Last week I watched the movie "Magnolia," a complex drama about life and
coincidence. At the same time I started listening to the movie soundtrack by
Aimee Mann, which was actually made before the movie.
I was surprised to find in the linear notes, written by "Magnolia" director
and screenplay writer Paul Thomas Anderson, that the movie script was
actually FROM the soundtrack:
"I sat down to write an adaptation of Aimee Mann songs."
Almost every element of the 3-hour epic, Anderson says, is based on the
dozen or so songs on the album. It took a lot of bravery (and honesty) to
say something like that. It also took insight to look outside of the movie
industry to find inspiration.
One of the dangers in being so immersed in the game development community is
becoming unaware of other areas that could help the design process. Read,
listen, talk - whatever it takes to get more insight to help your game.
As noted in my column "Computers Are Evil," getting your eyes away from the
code is important. To take this a step further, taking inspiration from
outside of computer games is even more important.
A fellow game developer recently told me that he didn't want to take his
school finals. He had realized, however, that the insights learned from,
say, a geography course could assist him in making maps for his next RPG.
For instance, reading Dante's "Inferno" provided me with new ideas and
concepts to apply to my RPG about life after death.
That makes it even more critical that we expand our circle of knowledge and
our circle of friends beyond game design and development.
We have similar goals, see things in similar ways. The fact that we deal
with the same issues and have the same insecurities makes us less effective
in bringing new life or perspective to our field. I think the only reason I
can give ANY game design insight is because of my studies in other areas,
providing me with some objectivity in the game development process.
All of my studies, from journalism to astrology, have impacted my game
design dramatically over the years. In my current studies in magazine
publishing I have found many parallels to independent game development,
which will help me in the future personally as well as the quality of
information I can provide in columns like these.
In the end, we will all need to expand our ideas to provide a higher caliber
of game design. Focusing on your game is good, but be aware of insights from
other areas of life. Your book on physics or the last movie you saw could
make your good game better.
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Written by Damon Brown.
