Game Tuning Workshop Creativity Exercises Or, how to give your right-brain a kick in the pants. Tim Stellmach, Instructor

Game Tuning Workshop What is a Creativity Exercise? For our purposes, anything that changes your way of thinking about a problem (or opportunity) Especially techniques to cultivate new ideas Applicable at any stage of the process.

Game Tuning Workshop What is That Good For? Analysis is not a very good means of generating ideas. Intuition is, by definition, not responsive to systemization. What cannot be commanded might still be coaxed.

Game Tuning Workshop Things You May Already Do Many activities change what parts of your brain are working, and encourage other parts to relax. Identifying these triggers and exploiting them on purpose can be powerful. Not usually a great thing for groups, though.

Game Tuning Workshop Things You May Already Do Examples: Exercise Change of scenery Driving Showering Toys Sleep Music

Game Tuning Workshop Six Thinking Hats — Edward de Bono Knowledge possessed or needed Type of thinking being used Risks, drawbacks, criticism Opportunities, possibilities, alternatives Advantages, benefits Feelings, intuition

Game Tuning Workshop Effective Brainstorming “The best way to get a good idea is to get a lot of ideas.” — Linus Pauling

Game Tuning Workshop Tips for Better Brainstorming Sharpen the Focus Playful Rules Number Your Ideas Build and Jump “The Space Remembers” Stretch your Mental Muscles Get Physical – Tom Kelley, The Art of Innovation

Game Tuning Workshop The Least You Need to Know: A Simple Brainstorming Format Present a clear statement of the problem at hand. Everybody gets enough Post-It™ notes for more than the obvious answers. Go! (stretch, number counts) Put the notes on the wall. Everybody move them about putting like with like (get physical, use spatial memory).

Game Tuning Workshop The Least You Need to Know: A Simple Brainstorming Format Sift (build and jump): Which ideas are very common, which rare or unique? What does that mean? Does what that means suggest new ideas? What are the combinations, gaps, intermediaries, or components?

Game Tuning Workshop Randomization Exercises Select a theme, element, or piece of advice from some random source. Get you past a blank slate. Encourage very unexpected thought patterns

Game Tuning Workshop Randomization Methods Possible sources: Dictionary Card Draw (e.g. Creative Whack Pack, Oblique Strategies) I Ching (or Ouija Board) Boggle™

Game Tuning Workshop Example: Oblique Strategies — Brian Eno & Peter Schmidt What would your closest friend do? Try an old idea. Look at the most embarrassing details and amplify them. Go outside. Shut the door. Tidy Up What mistakes did you make last time?

Game Tuning Workshop Exercise: The Epigrams of Heraclitus Heraclitus was an Ionian philosopher of the late 6 th century B.C. This is great because his stuff is way out of copyright. His epigrams make a pretty good “oblique strategies” type deck Idea copped from Roger Von Oech. For his translations, you want Expect the Unexpected or You Won’t Find It.

Game Tuning Workshop Go! Break up into groups. If others in your Three Musketeers group are here, you probably want them at your table. Start by posing questions or issues. Pretend to trust and believe an epigram. What does it mean? Repeat.