Practical Creativity 

8:59 "As the budgets rise, we will see less creativity in the industry" Couldn't be more true after 7 years

The best technic for creativity is "let your self be BORED for a couple of minutes". Go some where without internet and smartfone, sit and look to a wall in silence, watch the grass grow. You'd be amazing how quickly you brain come up with ideas on those situations.

Practical Creativity [Summary]: -Don't look at the core of the game but break the game down into modular inputs and subsystems and build yourself a mechanics library. Then, try to link and reskin those patterns in uncommon ways. Changing inputs (e.g. making them discrete or relative, adding force and build-up) and topology is a common way to change the theme of the game. -Extending a stat like adding more damage and moves is not innovative. Instead, add new rules like time limit and critical damage, or maybe on yourself to push your innovation in development, such as imagining making a tactical RPG with no violence. -Adding a verb or a goal like "cause damage" and "don't take damage" leads to a game about fighting. Adding "rescuing" gives you a defender game. To platforms, adding "fast" gives you speed-runs. Too many goals is a sandbox. You can also modify this by changing its metaphor. For example, instead of Pac Man's 'visit all spaces', you get Bristles that has 'paint all the walls' which also adds 'jump' and 'paint over' and thus 'competing'. Do that to mechanics too. Instead of 'visit all spaces', make them 'visit some spaces' which adds collectables. Then maybe make these spaces hidden, 'find those spaces', and you get secrets. -Tell a story that isn't often hold, which you easily can get from memory. For example, you experienced learning a bike, adopting a child, traveling to a new place, moving to a new house, etc. make it into a game. Or a feeling and concept rarely expressed like Romance (how do you make a game about romance? What are the mechanics in romance? e.g. It is about flawed characters that help complete each other, they sacrifice to one another and gain things like confidence)

"Think back to your last vacation or a childhood memory to tell an original story." 48:20 "Adopting a child." That's one wicked vacation!

This is probably the best practical guide to creativity I've seen so far, and it could easily be applied to any industry. Thanks for sharing! :)

Everyone interested in making games should watch this. There is a game about gluing though and it's Katamari Damacy.

This is one of the best GDC talks I've ever seen. So much food for thought.

Diablo 1 actually started as a turn-based RPG. The dev accidentally lowered the turn timer by a lot which made it basically real time and thus the action-rpg genre was born.

40:02 not only i'm from Argentina, i'm also a student of "recreology" and you'd be amazed at the amounts of games that you can come up with using just a chalk and the floor

I think I will watch this 10 more times I think.

Dude, this talk is immense. It's like a brain massage.

This talk was amazing. So much stuff that could come out by doing simple things.

47:53 "Nobody has modeled the stages of grief". Gris did a year or two later! Btw what an interesting speech.

Best talk from GDC i've heard, I love this guy :-)

A bunch of things I did for fun as a kid are apparently special creativity techniques. I thought imagination and experimentation was a norm, but a lot of people Ive encountered over the years cant seem to even visualize things...

Great talk... his book "A Theory of Fun" is also amazing

I'm interested in what the people who disliked this video thinks. What in this video made it bad enough to warrant a dislike? I'm genuinely interested!

This is TRUE out of the box creative thinking. I love it.

I've seen probably hundreds of talks from people that I really admire, and this guy seems like one of the smartest out there.

I've had to come back at this a few times, over the years, and this time through, I really think it all clicked! :)

This presentation is really getting my creative juices flowing.

As a songwriter/writer with a ton of mental illnesses, I have to say that creativity can indeed be a heavenly spontaneous event.

Im a lot more of a numbers and logical thinker but this talk seriously hits on a ton of great notes for getting creativity flowing. This should be referenced a lot more, im gonna us this as a template when working with a team

47:53 "Nobody has modeled the stages of grief" Assuming you don't subscribe to the notion that Majora's Mask can very easily be a representation of every single stage, in their defined order, featuring characters whose personalities are literal representations of each described stage and very little else.

I have watched countless of these GDC talks.... Raph, if you somehow see this.... Thank you. Phenomenal presentation.

The books he mentioned at 15:30 were Game Design Patterns and Advanced Game Mechanics

I love how randomly old GDC videos keep popping in my TL. and all of them are amazing. This is a topic i love too much, and it's the core of my game development. BTW> A AMAZING game about Romance: It takes two. And the creative approach is exactly the same premisse he said. Flawed individuals helping each other to overcome challenges.

Very helpful talk from Paul Giamatti 🤣After making the connection, I can't unhear it. Raph and Paul sound nearly identical to me. But seriously, Raph's presentation covers multiple modalities of gaming, various examples, and many practical tips for creativity in game design. I occasionally come back to a game I have been gradually working on for a year, and this was what I needed to hear as I approach my game again.

Just discovered this guy and I am loving his work. Mad scientist brilliant!

Games being made of minigames has been stuck in my head ever since playing the Ratchet and Clank series, they truly excel at that!

I created a whole new space in my clickup task management app just to explore these ideas thoroughly! :D my fav ever video on GDC!

Incredibly inspiring talk! Thank you GDC, and thank you Raph!

I bought his book last summer along with a few other game design books. I haven't gotten to it yet, but having listened to this brilliant talk - I'm picking it up RN

Really interesting to see someone who studied poetry try to distill creativity. Great example of the creativity that comes from interdisciplinary synthesis, that's he's talking about

This dude is a damn G. So used to speakers just reading the slides back to us.

Great talk! Inspiring. I've been having trouble coming up with mechanics for my game but I think I'll give it thirty minutes a day for a little while just to come up with ideas (and not implement them until I narrow them down to the best few). As "Spice and Wolf", a great anime I watch, said, "Shame in failure is a waste of time."

This is my favourite talk from GDC. Thank you so much.

This is one of the best talks I've seen so far.

That's probably the best lecture on GDC I've encountered so far :)

Such a great talk given by such a great person!

I've watched a ton of these and i think this is the best one.

Fantastic talk. Inspiring and very informative.

Very insightful. A must watch.

The relaxed bit clashes for me with the cluttered environment i create better in a clean and orderly environment, because my brain is calmer. That said i love this talk.

✅This is superb. The ideas about context and the cards analogy is so easy to understand and yet incredibly deep and inherently useful. At 28:09 he breaks into a captivating poetic interlude. Such a well rounded, entertaining and informative lecture. Raph is a total dude.

Very pleasant to listen to. Simplicity is a king. I think this is one of the most vital talks game designers have to watch / listen to. Maybe I'd go as far as to say essential.

8:59 wow was he spot on about the AAA industry.

Tactical RPG that must fit in a cube and be non-violent: a team house renovation game - Doorfitters! (OTOH, not sure this one would turn out non-violent...)

Holy smokes this talk is incredible! I might need to watch this again, and then thrice so I can take notes.

Thanks for the Raph's talk video!

What an amazing talk, Raph. Makes me want to go back and read your book again!

the high note really got me

40:20 "How cool would it be to play Space Invaders where your method of attack was Breakout?" that's basically Sky Racket and we started it in 2015 haha. It's available on Steam and Switch =)

My all tame favourite GDC talk.

I will always listen to people who have played everything from boardgames to Choplifter, Jumpman etc.

If you don't play board games, you really don't know what's going on in gaming right now. The originality puts the video game industry to shame, honestly.

One of the best talks I have seen.

I actually have Raph's book on my shelf and haven't read it yet. I'm going to now. I've been missing out. And, wow, I was literally sitting on a base framework of a game with no defined mechanics and this video literally helped me come up with a really fun idea. 💡

Plz, more talks from this guy.

Truly fantastic talk. Thanks!

Thank you for finally giving me a reason to explain in an articulate way why I have my desk messy! This was a great talk - I wish I was in the public watching, only to make some noise hehe :)

Awesome talk! I watched it right after studying the book "A Theory of Fun" - it complemented the reading very well!

Really solid concepts. Reaffirms a lot of theories about creativity I have had.

best GDC talk I watched

Great talk, Thanks very much, will definitely check the book

This was a really excellent talk!

I have watched this on 1.5x speed and still watched it for about 3 hours.... Was thinking it would be better if I just screenshot the slides... and then he said writing by hand is great.

Incredible talk and the underlying concepts are applicable to any creative field

Amazing talk, so inspired by this video!

Really great talk I'm gonna pick up his book.i love the idea of a prototyping kit think I'll head to the craft store later

addition to adding axes idea: change the importance of axes too. A vertical fighting game. A shooter in anti-gravity space.

Very interesting. I love having my personal thoughts confirmed by a professional like this; I spent four years in prison, during which time I spent permuting the mechanical abilities of board games, card games, dice games, and so on, as well as creating new games. If you've ever played Uno using a deck of regular playing cards, if you've ever made a multi-player tabletop version of Harvest Moon, if you've ever adapted the mechanics of D&D to use binary checks rather than the bidenary (20 possible outcomes, I believe I have coined this term by cursory Googling) system, you may know what I'm talking about. I seemed to have reinvented the wheel (created and taught myself game theory) in absence of a wheel of my own, and it's so nice to know that I was not off in my conclusions!

When I listen to these talks I play sudoku because it helps me focus on what’s being said and I usually don’t have to look at the screen too often... so when he mentioned sudoku I was a little shook lol

Wow, this is an amazing talk! Thank ou so much for sharing!

Great talk. Great advice and insights

Here because of Reckful :)

Probably the best GDC talk I've seen so far.

Doing my first video games these days and this is soooooooooo interesting !

this one of the best video on youtube I've ever seen 😀😍👌👍

love how You used the ultima online font ❤️

18:30 Incredible!

Great talk. Made me think of a... thing I learned recently created by Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt called Oblique Strategies. It is meant to help you out of a creative block by providing directions, ranging from simple to inscrutable. Fun and I think similar to the ideas presented here.

Another amazing talk.

Timeless Talk

Got on the slide and started thinking about "chemistry" rather than "physics", then I realized Tetris is a model of chemistry.

This guy is a genius!

This guy is brilliant!

Excellent talk!

the best video i ever see

The part about the constraints reminds me about strategy. Often people think about a strategy as what you do or mistake it for a plan, but in reality a strategy is more about what you don't do, so you can do something else better. What does it mean when I can't see the wheelbarrow, but just an abstract idea of all wheelbarrows I have ever seen combined into one continually morphing image?

Wow that was truly amazing thanks

Great talk. Love it

Great talk. Thanks!

this is an amazing talk!

Seriously good talk!

About statistics slide: I think that these kind of statistics can work, if they're just abstracted into an aesthetically pleasing way. You could think about the time attack again: How about rising water levels? Or a poison cloud that finally surround the map?

Amazing talk!

good talk

Awesome talk.

Closest thing to RTS without a map I can think of is incremental games like cultist simulator. Though balancing resource flow in realtime based on abdtract nodes is probably closer to grand strategy.