Creativity Under Pressure

I talk about how to be creative under pressure in order to make a great game...and the secret is to work with great people.

Videos I reference:

[PerfectAlibi]

"Creativity under pressure" makes me think back to a quote of, "to achieve great things, 2 things are needed, a plan and not quite enough time"

[My_knob]

So happy you upload in the mornings so I can watch something with my coffee

[lobosolitario]

Creation needs energy and limits. Without energy, nothing can be created. Without limits to focus it, energy dissipates uselessly.

[misterj]

I heard something very similar by the creators of Sonic the Hedgehog. Finding your people is possibly the biggest component of making a great game, and it can't be said enough.

Good talk Tim!

[LPetal]

I like that deadlines and technical limitations often bring out great ideas in people and allow them to fall into the mindset of cutting away the chaff to focus on what matters the most in a game, and when it's a team effort, it's being able to trust the expertise of each team member and being able to know when to push when your ideas are right and to stay the course with them vs. when the other person might be right and it would be better to go with that instead. Team dynamics like this have long been a fascinating subject to me, especially when there's a documentary or a book talking about the making of a game, and revealing the behind-the-scenes issues that arose and how each team member contributed their piece to make the overall pie work. This is why I consider every video game to be a miracle (as cheesy as that might sound), because so many people and ideas have to come together to make one happen.

[damienk]

One of the reasons I keep participating in game jams

[sebastianacevedo]

I think these are great points on how to be creative under pressure. Putting in effort and a great team makes a big difference.
Something that might be good is also knowing when to eat, drink, and shower when working under pressure. It's easy to forget to eat when you're constantly working, it's easy to go a long time without drinking water.
When I used to project manage way back in the day I would mandate during the breaks people take just 10.minutes without thinking or talking about the project and I think it helped. Especially when everyone was feeling the pressure

[shockmethodx]

Good Tim talk. It's so nice to have things I believe affirmed by someone so accomplished. Makes me feel less silly about my world view and wanting good people around me to make good things.

[waltimedes]

I'm personally a little torn on this. I agree with you that constraints allow for more creativity, it's the degree to which it matters that gets me. Look at music: recording to tape made people stick with and work around anomalies. Sometimes this was amazing. Sometimes an album was half bad songs. Led Zeppelin famously took more time in the studio than almost any other band at the time and made some all timers. But they were also previously session musicians who had a ton of practice and mentorship. What's doing the heavy lifting? The practice, the constraints, a bit of both? Would a team making many games with zero crunch practice their way into excellence? It's fun to think about.

[drew_echo]

"take an active effort to find other great people to work with, potentially at big companies so there's more money, there's less obstacles to bring that great team together"
Interesting take. I'm in a big company (several thousand FTEs) and have been worried that its size is stifling its output. In past videos you've talked about how some people just want to make a different game, and in large companies it's excruciatingly difficult to get everyone aligned towards the same goal, much like a government. Employees are constantly saying leadership doesn't know what they're doing & then go off and do their own things which they think are "better". There are also rampant job-performance problems with serious, ship-steering impact because it's much harder for leadership to keep a handle on several thousand employees vs < 100.

[Liminal-]

Thank you for this video. I agree, when you what to make a great game (or anything for that matter) you and the people involve have to work their heart out of it.

[MrNocturnalEmission]

Limitations create innovations
I forgot where I heard that but it stuck with me forever.

[shacham]

I see why you're considering some of these point controversial. I 100% am in the same boat. There are environments that are incredibly tolerant to low amounts of efforts, to embarrassing degrees.

[MrOmega-czyo]

My motto for handling stress was: "I don't suffer from stress... I'm a carrier! 😝

[flamingburritto]

I 100% agree and relate to this. Me and my team are currently taking part in GMTK game jam. You get 4 days. On day 3, our level designer backstabbed us and left to work for another team. Everything derailed. With one day to go, i came up with an idea on the spot, WHICH WAS EVEN BETTER THAN OUR ORIGINAL IDEA, and i wrote an impromptu design doc. The idea has a hook, and it fits the theme of the game jam as well. And now, within 1 day (so roughly 12 working hours) we are making our game and it is exciting as hell. If we can pull this off in 1 day, i will feel validated as a project manager and game designer.

PS: The idea is that you you shoot enemies and then swap your position with them. But you can only shoot enemies who are bigger or smaller than you, but never the enemies who are the same size. You have only one bullet per swap. And you have to make your decision before the enemies' bullets hit you. For an improvised idea that i thought up on the spot, which also fits the theme, in my _unbiased_ opinion, i think its pretty good.

[Nerfunkal]

I had a life experience that gave me free time, I hardly did any creative writing. When I take a class and have deadlines I'm a machine 🤷🏻‍♂️

[uziao]

Oh, the deadlines... always a big inspiration

[umartdagnir]

Tim, you said the words that nobody wants to hear: great results require effort and discipline. :-D
People always seek some kind of a magic bullet that will solve all their problems...

[ninjaxhayabusa]

I'd love a video where you explain systemic reactivity as opposed to scripted. I generally understand the concept but I bet there's all sorts of neat programming tricks to accomplish the former. Though perhaps it's too similar to the "program the rules, script the exceptions" video.

[sweatt]

Teams support the idea of the individual. Everything we love probably started as an idea in one single persons head.