Phase one

What is phase one about?

Phase one of the project is all about delving deep into our interests to discover things we are truly motivated and inspired by. The goal is to come up with four topics to conduct deep research into by rapidly coming up with points of interest.

Beginning phase one: Workshop exercises

To launch phase one, we did an exercise in which we listed different things in relation to four specific categories. Things we love, things we're good at, things we were told to do, and values we want to see in the world.

I didn't find this particular exercise too helpful as it didn't really hone in on anything I wanted to explore further outside of the 'things I love' category. It did help to build some general topics, however, such as physics, space, food, and the occult.

The next exercise built from this by using more specific categories. This time, we asked questions about the topics we came up with before. The questions were: what makes us...

Cry?
Angry?
Laugh?
Excited?
Intellectually stimulated?
Interested?

I did this exercise with Dylan and Alex, this way we could potentially inspire ideas out of eachother. I found this exercise a bit tedious in the sense that the cry, angry and excited categories didn't evoke much individuality, they were mostly filled with more universal things that apply to most people. Cry was filled with sad things, obviously.

I personally focused more on the interested and intellectualy stimulated questions, where we thought about sciences, space and philosophy.

Finally, we individually took four of these topics to focus in a little more on. I intentionally chose quite broad topics as it made sense to keep progressing deeper and deeper, rather than getting too focussed on one thing since it feels more natural and developmental. The four topics I chose were:

Mythology
Nature
The Universe
The Occult

These topics cover a broad range of smaller topics, a lot of which I'd like to delve even deeper into. From these topics, I listed off smaller sub-topics that I'm specifically interested in.

How does this workshop help me?

The workshop helped to narrow down my interests into four general pathways to delve down further. The topics I've chosen have a definite overall emphasis on fantasy and magic, with grounding within other, 'real' subjects.

It's also been helpful in a developmental sense. I'm usually the type to become obsessive over one particular idea and inevitably end up attempting to brute force the idea into working out rather than letting the idea develop naturally and make decisions as I go. It's nice to take a step back and work a lot more generally while still having topics that guide me.

One thing to do next is to look into methods that will help me when researching my chosen topics, since this should hopefully open up new ways of approaching said topics potentially inspire me differently to how I am now. Another thing I will do is redo the previous exercise at home tomorrow, since I'll have a clearer head and more time to ponder over potential research avenues.

Next Steps:

1. Look into different research/ideation methods

2. Evaluate research methods and put them to practice

3. Use research methods to research into my four topics

4. Refine and narrow down topics

Researching ideation and research methodologies

10 Exercises To Fuel Creative Thinking

(https://www.fastcompany.com/3057486/10-exercises-to-fuel-creative-thinking)

1. Ask 'What can I do with this?'

This sort of question seems like common sense, but the article states that we 'look through the lens of familiarity and habit', so looking back and asking 'what else can I do?' can aid in pushing an idea just that one step further.

2. Take Notice

This one suggests that we look throughout our daily lives for visual stimuli. It suggests that we conduct 'visual foraging' to stay inspired.
I typically do this on a day to day basis to the point where its a subconscious activity now. I often see little things that are inspirational to me to some extent.

3. Keep it simple

This part suggests that a lot of our problem-solving can be clouded by over information and that simplifying the idea can help to develop it further than complexity.
This part reminds me of an Oscar Wilde quote: “I am so clever that sometimes I don't understand a single word of what I am saying.” Often times, the more concise and to the point something is, the more effective and memorable it is.
I am atrocious at keeping things simple a lot of the time - my brain does not like sticking to one idea and instead prefers to stay constantly stimulated with a plethora of different ideas, making it hard for me to make a cohesive project.
I need to keep the fundamental basis for my ideas as simple and concise as possible in order to avoid over complicating and thus clouding what is actually good within my ideas.

4. Embrace Absurdity

This part suggests that we shouldn't be afraid to use absurdity to fuel creative ideas. It uses the example Karl Marx inspiring Monty Python - two completly contrasting media.
Absurdity isn't something I've really thought much about but I'm sure I've been inspired by things that aren't necessarily related to my ideas, but it's good that I can make this a conscious practice to try implementing into my processes. I'll keep an eye out for inspiration in unlikely places.

5. Try swapping items

This part suggests the idea of applying tried and true concepts to something you're developing; it uses the example of the invention of the childrens buggy being inspired by the folding mechanism for spitfire planes to demonstrate this.

6. Reposition

'The act of altering how something is viewed can reveal new possibilities and ideas'.
I'm not really sure how to approach this one, but I'll try to take not of how typically mundane things can be made to have many more layers and deeper meanings.

7. Try Translating

'Ideas are greatly stimulated by the process of transformation'. This part uses the example of Kandinsky transforming classical music into abstract paintings to demonstrate how completely different media can sometimes inspire each other.
I operate like this already, I usually find a large amount of inspiration from the music I listen to. For example, the Neurogenesis EP by AKVMA was highly inspirational in regards to simulation theory, because it was related to my interpretation of the EP.

8. Just Improvise

'Improvisation is against-the-odds creativity'. Being placed in challenging situations can sometimes evoke our most creative thinking. Finding design solutions for problems you struggle with can be immensely satisfying.
Improvisation isn't something I can really prepare for, it's more or less something that will just have to happen should the situation call for it.

9. Understand Your Process

This part speaks about how vital it is to understand your process. It's a very difficult thing to do, but it is essential to understand how you work in order to push that process further. 'If we wait for the mood, without endeavouring to meet it halfway, we easily become indolent and apathetic' - Tchaikovsky.
I've acknowledged in previous projects that I need to implement a process into my work to help myself stay in track, as I typically switch between a lot of tangential ideas, I find it hard to stick to one solid idea for a larger period of time, so a process helps with that.
I don't really understand my process outside of knowing I struggle to focus on one specific idea, so I'll have to do a bit of self-discovery.

10. Make It Personal

'Use things from your own life and experience to spark ideas'. Your past experiences can often be the most powerful fuel for developing an idea - especially if it is something impactful to your life. It helps you empathise with the idea and put across your own understanding of such an idea.
A lot of my personal experiences already form the basis for my ideas - a lot of my ideas in relation to the occult and/or physics stem from one singular experience within Pokemon Platinum as a child. Exploring the Distortion World and finding out about Giratina and other ancient, cosmic deities was highly inspirational to me.
My experience with Outer Wilds was highly formative too, since it is my absolute favourite game. The story of the Hatchling, the Nomai, and the Strangers inspired a lot in terms of simulation, existentialism and quantum physics.

What do I get out of these points?

Create a process early on to better stay on track
Keep ideas simple and let things develop rather than going too deep too early
Look for inspiration in unrelated sources

Creating a process should be simple enough - I just need to take things in steps and try to operate logically, then I need to look back over the steps to figure out why I took said steps and whether I can turn that into a process I can apply to other things, especially during the creation phases of this project.

Keeping things simple should relate back to the process section. I need to resist the urge of running away with new inspiration and ideas and instead take note of them so that they can be approached later in a more logical fashion.

Taking inspiration from unrelated sources should also be simple - I just need to keep a keen eye on the world around me and random media to try and develop my ideas further.

8 Creative Thinking Techniques and The Tools To Use

(https://www.koozai.com/blog/content-marketing-seo/eight-awesome-creative-thinking-techniques-plus-tools/)

1. Mindmapping/Brainstorming

This suggests that we use mind maps to generate ideas by putting literally anything that comes to mind down on paper. The idea is to 'save critical selection' for later and to simply get ideas out of your mind.
I personally abuse the humble mind map for all its worth, I find great use in making mind maps since it helps to put all my ideas in one place as a nice, visually appealing record.
I admit I'm probably a bit too selective with some of the things I put into mind maps sometimes, so perhaps loosening up a bit will help me.

2. The Checklist

This suggests that we use checklists to question our ideas in ways that build them further. It proposes we ask 'why, where, when, who, what and how?' to our ideas so that it will flesh them out a bit.
I'm not very good at questioning and interrogating my ideas, so I think I need to do a bit of research into specific questions and methods I can use to question my ideas.

3. Six Thinking Hats

This part suggests using 'six hats' to flesh out ideas. Each hat corresponds to a different way or thinking: facts, emotions, judgement, logic, creativity and control.
I'm not too fond of this one since it seems a bit too slow and tedious for my personality, I need something that requires a bit less effort to really streamline my process and keep me stimulated.

4. Lateral Thinking

This part suggests the idea of breaking from a step-by-step process and taking a more creative approach to find a solution.
I typically try to find creative ways around problems I encounter, so I'm not really sure what to think about this one? I never really try to solve a problem linearly or predictably, regardless of how good I am at it, since it everything is more stimulating and enjoyable that way.

5. Random Word Generation

This part suggests that we use random word generators to create ideas. It gives an exercise in which you generate two random words and try to link them together as 'imaginatively as possible'.
I think this could be a fun way of generating ways to develop a specific idea further. I could generate a word and try to look for ways to link it to one of my ideas, or perhaps generate both words to come up with a new idea all together. I'll definitely try this one as a way to develop ideas should I struggle with any.

6. Word Association

This method suggests using words associated with your idea, then finding as many words associated with that as possible.
I definitely prefer the random word generator method over this one since it has greater potential for spontaneous inspiration, but this method definitely has its place and I could see myself using it.

7. Picture Association

This part suggests performing an image search around a topic, choosing one, and developing a story around the picture.
I like this one since it fits in line with the things I enjoy. Within a lot of media, it is often the information omitted from the story that inspires the most interest. Theories and head canon can be incredibly fun and interesting to make, and this process relates to that strongly.

8. Change Perspective

This method suggests trying to view work from someone else's perspective, asking your peers and random people for their thoughts on your ideas to help gauge what people other than yourself think about it.
This method is pretty much mandatory for making a good idea, since my game will have to be enjoyable for a target group. If I don't look for feedback from outside sources, I'd have to make unreliable assumptions about what people want to see, rather than making it around what people actually want to see.

What do I get out of these points?

Mind maps are (still) amazing for ideation
Interrogate my ideas with questions
Use random word generation to break mental blocks
Always get feedback

I've always used mind maps for ideation so this part just affirms that part of my process, the article definitely helped me to know I am a bit too selective with the things I put into my mind maps however, so I need to be a bit more open minded.

Interrogation is a great idea that I want to implement into my process. I'm not entirely sure about what questions I should be asking, as the 6 W's format is a bit too vague for me, but I'll look into ways of interrogating my ideas since a strong line of questioning can absolutely help with developing a process like I mentioned in the previous section of research.

Random word generation should be really helpful to me. I know I'm not supposed to have anything finalised, but I know absolutely that I want to design a plethora of characters and objects for my game later down the line regardless of their purpose, so random word generation seems really promising as a means of developing character concepts using words I perhaps wouldn't think of usually. My ideas are limited to my brain, so random word generation could help to look further than the things I enjoy to really develop strong ideas. Obviously there has to be some relation between the idea and the words generated to keep them on track, but it won't be hard to know what fits and what doesn't.

Feedback is always paramount when making anything at all, since all it may take sometimes is the right set of words to inspire a totally different approach that takes your idea up a level. Surveys and forms are my ideal way of gaining feedback from people, and I am a part of many discord communities that I can post them in to hopefully gain new perspectives and ideas.

Re-Approaching The Workshop

After conducting some research into different methods of creative thinking, I wanted to re-approach the workshop to try and further my ideas. Out of the ideas I looked into, I want to put three main things into practice:

Being less selective within mindmaps
Interrogating my topics with thoughful and developmental questioning
Keeping topics simple and not too specific, while still having a good amount of room for research

I'm not going to go over every aspect of the workshop again but I'm going to go back over the more interesting and helpful aspects of it. I'm omitting the 'What makes me angry?' question because it has a lot of overlap with the 'What makes me cry?' question.

What makes me cry?

I decided to change 'cry' to 'teary' since I struggle to actually cry, so the mind map would be very bare. I found that a lot more music than I realised makes me emotional. Outside of the things you'd expect, I found that 'awe' was the most interesting branch out of this mind map. I put awe into the mind map because of an experience I had in Breath of The Wild, where I felt no sadness or happiness, I could only cry. I think awe is something I could absolutely utilise, even if not a primary theme.

What makes me laugh?

A lot of my humour is derived from the spontaneous and absurd, I found this one quite difficult because I tend to laugh at a lot of things because my brain likes to spin anything and everything into something comedic.

What stimulates me intellectually?

I gave the standard answers like quizzes, puzzles, TED talks etc, but the more interesting topics here were simulation theory and 'theorymonning'. Theorymonning is a term within competitive Pokemon that is used when you think up concepts for new Pokemon, or what tools a new Pokemon might have, as well as where they'd fit within the competitive scene. This term fits well into things like character design, which I love. Simulation theory is also very interesting to me, since it has a lot of research avenues and possibilities to base game ideas off of in the future, even if its total BS.

After doing these mind maps, I decided to do a final, conclusive mind map for all my different interests. I made sure to narrow down the topics that were too vague but not to dig too far in, since I need an inspiring array of topics to extensively research.

The most interesting topics I could think of are highlighted in red marker:

Norse mythology
Folklore
Cryptids

Quantum Physics
Simulation Theory
Existentialism
Dark matter/energy

Biology
Ecosystems
Weather and phenomena
Geology

God
The Occult
Magic
Alchemy

The next step is to be selective with these topics so I can move forward with the ones I'm feeling more interested by, at which point I can begin interrogating them.

Out of these topics, the ones I think I can take further/am most interest in are:

The Universe
Norse Mythology
Simulation Theory
Religion
Weather and Phenomena
The Occult
Alchemy

Interrogating my Topics

With a list of topics I'm ready to research further, I'm going to put to use the interrogation/questioning technique I learned about. This should help me know whether each topic is too specific, too vague or not interesting enough to take further.

Alchemy

I chose Alchemy since it has a lot of branches into different topics - it has strong ties into religion and the occult while also remaining grounded within chemistry, physics and biology. It also ties into astrology and (to some extent) astrophysics. The topic has a lot of fascinating imagery to me as well, making it a very strong topic of interest for me.

I love the idea of chemistry being bound to spirituality and human psychology as I think it opens the door into things like addiction, monsters, demons and the occult in general, all of which fascinate me.

It doesn't seem too complex nor too vague, so I think this one will make it into my final four topics.

Norse Mythology

Mythology in general is always up my alley due to folklore and mythical creatures. I have a strong interest in supernatural powers and deities, both of which are tied into mythology well.

I chose Norse mythology specifically for its seemingly stronger connection to Paganism and the occult - I often times find that occult imagery seems to utilise the use of runes and other Norse imagery a lot, so this piqued my interest.

I've always found runes fascinating since my Grandma had a bag of them in relation to Wicca. Even though I still don't really understand them, nor what they represent, they've always been something I want to learn a lot more about.

Religion

For the same reasons as the previous two topics, I love the concept of religion in terms of its imagery and supernatural ties. However, I think religion as a topic is far too broad and vague to research further into. It's a great topic, but it needs to be narrowed down a bit further than just 'religion' as an umbrella term. Besides, the other topics in here have strong ties to religion in one way or another so I'm still going to get to research it and satiate my appetite to learn about it, just on a smaller scale.

I did manage to come up with some very interesting questions that I'll absolutely be thinking about further in, such as 'Are we a coincidence?', 'What is God, if not a human construct?' and 'Are all religions deviations of the same belief?'.

The Universe

Just like religion, this topic is far too broad. I am deeply fascinated by space and astrophysics, but it is definitely something that needs grounding within something more specific. The universe feels like a topic that needs to come second to something else rather than the driving force.

Again however, there are links between the previous topics and this one, so I'll still get to research the topic to some extent.

Out of the subtopics on this one, I think dark matter and dark energy could make for some amazing research and ideas, but it is just a bit too specific. I'll hopefully be able to tie it into future research, maybe even develop a character around the concept.

Weather and Phenomena

I chose weather and phenomena as a topic mostly out of interest, but also to make sure my topics weren't all too closely related. I really like the depth of the topic at this stage too, as there are a wide variety of weather conditions and natural phenomena to research, but they are all bound together in one cohesive package, they are not all tangential from eachother.

One aspect I'm particularly interested in is the question 'Is it (weather) of any religious significance?'. I think 'cultural' is a more fitting word to use in hindsight but I really enjoy the idea of cultures finding weather significant in more than just a physical sense, there is a lot to be researched in terms of the psychology and spirituality behind weather.

The 'awe' topic from the 'cry' mind map also inspired this topic a lot, since natural phenomena can often times be awe inspiring. I love the concept of spontaneous events occurring, since it gives you a feeling of privilege and honour to have been there to witness such an event.

The Occult

The concept of the occult is highly interesting to me, the idea of supernatural beings, mystical powers and dark arts is inspiring to me in many ways. However, the topic itself is, again, far too vague and needs to be narrowed down to be taken further. When I tried questioning the topic, I found myself struggling to ask many meaningful questions, since the topic is too vague. However, just like religion and the universe, I can still research the occult through alchemy and norse mythology.

Simulation Theory

Even though I don't have many initial questions regarding the topic, I find simulation theory to be the most intriguing topic out of the lot. It has a lot of ties into psychology, space and physics which I enjoy. The most interesting aspect of this to me though, is the idea that reality is not what it seems, and that there are many more layers to our existence than are visible to us right now. I absolutely want to take this topic further as I feel like there is so much potential hidden beneath.

After giving the interrogation/questioning method a go, I can say it was actually very helpful in the end. It's helped me to figure out how I actually feel about the topics I chose, and gave me a good idea as to what research avenues to pursue, so I'll be using this method again in the future should the situation call for it. With that out of the way, my final four topics are:

Simulation Theory
Norse Mythology
Weather and Natural Phenomena
Alchemy

I feel like I've chosen my topics well, since each topic taps into different interests of mine and opens up doors to expand those interests into actual ideas and, later on, a game. The next step is to now delve deeper and answer the questions about my chosen topics through research.