Your sources of inspiration.

[Makio-Kuta]

I owe a lot of my inspiration for making games to the adventure games I would play when I was younger, like King's Quest, Quest for Glory, Monkey Island. They really helped shape me into wanting a sense of humour and lighthearted elements in story telling and games, and they were what made me stop and think 'I want to tell stories through games as well!'. The Disgaea series and other NIS titles, mainly Makai Kingdom, only helped to sharpen that want for a dose of silly humour alongside gameplay. It's made me a sucker for storytelling that doesn't take itself too seriously, even when it has a serious story to tell.


Though other things inspire me, like real life, other games and media, etc, etc, those will always be the biggest influences and inspirations.

 

[Frostyfirefly]

I owe a lot of my inspiration for making games to the adventure games I would play when I was younger, like King's Quest, Quest for Glory, Monkey Island. They really helped shape me into wanting a sense of humour and lighthearted elements in story telling and games, and they were what made me stop and think 'I want to tell stories through games as well!'. The Disgaea series and other NIS titles, mainly Makai Kingdom, only helped to sharpen that want for a dose of silly humour alongside gameplay. It's made me a sucker for storytelling that doesn't take itself too seriously, even when it has a serious story to tell.

Though other things inspire me, like real life, other games and media, etc, etc, those will always be the biggest influences and inspirations.

Some of those old-school games were really hard too! But that was part of their charm.

 

[Gump]

Dreams.

I have two golden ideas now that I'm guarding with my life until they're ready. IMO they're bazillion dollar ideas. One of them is entirely origonal and the first of its genre.

Write your dreams down.

 

[Frostyfirefly]

Write your dreams down.

That right there is gold; or if you can't write them down, if they are too abstract, at the very least draw them down, turn them into music, etc.

 

[Shades]

What would you say are your sources of inspiration for the games you are working on?

For me, there are lots, but I think they all come down to: a) Tabletop rpgs and board games History c) Folklore and Mythology

It's almost exactly the same for me. I love me some old school RPG action (got my start on that with the D&D basic rules), and my prime source of inspiration for my fiction comes from Tolkien's writing, which borrows heavily from folklore and mythology. Aside from that, I draw much of my inspiration from modern life, the world around me, and my own experiences.

 

[Corvellia]

A lot of things inspire me. Whether it be books, T.v shows, video games(especially these), or things that happen personally in day to day events.  Primarily though Final Fantasy really influences me.  The story on those is amazing and I strive to be that good, whether I will be or not is yet to be seen though.

 

[Frostyfirefly]

@ Shades: That's cool, If you still like old school p&p rpgs, please check out my channel, there are a few old school renaissance games in there that are certainly worth a look.

@ Corvellia: The first Final Fantasy I played was 6, and it was the first videogame that kept me up till 3 or 4 AM, because I "just had to know what was going to happen next".

 

[masashi86]

I already answered to the question earlier, but I wanted to mention about one fun method I figured out, though it might work better for films, but I think it could be used games as well if tweak it a bit. It's a method to "craft" ideas, I call it simply Harmony-thinking.

When you're thinking a big scale plot, think of two words, one that brings you positive feeling, and another that has a negative feeling (more concretic the better) then think a situation, place, or a person with those two words in it.

Example: words Chocolate, and politics, what I got first in mind, was a dull office meeting and a man who gets a huge desire of a chocolate during the meeting, but can't get it because situation of the meeting is uptight and formal. That was a core of my short film I made, called Passion of Chocolate. (it's not yet ready because of sound editing is not yet complete)

You can also tweak the idea by thinking also the positive and negative ways of telling the a story, same words: Chocolate and Politics,

also gave me darker version when I was thinking a negative story, a Chocolate Dystopia, world where chocolate is gone or very rare, and the politicians and secret societies are the ones who are keeping the chocolate from everyone. Maybe even Chocolate Wars will be fought

The Harmony-thinking is simply based on thinking words that have positive and negative feeling in them and put them under a same context. It gives an instantly a tension to a story, which is maybe one of the most important things to keep any story interesting.

Another funny thing that this brings up is the word "tension" because it can also refer to electricity, and what it is needed to make electricity/energy? Positive and negative charges BD !

I think this only needs a bit of association skill, so that if a word gives you some certain of visual image in your mind.

I've been testing this thing for about a year and it still feels so fun to play with the ideas tweaking them as either positive or negative, results can be sometimes absolute silly, but sometimes I can get very deep story ideas too.

Moreover, I can actually use this to analyze other films as well, where I can find these two core words or "charges".

For example Akira Kurosawa's Yojimbo could be: a bad samurai with a good heart and bad samurai with a bad heart is put under the same village, (this is of course just the absolute core, and rest are built to beef the story to maximum hights)

My examples are though very movie related, but I'm sure this could work also to create game ideas or books. I think it's just a fun tool to add in the ways of making ideas.

(If you want to test my Harmony-thinking out, PM me and send me two words that has positive and negative feeling and I try to bring a story idea for you)

 

[Aurorain]

Let's see...I think I have too many inspirational stuff to list, but here's a few..

World of Warcraft: Love it, or hate it, there's "quite" a lot that can be taken from it.

Breath of Fire series: These are simplistic rpgs(well, at least the first four are), though they still have a lot of stuff used today!

Final Fantasy series: Need I really say anything? This is one of the big-time grandfathers of rpgs, and though it did come after games like Dragon Quest, Wizardry, and Ultima, it's easy to take influence even from the oldest ones. (FFIX is my favorite btw~ )

Other influential games: Star Ocean, Enelysion, Catharsis, Eternal Grace, Star Stealing Prince, Everlong, any Tales of game, The Legend of Dragoon~

 

[Frostyfirefly]

@ Masashi 86: That's a very useful method, thanks for sharing it, it certainly looks like a great way to build an entire plotline.

@ Aurorain: Those are some powerful game names, don't forget to add Might and Magic

 

[West Mains]

Hmm...

Movies and Psychology, I think.

Movies tend to inspire a lot of images and vague ideas in my mind, and this can help create the first steps of an idea, and I spent a lot of time reading about psychology (especially Freudian, I don't necessarily agree with it but, but it's fascinating regardless) and this creates a lot of themes that flesh out my ideas. 

 

[Frostyfirefly]

Hmm...

Movies and Psychology, I think.

Movies tend to inspire a lot of images and vague ideas in my mind, and this can help create the first steps of an idea, and I spent a lot of time reading about psychology (especially Freudian, I don't necessarily agree with it but, but it's fascinating regardless) and this creates a lot of themes that flesh out my ideas. 

I'm guessing you enjoy psychological thrillers then

Psychology in general is pretty fascinating, I don't think there isn't a single day in my life where I don't, accidentally or incidetally, consider the psychology behind some act, thought, etc.