Here are some tips for the design process that I’ve picked up in my past nearly decade of experience designing mods and working on AAA games.
Be creative
It may sound obvious, but really, when it comes to design, there’s really no limit to what you should or shouldn’t come up with
Don’t abandon your ideas
Just because you can’t use something right now, doesn’t mean it won’t be useful later on.
WRITE EVERYTHING DOWN
Seriously, just do it. There’s nothing worse than coming up with a kick-ass idea just to forget it in an hour.
Be open to suggestions
Being open to suggestions does not mean you have to go by what the other person wants. They may not have the best ideas, or they just don’t understand your vision the way you want them to.
Revisit your ideas
Just because it made sense to you at one point, doesn’t mean it will make sense to everyone, or anyone else when it gets put into action.
Don’t be afraid to stand up for your ideas
Just because someone else doesn’t understand what you are trying to accomplish doesn’t always mean it’s a bad idea. It might just take some more revisiting to clarify it.
Don’t be afraid to put down bad ideas
Sometimes the majority is right and it’s just a bad idea. If you can’t clarify what your idea is, or even with clarification, it’s still not fun, it might be time to put it down. They can’t all be winners, but the sooner you are willing to scrap a bad idea, the sooner you can free up your mind to come up with something better!
Don’t get offended if someone doesn’t like your idea
We don’t all think alike; what might be fun for you, might not be fun for someone else. You can’t please everyone.
Seek out peer feedback
Working with other creatives, and especially peers, you should absolutely request feedback at one point or another. You, and your work are not perfect, so please for everyone’s sake, don’t act like it. We all need criticism in order to improve. Be an adult about it, and realize that the person is more than likely not trying to tear you down, but build both you, and your idea up and make you a better designer in the process.
Know when to put it down and move on
Being somewhat OCD at times, I have trouble with this myself, but sometimes you get to a point in your work where you aren’t making any real progress. This can happen when you are unsure of the direction you want to head in, but you know there is still more to do. Sometimes all you need is a little break, but other times, seek out some feedback on what you can actually improve, rather than tweaking some mundane little detail over and over to get it “perfect”.
Any tips you think I missed? Anything you disagree with? Leave them in the comments below.
-Kowalski
Autocaulk 