is a good idea, but Star Wars Legos is awesome!

5. Don't interrupt. Let everyone have a voice and don't jump in until the person with the idea is done. If you need to, write it down so you don't forget. Have paper and pencil nearby.