In this Rad Studio workshop, we explored the importance of dedicating intentional time to brainstorming and ideation. We presented this information as soon as teams were formed for our summer incubator to ensure that each team would devote enough time to creative thinking before rushing forward with an idea. Read on for some brainstorming tips that will help you and your game development team think outside the box as you begin to develop a game concept!

Before settling on a concept to bring to life over the course of the summer, we invited students to spend some time brainstorming. Brainstorming — a focused group discussion or activity intended to collaboratively generate ideas — is a great way to get creativity flowing and help you and your team begin the ideation phase.

3 Rules of Brainstorming...

The More, The Better
Quantity is more important than quality when brainstorming because any idea could spark another one. Get it all out on the table, and weed through the ideas later.
No Criticism
Even healthy critique can stifle creativity in the brainstorming phase. Don’t make your teammates uncomfortable by commenting on an idea negatively, because it might cause them to hesitate in giving further ideas. And as we said, the more the better. Instead, try to build on your teammates’ ideas or continue to add more of your own. Try the “yes, and” approach.
Follow The Steps
Brainstorming should be focused, time-bound, and goal-oriented. While “rules” and “following the steps” feel like the antithesis of thinking outside the box, oftentimes our creativity is stunted because we fall into the same patterns we are familiar with. Comfortable practices breed comfortable ideas which make for comfortable games. Find new ways of brainstorming to utilize your brain differently, and follow the steps to untap new, more creative ideas.

Credit for these rules: “Organizing Brainstorming Workshops: A Designer’s Guide” by Slava Shestopalov. Check out the article for more brainstorming techniques, including some step-by-step walkthroughs of proven brainstorming activities to try with your team.

There are a few ways we can we find those super fun, outrageously creative, and uber-original games buried deep in our collective brains.

1. Keep it moving.

First, let’s be honest. Your first idea probably isn’t your best. It’s always good to work off instinct, but don’t get stuck on those first ideas. Write them down and keep on moving.

2. Kill your darlings (or at least be open to it).

On the same note, kill your darlings. Before you go do anything violent, we don’t mean any literal murder. It’s a phrase famously said by William Faulkner, meaning you gotta let go of your masterpieces — those ideas you love so much you can’t see them becoming anything else. You’re probably so attached to this idea that you’ll hold back from letting it realize its full potential. At least go into brainstorming open to the idea that your baby might evolve.

3. Think less literal / Think more literal.

Many times, prompts will be very concrete things. Make the conscious effort to Think Less Literally about the topic to expand the possibilities. On the flip side, try and Think More Literally about abstract ideas that come up, it may lead you down unexpected trains of thought. For example, a prompt we once gave for a game jam was “Paper.” This can be interpreted super literally (a game about paper airplanes) or super abstractly (a game that explores our cultural relationships with money). Don’t be afraid to run in both directions.

4. Listen to your teammates.

We can get caught up in our minds when thinking of ideas. Be sure to listen and riff off your teammates to expand your thinking. Use the famous improv comedy line: “Yes, and…” instead of shutting down any particular idea.

5. Don’t be afraid to stray too far.

Don’t be afraid to stray too far, you can always reign the ideas back in if you feel they too loosely relate to the main point.

6. Try on different hats.

Think about the topic from a variety of perspectives: by “wearing different hats” or viewing through different lenses. Explore your idea through a filter of optimism, or sleepy serenity, or fierce energy, etc. There are even some established “brainstorming hat” schemas — head over to that Slava Shestopalov blog for an example.

7. Make sure the genre matches the vision.

Once you start narrowing down ideas, be sure that the vehicle for the fantasy you want to sell serves it to the best of its ability. If you are making a game about international cuisine, a platformer won’t hold the same value for the player as a cooking game.

8. Make a mind map.

Mind Maps are a great way to start off brainstorming sessions, especially in cases like game jams where you are already given a prompt. They’re a visual representation of your ideas that can help you expand them while recording associated concepts. Look below for a few examples of mind maps based on the words “Pizza” and “Water".

Above: Two mind map examples. Please don’t psychoanalyze me.

As you brainstorm, ideas break off into branches creating a web of ideas. The central concept could be a word, a phrase, even a problem that needs to be solved. During a session, team members break off branches for any idea they think of that could relate. This can be simple word association (“water” to “rain”) or touch on more abstract concepts (“Pizza” to “heritage” or “human right” to “safety”). The best practice for Mind Mapping is to set a specific amount of time to brainstorm and stop recording notes after that time is up.

Once your map is finished, you will have a huge list of connected ideas. At first, your mind map may turn out to be a bunch of word associations and abstract ideas that tie together which at first might seem unhelpful, but the expansion just might help you find game concepts you might otherwise not have.

Now you have a Mind Map of words you can relate to the prompt. Now what?

Your next step is finding the fun: expanding on your concept and exploring how you want to bring the idea to life. We asked the group: What makes a game fun? Your answer to this question will point you in the direction of your gameplay loop and fully-realized concept.

Challenge Your Idea Of Fun

It’s important to consider that “fun” is an absolutely subjective label. What one player may find fun or enjoyable might be tedious or even unpleasant to another. Beyond this, “fun” doesn’t have to mean cheerful or comedic — think about serious games like Papers, Please or nightmare-inducing horror games. If your game concept doesn’t fit the traditional definition of fun, ask yourself what makes it compelling. Find the elements that might be satisfying or evocative to the player, and you’re finding the fun.

When we talk about finding the Fun, we mean finding the Purpose: the core experience that you want to bring to your players.

Games are art, and art can serve many purposes. As the Artist/Developer, that purpose is up to you to define.

Finding Your Purpose

Ask Yourself - What do You Want To Achieve?

To entertain, to educate, to challenge, to evoke, etc.

It’s not always one single goal. But narrowing down your goal can really help you define some creative promises to yourself/team.

Everything has a story, what is the one you want to tell?

How do the story, the feeling/tone & the systems/mechanics work together?

Who do you want to make this for?

Who is your target audience? Who does the purpose of this creation impact?

It’s time to narrow down your expanded ideas. In this step, it's important to consider your team so you can all have fun doing what you love to do. Finding the fun for the developers was just as important as finding the fun for players in our brainstorming process during Rad Studio.

Wants & Bans Lists

One suggestion for doing so is establishing each team member’s strengths and making a list of what they’re interested in doing. Then, everyone can write down genres, styles, specializations, or ideas that they want to ban. Bans outweigh Wants, and any overlap should be discarded. The only ideas remaining will point you towards games your team will enjoy creating.

Be Courteous of Specialties

Don’t push for a game that has a team member filling a role they don’t enjoy working in, i.e. a 3D Prop artist being asked to solely focus on 2D Animation. Not only would it be unfair to your teammate, but finding ideas that work with the skills of your team will give you a better end result.

Stay Attentive To Scope

Scope???? Image from https://sgarces.com/?p=346

While brainstorming calls for over-the-top thinking, be sure to avoid the trap of biting off more than you can chew when picking a final concept. Development won’t be fun for anyone when you over-scope and have to choose between Crunch or an unfinished game. See our other blog post about Production and Scope for more information on this topic. At Rad Studio, we didn’t allow crunch — so any over-scoped concepts would be left unfinished.

Choose Fun!

Choose the idea that’s exciting to you and your team! In programs like Rad Studio (or casual game jams), when you don’t have the constraints of a studio or stakeholders, you have so much freedom to do what you want. Don’t feel like there has to be a right answer or an objectively best idea. The best idea will be the one that you get the most out of making and iterating on.

Structure For Ideation

We wanted to ensure that Rad Studio teams had ample brainstorming time — and we baked it into our schedule so that no one overlooked this important step. Dedicating time and space to brainstorming gives team members an opportunity to find the fun together and select a concept that everyone’s interested in, which is especially important in a program like Rad Studio.

Expand the section below to see what our schedule for brainstorming looked like in the 2021 session of Rad Studio Online.

Monday
Presented this workshop
Teams collaborated on their “wants & bans” lists
Tuesday
Two hours of rapid brainstorming
One hour to narrow ideas down to five more detailed concepts
Wednesday
Teams met to select and expand on one concept they’d like to move forward with
Each team created a pitch presentation to introduce their idea

Whether your brainstorming phase takes place in half an hour or over the course of several days, it’s important that you don’t skip this step! Thinking outside the box to explore concepts that speak to everyone on the team — and make sense as viable projects, whatever that means to you — will help your development process move more smoothly. And you’ll have more fun!

Open in google docs to see speaker notes!

This blog post is based off of a portion of the 2021 Rad Studio Online curriculum. Rad Studio 2021 was a fully online summer program for game development students, and the information above was shared with the cohort of emerging devs during a workshop session. We’re making this information free and available to anyone who’s interested in it. You can learn more about Rad Studio and this initiative here.

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“Organizing Brainstorming Workshops: A Designer’s Guide” by Slava Shestopalov https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2019/03/conducting-brainstorming-workshops/

“Welcome to the Yard Sale: A Practical Framework for Holistic Design Iteration” video by Zak McClendon https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkZoGDKy_L4

“Lessons on Production and Scope” by Shannon Mitchell on the Rad Magpie blog https://radmagpie.org/blog/2022/radstudio/scope

This blog was written by Maggie DeCapua based on a presentation by Grace Tuohey-Kay and edited by Megan McAvoy.

Brainstorming: Techniques To Think Outside The Box and Find The Fun