Where do ideas come from?

[Kevin]

Where do ideas come from?

I LOVE Alex’s answer. It’s all very true and good advice.

For me, ideas come from everywhere and everything.

My patented response is: “I suffer from an overactive imagination.” It’s funny and it's true. I can’t tell you how often I wake up in the middle of the night or first thing in the morning with some idea or solution to a design problem, or a great bit of dialogue that is just screaming to be written down before I forget it.

For me, images often give me ideas. Bugs, a gnarled tree, a weird structure, a piece of artwork, an image on TV, a cloud in the sky, weird lighting, a spooky feeling, or something somebody said or suggested . . . and bang, my imagination is off to the races. Ideas fly and buzz around my head like hornets. This happens to me all the time!

Ideas can also come from books, comics, history, film, music, life experiences, fear, love, loss, a challenge, and science, technology, doodles and just about anything, anywhere you can imagine.

Others times – and this is often true of BIG ideas and new game design elements – I need to kick the idea around for weeks, sometimes months. I need to let it/them percolate in the back of my head for a while. The ideas need to gestate and grow until they are developed. I may need to follow different lines of thought to a logical conclusion and then try to rethink it in a new direction or into something better.

Then there’s taking that great idea and molding it into something epic. That is a lot harder than you might think. In fact, one of Palladium’s slogans is: Great ideas are a dime a dozen. And it's true. A great idea is not enough. We need someone who can take that great idea (or even just a plain ol’ good idea) and make it into something awesome, and that's difficult. Making that great idea shine in the final product is loads of hard work, attention to detail, timing and presentation.

For games and stories, the end product has to be compelling, dynamic and fun. Maybe the ideas are original and fresh. Maybe the game mechanics are faster and easier to play. Maybe the game offers new ideas, or new places to explore or new challenges, or all of the above, and more! But ultimately, the end product must be compelling and fun. You have to figure out what works and what doesn’t. You have to be willing to rework or eliminate the material that bogs things down, even if the concept or game mechanic is brilliant. This is often referred to as, “killing your babies” because they must go even though you love them. Yep, you have to be objective and do what works best and you have to work at preserving that brilliant idea, theme, level of excitement and sense of wonder, etc. Tricky.

Yep, great ideas fall flat if the execution of those ideas don't work.

Why does Palladium Books do so many apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic settings?

Great question.

Strangely enough, I don’t think we do ‘em intentionally, they just happen. Why? I think it's because Post-apocalyptic settings are fun and dramatic. You can cut loose and go wild. You can use what you want from the real world and history, and then run with it in all sorts of new, strange and exciting directions. You get to reshape the world we all know into something different, alien and exciting (or terrifying or magical, and on and on).

That’s it for now. Dinner awaits. I should be murmuring more now that we are getting settled into our new digs.

Sincerely,
Kevin Siembieda
Publisher, Writer, Artist and Imaginator

© Copyright April 22, 2008 Palladium Books Inc. All rights reserved.
Rifts®, The Rifter®, RECON®, Splicers®, Palladium Books®, Phase World®, The Palladium Fantasy Role-Playing Game®, Megaverse®, Nightbane®, The Mechanoids®, The Mechanoid Invasion®, Coalition Wars® and After the Bomb® are Registered Trademarks of Palladium Books Inc. Heroes Unlimited, Beyond the Supernatural, and other published book titles, names, slogans and likenesses are trademarks of Palladium Books Inc., and Kevin Siembieda.