User Experiences of Game Idea Generation Games 1 Running head: User Experiences of Game Idea Generation Games User Experiences of Game Idea Generation Games

In this paper, we introduce three idea generation games designed for the use of game designers and discuss about the feedback they received while used in the authentic production settings. Three games designed especially for generating game ideas were developed in the GameSpace project that studies methods for design and evaluation of casual mobile multiplayer games. According to our experiences, games can be considered as successful devices for idea generation. Game-based idea generation techniques provide an easily facilitated, focused but playful setting for coming up with new ideas. We would like to share the feedback of our games in order to inspire others to create similar tools for generating innovative ideas in the field of games or other industries alike. User Experiences of Game Idea Generation Games 3 USER EXPERIENCES OF GAME IDEA GENERATION GAMES Introduction In 2005, Screen Digest reported that the development costs for digital games are rising up with each new technology generation. It was estimated then that in 2008, only as low as 80 games per year would be actually profitable as the required market share gets higher (GentileWilliams 2005). Not so surprisingly, these trends were discussed again in the Game Developer’s Conference 2008 (Kumar 2008). One of the strategies to stay ahead is to enhance the innovation process of game design. As one of the critical part of innovation, idea generation (Clapham 2004) and the ability to generate ideas is shown to be one of the characteristics of successful business ventures (Gabler et al. 2005). Game industry makes no exception to this. Although the industry is making profit with the existing intellectual property by producing sequels or sure hits, innovation is needed to create new IP and genres, attract new target groups and to evoke new gaming experiences (Gril 2007, Fullerton et al. 2006). Even though it is evident that game industries hold vast resources of highly talented and creative people, creativity is not an automated process. Even the most creative person can find herself struggling to fight against the repetition. In this paper, we will discuss experiences of enhancing and supporting such processes with specific tools, or more specifically games that were developed in a game research project GameSpace. The aim of the GameSpace project has been to study methods for designing and evaluating casual mobile multiplayer games. This included the examination of the early phases of game design processes: ideation and conceptualization. As one of the research methods in the project, expert workshops were organized in order to discuss the features of casual, mobile and multiplayer games and creating new concepts of the corresponding topics. For the use of the User Experiences of Game Idea Generation Games 4 workshop attendees, we developed special idea generation tools supporting the subject matters. Some of the tools got a form of games itself and could be thus called idea generation games. Successfully during 2006 and 2007, over 240 new game ideas were documented in our workshops with the help of our tools. The workshop attendees expressed the interest to the tools and some companies tried out early prototypes in their production processes. In order to gain deeper understanding of the use of such methods we conducted a pilot study, where the use of the tools were studied in the authentic production settings among four Finnish game companies. Based on our workshop experiences and the positive feedback that we gained within our pilot study, we argue that our idea generation games are actually successful tools for creativity. By playing GameSpace idea generation games, game designers were able to expand their imagination and create new game ideas that could be utilized within their work. More over, we argue that the success of our techniques can be partially explored by the features that game play can bring into creative processes, thus concentrating in this paper to the three of our game-based tools. While designers are required to be creative on demand, successful creative processes requires relaxed and playful atmosphere (Mumford & Gustafson 1988). Such an atmosphere can be difficult to create in the busy and oppressive situations. This challenge is acknowledged in several studies of brainstorming; despite of the original idea of a free and fluent atmosphere, the sessions are disturbed by for example fear of evaluation (Furnham & Yazdanpanahi 1994). While in classical forms of brainstorming the right atmosphere is facilitated mentally in the minds of the participants, idea generation games succeeds in building the favorable atmosphere immediately and automatically when the players start to play. User Experiences of Game Idea Generation Games 5 Enhancing Creativity As games industries has grown into a serious business, it is, among others, seeking ways and means to enhance and develop their creative processes. One way to ensure the creative output in the form of successful products is to gather versatile and talented teams or provide supporting and inspiring atmosphere that will foster creativity. For the team leaders, the task of getting the most out of the staff can be difficult. It is always balancing between freedom and restrictions, order and chaos. Creativity can mean various things in our common vocabulary. Most common is to connect creativity with different ways of self-expression or artistic skills, such as drawing. As a modern notion of creativity, emphasis is on a certain kind of thinking processes. We talk about “thinking differently” or “thinking outside the box”. The latter expression is derived from a classical example of creative problem solving puzzle. This puzzle consists of nine dots in a formation of a square and the task is to draw four connecting straight lines between the dots without lifting the pen (Picture 1). As the brain is naturally efficient in creating patterns (de Bono 1970), it is usual to struggle with the task, interpreting the formation of the dots as a box that cannot be crossed. User Experiences of Game Idea Generation Games 6