Aug 25 2008
Inspiration for Area and Instance Design
“I don’t know anything about luck. I’ve never banked on it, and I’m afraid of people who do. Luck to me is something else; hard work and realizing what is opportunity and what isn’t.”
– Lucille Ball
People often ask me how I get my inspiration for my writings. Sometimes things come to me as I’m driving around, taking a shower, or cooking. More often than not, I am inspired by other artists: authors, painters, sculptors, musicians, film makers, and architects. The key for receiving inspiration is to constantly receptive to input with the game or area I’m designing in mind.
Books serve as one of my favorite sources of inspiration. My job is to paint vivid pictures in people’s head and give them enough to create something of their own via role-playing. An author’s job is to draw people into their world and characters in order to ignite our imaginations. We’ve got very similar tasks. When I read a book, I always have the nuggets of future areas or instances in mind, and sooner or later, I’ll run into something – a turn of phrase, a vivid scene – that sparks my imagination for an instance.
