tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30766504.post5506728041362024826..comments2024-01-15T03:36:11.777-05:00Comments on Teaching Game Design: CreativityUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30766504.post-87247264553464199192007-11-15T13:10:00.000-05:002007-11-15T13:10:00.000-05:00First I think you need to define what you mean by ...First I think you need to define what you mean by "creativity". If you mean only the ability to come up with ideas for "creative works", then of course there is no need to teach that. If, on the other hand, you mean the ability to actually <I>create</I> such "creative works", then it seems to me teaching craftsmanship is also teaching creativity.<BR/><BR/>There is, besides, lots of other stuff you can teach your students to enhance their ability to create. You can help your students become familiar with existing creative works, so they can learn about the structures, values and conventions typically involved in the creation of particular kinds of works. More generally, you can teach them different ways to think about the works they will someday create, and help them develop productive attitudes and practices.<BR/><BR/>Yes. I have no doubt about it: creativity <I>can</I> be taught.Adrian Lopezhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03856546733839775093noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30766504.post-49740901881975073472007-11-15T10:55:00.000-05:002007-11-15T10:55:00.000-05:00I'm still working on the "teaching creativity" par...I'm still working on the "teaching creativity" part, but we can certainly teach students to elicit creativity. Most think they just wait for ideas to float by; they need to learn habits that generate many ideas, so that they might have a few good ones in the end. One of my assignments is for every student to maintain a notebook or electronic data store of ideas. They need to have it with them so that they can record something whenever it arrives in their gray matter. I don't care what the ideas are (and there's always the dork who worries I'm going to "steal their idea"), I care that they're establishing a habit of recording ideas.<BR/><BR/>However, game design is not primarily inspiration, it's perspiration. Students must learn this, and that's what takes a long time to drive home. They think that they have a game once they have an idea--they have Nothing. Then they'll think they have a game when they have a prototype. No, we still have to iteratively and incrementally improve that prototype, and in the end we may have something good, but we sure won't with the first prototype. <BR/><BR/>They have to learn that there's a long and sometimes painful process, and if they don't go all the way, they've failed. That's not teaching creativity, that's teaching activity. (Hmmm, that sounded good, not sure it's the best choice of words.)<BR/><BR/>I'm not going to go into it here, but we really need to teach critical thinking more than creativity.Lewis Pulsipherhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11998403221823705918noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30766504.post-44490295582638895622007-11-12T23:19:00.000-05:002007-11-12T23:19:00.000-05:00I think people are definitely able to be taught cr...I think people are definitely able to be taught creativity. Just take this for an example. Why do designers need to play a lot of games? Well, Imagine a person who never played a video game, never crawled in a dungeon in a DOD setting, or never played any table top board games. Versus somebody who has played countless amount of games. <BR/><BR/>That person who played an array of game will start building their own mental blocks of creative juices. Even if they are a pure technology geek that is 99.99% left brained, they will still have a breadth of design ideas that they played with during their life. <BR/><BR/>From there, it is just a matter of taking what you've "experienced", adding a twist to it, or trying to enhance it in such a way that it is really fun to you and your friends. That, alone, is sometimes enough to churn out a really fun game play idea.<BR/><BR/>I think you can teach people to be creative. But more importantly, they need to have a drive to be creative. That goes with practically anything.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com