IN a different thread Xavier mentioned "Mental Creation" as a possible way of overcoming mental blocks in the design process. I would like to know (1) more about that! and (2) what does everyone else find effective in getting the old grey gears going again?
While not technically a game design resource, but I have often found the material by creativity guru Roger Von Oech (sp?) "A Whack in the Side of the Head" "A Kick in the Pants" etc... to be very helpful in training me to look at things differently. He also publishes his wisdom in a couple of decks of cards that can be used randomly (like an oracle) to stimulate thinking on a topic / issue.
What else has worked for you? What do you do?
Thanks you people who are interested in hearing my little thoughts!!! I must say I never expected that you were get interested in that. Ah, by the way, whats these grey gears youre talking about?
First of all, for those who dont know or dont want to know: Mental Creation is an ancient technic who remont to ancient egypt. Its a mystical (yes, you will only learn this from them! By the way, Im a mystical person, interested in occultism and philosofy. If you are a true materialist who thinks this is all bullshit, well, dont give up! Read it and try for yourself and tell me HOW you used and WHAT were the resulsts, ok? It works independent of what you think about life, god, heaven, witches, whatever) process of accessing the knowledge of the subconscious mind and put it to work for you. It will do the (almost) hardwork for you and you will have to "make it happen" or "materialize" your ideas then.
First of all, you need to know what youre going to do. If your problem is on the ideas department, this is for another post later. This time is for the "how to solve" department.
After you have decided EXACTLY on what youre going to work, you
1-sit down, close your eyes, relax yourself a bit doing slow breaths and try to NOT get anxious, nervous, angry, sad, whatever strong emotions you know for they will distract you from the main objective.
2- When you think you are ready, start to imaginate the objective of your work there, in your mind, READY. Thats the most important point here! If you plan a game, SEE IT DONE! You there, playing it with your friends, you seeing the pieces, the colored pictures, the well crafted board, all made with your love for it. Now you have to feel its there, it exists! You have to print in your mind the FACT that it EXISTS, its READY and it WORKS, that it will be FUN and people, whomever be, LOVES it! -may sound difficult, hmm? keep trying! When you think you have come to the climax of this mental movie, repeat it from the beggining more 2 times for a total of 3. The next ones dont need to be exactly identical but they need the elements I said in capitals to be present. It may even happen that at this point you may have some insight about some new feature or some problem solved.
3-Now FORGET ALL!!! Yes, FORGET ALL! It may sound strange, but when you do it, the objective mind (the wake up state) will stop interfering in the movie you created and it will start do go down your mind to reach your subcounscious mind. It will do it because you gave feeling to the movie, you impressed your mind with the FACT that it exists. If you feel difficult to forget, go do something. When the body acts, the mind rests, when the mind acts, the body rests. Go walk, take a bath, see tv, play with the cat, read something, do something that distracts you from what you were doing before. The more it demands attemption and concentration better to forget the creation.
When it reaches the subcounscious mind it will receive the emotional charged movie and will start to program itself to create it. You will start to receive insights from time to time, when you are relaxed doing something that distracts your mind. The subcounscious mind have perfect logic and remember almost everything you experienced during your life, so it will cross all this information while solving the problem you post for it. That means you need to have some experience with games, since one cannot work with something one doesnt know.
Dont get lazy thinking that ALL will be done for you, sillyboy. You still have to make it happen! Keep working on your projects and you will see how they will become easier and faster to produce, since many doubts and distractions from the main objective will be eliminated. It may happen that, after you have got some answers, that final product doesnt satisfy yourself. Dont get down because of it! Maybe you were going the wrong way and your inner mind showed you were you could went that way. Start creating mentally another solution and it will happen.
Now you all may have happened one -Hey, I know this! Sure thing! You may have been using it without knowing you were doing it! When you work at one project, see it in your mind, stops for doing something else and come back later you did mental creation!!! Some more, some less, but do you see how it is similar now? Now you have a concrete technic, apliable at any time you need it, simple and fair. Now you know whats going on and will be able to guide yourself more! Youre mastering yourself and game designing will be just more fun, more easy, more satisfying! And it can be used for many, many things more, my friends.
Any doubts? I expect I were of help. If you are a materialist and went down here, hey, thanks, maybe there is some hope for you after all!
Hugs,
Yours Xavier.