Ideas are mostly worthless

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“What you think is a great idea, almost certainly isn’t and likely has been thought of a hundred times and more. Ideas don’t sell, GAMES sell – no one will buy your idea. No one will make your game for you – they want to make THEIR games. Most game players think they have ideas for good games. But few ever complete a game design. “

And

“The idea is like your finger, we all have them, but the implementation is like your fingerprint, everyone’s is unique.”

–Lewis Pulsipher

Bad ideas are new ideas

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Bad ideas are ideas you probably didn’t think of. They may take a turn, a way of thinking, you didn’t even dare of taking. Therefore interesting developments can be made from them.

The more ideas you have, the better you see the value in each one

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When you’re trying to solve a problem, don’t stop at the first solution you find. Try to think of more and you’ll better see the pros and cons for each. You may find some cons you didn’t know your first solution had. And even if it still turns out as best, you’ll have a better understanding why.

Fresh ideas are not always the best ideas (although they may seem like at the time)

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Basically, don’t immediately start working on a ‘big’ idea you just had. Sleep over it and start comparing it with other ideas to see where its value lies. Sometimes you can be so excited about a ‘perfect’ new idea or solution that you don’t see its shortcomings. Remember, design should not only be judged by the problems it solves, but by the problems it creates.

A starting idea doesn’t define the game

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Essentially, an idea for a game is just a vague starting point that gives rise to many more questions. Answering these questions, deciding what the game is, and isn’t, is a big part of what a designer will do during development.

Execution is what matters

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Execution is what gives an idea value, it can make even mediocre ideas shine. So don’t get stuck thinking about the perfect idea, ideas are pretty much worthless. Move on to make a prototype and learn how to execute. The better you get at that, the better you get at making games.

Example: A game where you play as a lawyer, you almost never leave court and you pretty much read text throughout the whole game. Sound boring Right? Objection! It’s Phoenix Wright. (Stolen from IndieYourFace)

Look everywhere for ideas or solutions

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Sometimes you’re so wound up in your own game, you forget to look at others for possible ideas or solutions. Not every design problem is as unique as you might think, don’t reinvent the wheel when you don’t have to. Look at other games and how they solved it, ask for advise, watch game breakdown on Youtube, read post-mortems or one of the many great articles on Gamasutra.

And also outside games there’s lots of inspiration to be found. Books, movies, theater shows, expositions, they can all leave you with new unique insights.

When in doubt, go extreme

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There’s always at least two ways to go when designing: punish – reward, easy – hard, simple – complex, visible – invisible, big – small, casual – hardcore, and so on. If you’re not sure which one between the two would work, maybe try them both. Or if one side is not working, try the complete opposite. Especially with smaller elements of the game this can really help out. It’s easier to see the effects of big design changes in comparison to small subtle ones.

For a long time Circles felt too punishing. I tried dialing it back with some iterations, but it didn’t have much effect. At some point I made a build where it was impossible to lose. Playtesting was a disaster, but it was a new starting point. From there I experimented with various ways to make it a bit more punishing again. There was one iteration where the player could touch a circle, could still go on, but would lose it as a reward at the end of the level. This turned out to still be too forgiving, but the idea of rewarding the player this way stuck and made it into the final game.