Developing Ideas

TLDR: This is an article about finding inspiration and generating ideas by narrowing down the theme of your game.

### **Get It Down On Paper**

Keep a Journal!!! Do I need to say more? (Just write and sketch your best ideas down when they come to you.)

### **Take From What You Love**

If you love something, take elements from it as an homage. (DO NOT Directly copy and steal from what you love.)

### **Seek Help**

If you have the cash, but don't have the time to work on generating card ideas, then you can hire freelancers to do the work for you. Just make sure to credit them on the cards. (This can have mixed results.)

### **The Journey**

Sometimes visiting or working in new environments can keep things fresh and provide you with new ideas. (Or roll up into a ball like an introvert.)

* Visit a local art museum or gallery.
* Visit the zoo.
* Go to a history museum.
* Go to the library and read.
* On a bus/train.
* Coffee shops. (Heck, I even have done this in regular restaurants.)

## **Developing A Theme**

Figure out what your game's theme is. It can be almost anything, here is a list of common themes that card games have.

* Steampunk
* Space
* Horror
* Fantasy
* Historical
* Mechas
* Zombies
* Ninjas
* Sports

The list goes on and on, but you get the point.

After you have narrowed done your theme, stick to it!!!

### **A Note On Randomness**

Randomness is fun theme and all, trust me, I know. But, when it becomes time for a consumer to choose between many different products, they are most likely going to choose the one that has a theme, artistic style, or mechanic system that is the most appealing to them. Which is really hard to do when your theme is randomness. (I'm not saying it can’t be done. Many have tried, and many have failed, while others succeed, such as Bizarre In Nature.)

### **The Web**

Once you know the theme of your game, you should make a word web with the theme in the center and expand on it from there. Including concepts, themes, objects, key terms, anything that you can possibly think that ties together with your theme.

### **The Other Web**

Coming up with a word web is fun and all, but now it’s time to start doing some internet research. Start by looking up the words that you generated. Saving images and informative websites for quick reference in the future. As well as, slowly adding on to the word web with new words and notes. (Highlight the ones you like most.)

### **Fine Tuning**

After you pick your theme and do some research, you need to “fine-tune” the concept of your game. Essentially, you should expand on your chosen theme with other ideas in order to develop a laconic. (This is where the words you picked come in handy.) The laconic will serve as your foundation and overall concept going forward on your game.

For example, Chaos Galaxy laconic would be something like, “Planets with elemental personifications, whose citizens are fighting in a space war”.

(Basically, you can think of your games laconic as the most simplified description of your lore, and a expanded version of your theme.)

## **Trivia**

This article was written in 15 minutes or less, and may include an absurd number of typos. And may be added/edited onto in the future with more/relevant information.