Anino Games Official Website

In the Creatives section of the office, there’s a Jack London quote on the wall that reads “You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.”

For months I didn’t fully understand what he meant; I initially found it a little funny and imagined a former officemate chasing a personified “idea” with a bat or a gun. Or sometimes I’d imagine myself having a picture taken by the quote with a golf club, but I digress.

It occurred to me recently what Jack London might really mean. Game designers, artists, writers, etc. they aren’t gods; they can’t create anything out of nothing. Their inspiration comes from something. Be it their passion for music, their mountain climbing days or what have you. They need to have an understanding of the world around them, in order to successfully create their own world, or for this context, a game.

Sloperama (www.sloperama.com) once said that if you want to fulfill a career in game design, you don’t necessarily have to take Computer or Math courses. It’s just bonus points to get in the game industry. The author notes that you should just take whatever course you’re passionate about, and then supposedly your ideas will come from that passion.

But of course, it helps to have some experience. Most game companies won’t hire you just because of your desire to do it, or even if you wrote some Game Design Documents (a possible exception would be unless it got accepted in a contest since well, that’s not easy to do). You need to translate your interests into a game. It doesn’t necessarily have to be purely original, but it shouldn’t be a total rip-off either. I think it just needs to be fun that people will make time for it. You can take up short courses on programming (I suggest learning on your own) or just download a game engine and code from there.  

In summary, for those who want to create a game but are not sure what to do, you won’t get your ideas by staring in front of a computer all day. Explore the world around you. Or as Jack London has said, “Go after it with a club!”