One of the things I did with my interview with Tim Schafer was allow some community members to offer questions to ask the guy. I liked what DaedHead8 and Krow asked: How is Tim able to be so creative, and how does he get those creative juices flowing? After all, this is the the mind behind much of The Secret of Monkey Island, Full Throttle, and Psychonauts, as well as Brütal Legend. So, I asked him.
Schafer offered his theory on how he remains creative, saying, "I always believe there's, like, a goose in your head, and the goose either lays golden eggs, or it doesn't." He then related an anecdote about how it was during the development of The Secret of Monkey Island that he allowed his creativity to shine, where apparently stupid ideas of his were the most brilliant. This is where the three-headed monkey was born.
He actually gave some pretty sound advice for anyone trying to be creative. For those people, within videogames or not, he offers this: "I learned that there's this internal sensor you have in your brain that kills your own creative ideas because you are afraid other people will laugh at you ... And you are afraid someone will come by and say to you, "That's WRONG!," so you censor yourself."
He continued by saying, "Doing that experience with Monkey Island is what taught me that, 'No, actually, you're right.' The stupid ideas that you have are often the best you have, and who cares what anyone else thinks about them? ... So take those dumb ideas and run with them." He finished by declaring, "That's what I would encourage people to do: run with their stupid ideas more."
It's a pretty encouraging thing, to hear a central figure in the industry offer such positive advice. I don't want to be a downer, but it's not often we hear someone encouraging the running with stupid ideas. It really is a testament that if someone like Tim Schafer can do it, anyone can.
Contest:
10:00 AM on 08.14.2009
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Great point about the internal sensoring -- especially in games, where criticism is fierce and swift, it's a huge advantage to not listen to that voice that tells you to tweak something to avoid the nerd-rage!
Hell, I'm gonna be as stupid as humanly possible from now on.
Also, cock-teasing us with these nuggets of awesome is so unfair. Put out and post the full interview already!!!!
Pretty please?
If I could work for anyone I could possibly choose, in the whole world, I'd probably pick Tim Schafer.
Let's all take our little negative voices in our heads out back and beat the crap out of them. =P
Maybe pushing for "stupid" ideas isnt what it should be described as, maybe it's thinking way outside the box of conventional methods to make a game as original as possible, without being as pretentious as possible.
Reading this immediately made me think of Psychonauts.
BELIEVE IN YOURSELF AND YOUR STUPIDITY
there's also a "stupid" idea that I had when I was 13, that I decided to tell my friend about for the laughs. she liked it, and now it's a whole roleplaying 'verse between us. "stupid," indeed.
I have a lot of friends who come up with their own ideas. I hear a lot of this. "it's already been done before!" "it doesn't make any sense!" "no one will be interested!" my ass. if people just went through with their ideas more often, instead of moping about them, the world would be a much more creative place.
Keep an eye out for our interview on Monday. He mentions Gloria ;)
every day you fill up three pages full of writing. It could be anything, you
can write "I have no ideas" for the entire 3 pages. The point is that you try
to bypass the "censors". I've heard that someone even wrote a book this way
without knowing it.
For every game jewel he makes, there are five God of War/Halo derivative manure being launched with full budget thorw at their productions.
One crucial reason why creativity is considered a risk is because most players do want the same old same old.
As much praise as Schafer gets, a great portion of those who do the praising are the same ones that pour cash in the direction of the cookie cutter products.
@Johannhat: That's the kind of attitude that will produce some quality. Keep at it!