All projects begin with getting an idea, something you want to try to accomplish, even if that idea is shoved at you. I have "map makers block" 24/7. Whether it is trying to make a lego battlecruiser or a mountain range in the terrain editor, I do not know where to start. When I look at other people's designs for inspiration, all I find is outstanding creations that blow my idea out of the water harder than a yamato cannon to a single marine. How do I find practical, and doable, inspiration that fits my skill level and knowledge without getting intimidated? This is my largest problem starting out with design and I MUST overcome it.
I had the same problem. Then I started looking at games I really enjoyed and imagined what I could do that could stem from that. Such as Demigod and remaking it. A more complicated map outside my range is Eye of Judgement, great card game, that I probably won't know how to make until I take some programming classes.
I say look at everyday games or any games or books or anything and see what would be fun with that in starcraft. Even when I'm at school I'm looking at things to see how I can use it for starcraft, sometimes I'm even writing down notes or sketching something to see if it's a good idea. Sadly my grades fell slightly so I'm trying to stop.
When I want to program games outside of the galaxy editor, I go play on armorgames and play. a LOT. Generally that gives me some ideas. But I am just like you when it comes to the galaxy editor. Major map makers block. :D Did you look at the idea thread (its stickey-ed)...It might get some "idea juice" flowing.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Feel free to Send me a PM if you have any questions/concerns!
lol....Yeah skills are kinda important. What ends up happening for me is this- I get an idea, work on the map for a week or so. Then I get board and quit. So I have like 50 half-made maps on my computer. Which also means I can do a LOT with the editor, since I've made so many different kinds of map. Now I'm trying to get dedicated to a single project. (you know that, you actually posted something over on that thread :D)
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Feel free to Send me a PM if you have any questions/concerns!
I know... For me its that way with melee maps. I really want to try and make a game type not overused (TD, defense/escape TPS) but its hard to be revolutionary. One idea I have been considering is a team space battle. The thing I'm not so sure on, is how you make air units be able to change height and speed with mouselook and keys. Or a space CTF. I guesswhat I should have said is that I have the ideas, but have much trouble turning them into visual thought and knowing what to put where exactly.
The fun part aside, I always start out with research. I look at reference material for terrain, I play some of the games that defined genres, I take a look at high rated games at Metacritic that fit my need. Stuff like that. From there, I start to gather features, or looks, or whatever I'm working at and pull them together, weight them, throw out bad stuff, add other things. And than I take a shit and get the big, bright "!" over my head.
What blocks our innovation is our unconscious fear to be considered crazy. I allow me to think outside the box, to imagine that people can fly, dogs can talk, tress can dance. I try to live in dreams and it allows my mind to innovate. So, I get new ideas all the time, more frequently when something sad happens.
Then, I walk in circles around the house brainstorming this idea and trying to improve it. Finally, when I go to sleep, minutes before I fall asleep is the time that I am relaxed and can think better. This is when I can see myself interacting with the idea, such as playing it. :)
For me, everything begins as a dream. A dream dream. A vision of a world beyond worlds. Everything I have ever done, be it a ship or an entire total conversion, began as a dream or a vision tied to something existing. All of my works are original, based on my writing or universes in some nature.
When I have an idea I empower it with sound. Power Through Immersion, the critical concept of my game design concepts, states that the most powerful form of any nature of communication occurs through immersion. To embrace a dream, a concept, a vision, anything, I immerse myself in the most powerful element I have at my disposal - Music.
Through the intoxication of immersion I can conjure worlds, stories, characters boundless in scale and depth. It is a double-edged sword, being schizophrenic amongst other things. My imagination cannot be undone. But bringing things into a cohesive form, be it imagery, hallucinations, or dreams themselves, requires a great deal of time and focus. Years will pass before my concepts enter a cohesive form ready to be applied to any kind of a project. Years more can pass before I find a game engine capable of handling them. Then, it comes down to my frailty of character to inevitably fail the focus and motivation aspect of work, ultimately resulting in utterly nothing getting done.
My hallucinations are strong enough that I can simply close my eyes and see worlds unfold in shaded blacks, oranges, and navies. I call them Phantoms. Controlling dreams, phantoms, and simple ideas requires a current of energy for them to ride upon, towards the harbor of creation.
I am not listening to the latest Immediate Music album when I am conjuring these images.
All things begin with a concept. Extremely rarely do I begin with an existing concept outside my world. Only in the most rarest of circumstances have I ever modeled something based on concept art, for I find it extremely difficult. I use the current of music to guide my CTS-ridden hands in forging a shadow of my world.
From humble beginnings,
To true conceptualization,
To the hardening of the vision,
Forever to stride in motion boundless, unchained by the consciously-enforced limitations of modern ethics and concepts. In dreams I find my inspiration, in dreams I live, and from dreams come forth my conjurations of physical manifestation.
There is your answer, in the simplest way I could ever write it.
At the beginning you need to learn and you learn from practice. Yes, reading tutorials help but you need to get your hands dirty! Do some tutorials here that have step by steps for practice. Practice terrain just by messing around with things.
The editor is your toy box, just play with it.
When you figure out what your really good at or really enjoy you will get idea's for it. And depending how good you get you could end up joining a team and working on a project from there.
I dislike when people say dreams. The reason they're called dreams is because that's all they are. Now a goal or something similar is a better name. I have a dream of creating that card game because I know it will most likely never happen.
Rodrigo I don't care if people think I'm crazy, I like to say does thinking you're the last sane person on earth make you crazy and my friends usually say yes. So I guess I'm crazy. It's all relative.
You could just randomly google something, hoping it's game related, and create something similar. Although I like the one with the research but that's quite a bit of work if you don't know what you're looking for.
Rodrigo you should make something like scrabble since you're always saying you're going to make any game type except with spelling added.
Rodrigo I don't care if people think I'm crazy, I like to say does
thinking you're the last sane person on earth make you crazy and my
friends usually say yes. So I guess I'm crazy. It's all relative.
The craziness you're talking about every human being has since we are all different. There's no limit for craziness, but different from actually being crazy, this is a rational craziness, conscious; you control the whole process. And of course, life experiences help a lot. You can get some inspiration from observation, and then distort this observation so much that you can't even realize where did you get the idea from. It requires practice. A good practice might be for example trying to draw a war of emotions in a piece of paper. :P
Interesting that people get inspiration from different sources. I myself never get it from music, unless you call the wind a music. :P
@RodrigoAlves: Go
They whisper with the wind ... Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn :P
Music is a great source, if you get the right songs for your mood and what you want to create... for example some kind of military song for a shooter project.
All projects begin with getting an idea, something you want to try to accomplish, even if that idea is shoved at you. I have "map makers block" 24/7. Whether it is trying to make a lego battlecruiser or a mountain range in the terrain editor, I do not know where to start. When I look at other people's designs for inspiration, all I find is outstanding creations that blow my idea out of the water harder than a yamato cannon to a single marine. How do I find practical, and doable, inspiration that fits my skill level and knowledge without getting intimidated? This is my largest problem starting out with design and I MUST overcome it.
I had the same problem. Then I started looking at games I really enjoyed and imagined what I could do that could stem from that. Such as Demigod and remaking it. A more complicated map outside my range is Eye of Judgement, great card game, that I probably won't know how to make until I take some programming classes.
I say look at everyday games or any games or books or anything and see what would be fun with that in starcraft. Even when I'm at school I'm looking at things to see how I can use it for starcraft, sometimes I'm even writing down notes or sketching something to see if it's a good idea. Sadly my grades fell slightly so I'm trying to stop.
When I want to program games outside of the galaxy editor, I go play on armorgames and play. a LOT. Generally that gives me some ideas. But I am just like you when it comes to the galaxy editor. Major map makers block. :D Did you look at the idea thread (its stickey-ed)...It might get some "idea juice" flowing.
i have the opposite problem i have too damn many ideas but i've low skills to make them come true xD
@GizmoPT: Go
lol....Yeah skills are kinda important. What ends up happening for me is this- I get an idea, work on the map for a week or so. Then I get board and quit. So I have like 50 half-made maps on my computer. Which also means I can do a LOT with the editor, since I've made so many different kinds of map. Now I'm trying to get dedicated to a single project. (you know that, you actually posted something over on that thread :D)
@zeldarules28: Go
I know... For me its that way with melee maps. I really want to try and make a game type not overused (TD, defense/escape TPS) but its hard to be revolutionary. One idea I have been considering is a team space battle. The thing I'm not so sure on, is how you make air units be able to change height and speed with mouselook and keys. Or a space CTF. I guesswhat I should have said is that I have the ideas, but have much trouble turning them into visual thought and knowing what to put where exactly.
The fun part aside, I always start out with research. I look at reference material for terrain, I play some of the games that defined genres, I take a look at high rated games at Metacritic that fit my need. Stuff like that. From there, I start to gather features, or looks, or whatever I'm working at and pull them together, weight them, throw out bad stuff, add other things. And than I take a shit and get the big, bright "!" over my head.
@Gorandor: Go
toilet knowledge again hmm... Why is it that relief and ideas go together so well?
What blocks our innovation is our unconscious fear to be considered crazy. I allow me to think outside the box, to imagine that people can fly, dogs can talk, tress can dance. I try to live in dreams and it allows my mind to innovate. So, I get new ideas all the time, more frequently when something sad happens.
Then, I walk in circles around the house brainstorming this idea and trying to improve it. Finally, when I go to sleep, minutes before I fall asleep is the time that I am relaxed and can think better. This is when I can see myself interacting with the idea, such as playing it. :)
Thanks, you just inspired me to give a Yomato ability to a lazer.
For me, everything begins as a dream. A dream dream. A vision of a world beyond worlds. Everything I have ever done, be it a ship or an entire total conversion, began as a dream or a vision tied to something existing. All of my works are original, based on my writing or universes in some nature.
When I have an idea I empower it with sound. Power Through Immersion, the critical concept of my game design concepts, states that the most powerful form of any nature of communication occurs through immersion. To embrace a dream, a concept, a vision, anything, I immerse myself in the most powerful element I have at my disposal - Music.
Through the intoxication of immersion I can conjure worlds, stories, characters boundless in scale and depth. It is a double-edged sword, being schizophrenic amongst other things. My imagination cannot be undone. But bringing things into a cohesive form, be it imagery, hallucinations, or dreams themselves, requires a great deal of time and focus. Years will pass before my concepts enter a cohesive form ready to be applied to any kind of a project. Years more can pass before I find a game engine capable of handling them. Then, it comes down to my frailty of character to inevitably fail the focus and motivation aspect of work, ultimately resulting in utterly nothing getting done.
My hallucinations are strong enough that I can simply close my eyes and see worlds unfold in shaded blacks, oranges, and navies. I call them Phantoms. Controlling dreams, phantoms, and simple ideas requires a current of energy for them to ride upon, towards the harbor of creation.
I am not listening to the latest Immediate Music album when I am conjuring these images.
All things begin with a concept. Extremely rarely do I begin with an existing concept outside my world. Only in the most rarest of circumstances have I ever modeled something based on concept art, for I find it extremely difficult. I use the current of music to guide my CTS-ridden hands in forging a shadow of my world.
From humble beginnings,
To true conceptualization,
To the hardening of the vision,
Forever to stride in motion boundless, unchained by the consciously-enforced limitations of modern ethics and concepts. In dreams I find my inspiration, in dreams I live, and from dreams come forth my conjurations of physical manifestation.
There is your answer, in the simplest way I could ever write it.
@Reaper872: Go
Just start!
At the beginning you need to learn and you learn from practice. Yes, reading tutorials help but you need to get your hands dirty! Do some tutorials here that have step by steps for practice. Practice terrain just by messing around with things.
The editor is your toy box, just play with it.
When you figure out what your really good at or really enjoy you will get idea's for it. And depending how good you get you could end up joining a team and working on a project from there.
Good luck & most importantly have fun!
I dislike when people say dreams. The reason they're called dreams is because that's all they are. Now a goal or something similar is a better name. I have a dream of creating that card game because I know it will most likely never happen.
Rodrigo I don't care if people think I'm crazy, I like to say does thinking you're the last sane person on earth make you crazy and my friends usually say yes. So I guess I'm crazy. It's all relative.
You could just randomly google something, hoping it's game related, and create something similar. Although I like the one with the research but that's quite a bit of work if you don't know what you're looking for.
Rodrigo you should make something like scrabble since you're always saying you're going to make any game type except with spelling added.
I had that back when I knew nothing about the World Editor. Then I learned just about every damn thing you could and all my previous ideas left me.
(SC2 is a totally different story. So much to do, so little time!)
The craziness you're talking about every human being has since we are all different. There's no limit for craziness, but different from actually being crazy, this is a rational craziness, conscious; you control the whole process. And of course, life experiences help a lot. You can get some inspiration from observation, and then distort this observation so much that you can't even realize where did you get the idea from. It requires practice. A good practice might be for example trying to draw a war of emotions in a piece of paper. :P
Interesting that people get inspiration from different sources. I myself never get it from music, unless you call the wind a music. :P
@RodrigoAlves: Go They whisper with the wind ... Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn :P
Music is a great source, if you get the right songs for your mood and what you want to create... for example some kind of military song for a shooter project.
Magic solution: Go out into the next bar -> get some beer; do sports; just walk around to next river or smth like that
Women. I say again, women. Real ones. Placebos wear you down.
Whatever you do, wholeheartedly, moment by heartfelt moment, becomes a tool for the expression of your very soul.
lol, glad someone is getting help.