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Practical Creativity

GDC Festival of Gaming

555K subscribers • 54 videos on Hallway • Conference channel

YouTube
  • Recommended by 3 people: 3 on Hacker News.
  • A classic. People kept recommending it from 2018 to 2026.
  • Presented by Raph Koster, MMO designer
  • May be out of date. Uploaded 9 years ago, in an area where tools change fast.

Beginner. No background in the topic needed.

354K views9 years ago3 recommendations

Game developmentTools and practiceGame designDeveloper productivity

Raph Koster explains what science tells us about creativity and offers practical steps for game designers to apply existing patterns in new contexts.

In this 2014 GDC Next session, MMO designer Raph Koster explains what science tells us about creativity, and offers practical straightforward steps that any game designer or developer can make use of in order to get more creative. GDC talks cover a range of developmental topics including game design, programming, audio, visual arts, business management, production, online games, and much more. We post a fresh GDC video every weekday. Subscribe to the channel to stay on top of regular updates, and check out GDC Vault for thousands of more in-depth talks from our archives. Follow us on Twitter twitter.com/Official_GDC Check out our Facebook page for GDC exclusives facebook.com/GameDevelopersConference Visit our site: ubm.io/2ctNvqZ

Why it's here

3 people recommend this

What people say. Recommended as an insightful talk on game design and creativity, framing it as a deliberate practice of combining existing patterns.

supernintendoon Hacker News • Recommends

On “Ultima Online spent years developing a system that was destroyed by players”

Same! Never used UOX but ran a few small private servers back in the day using SphereServer and eventually RunUO. While it didn't lead to any professional connections in my case, it was my first foray into programming. Ultima Online in its early iterations was truly a magical game and helped to define a lot of the core design patterns of MMORPGs. The lead designer of UO, Raph Koster, has a lot of great insight when it comes to game design. I recommend his 2014 GDC talk, "Practical Creativity" 1, even to developers who are not interested in game development. 1 link to this video
View on Hacker News

runevaulton Hacker News • Recommends

On “Game design is simple”

I need to sit down and give this a proper read, but anyone who wants more of Raph giving insights into game design should check out this old GDC talk he did about Practical Creativity: link to this video
View on Hacker News

wonger_on Hacker News • Recommends

On “Spherical Snake”

I watched this GDC talk recently about practical creativity: link to this video I like his perspective that creativity = using an existing pattern in a new context. You can be more creative by first consuming lots of different patterns in all sorts of contexts (e.g. playing lots of games, and also reading and experiencing lots of topics unrelated to games). Then you try all the different permutations of patterns in your mental toolbox. Kinda like how the sibling comment rattled off different what-ifs. EDIT oh and oblique strategies might be helpful to come up with variations on an existing theme: link
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wonger_on Hacker News • Recommends

On “An amateur just solved a 60-year-old math problem–by asking AI”

…'s llms... it's freeing to approach creativity as a deliberate practice rather than waiting on some fickle muse. yet it's a bit disappointing to see idea generation so mechanical and dehumanized. i am comforted by the value of mushy human abilities surrounding the creative process: mostly 1) taste, the ability to recognize pleasing output, ... 0 link to this video 1 link 2 link…
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Zardoz89on Hacker News • Mentions

On “Playstation 5 Pro Shows the Futility of the Video-Game Graphics Race”

Almost everyday, it’s the most innovative game development space. You are just out of touch. link Digest some perspective. link to this video
View on Hacker News