I feel like I am a creative person trapped in a non-creative person’s body. Yep. I gave up trying to play a musical instrument years ago, I have long since left the world of creative writing and poetry, I am a mediocre photographer at best, I cannot draw a straight line, and other forms of artistic creativity such as painting & sculpting elude me completely.

Over the years, I have explore my creative side in various and sundry means. I Think the last few years I have been applying creativity to problem solving & process improvement. Interesting, but not as personally rewarding as I would like.

The SPARK of creativity has been firing on the Game Design front for awhile now. I am quite realistic and do not think that I have the next great breakthrough design that will be an overnight commercial success. This is something I have started doing for fun. In 2009, I finished my first design and prototype; a tank battle game called “Metal Warriors”. I have played it a few times and introduced it to my nephews. I entered the game in the BoardGameGeek database and was surprised to hear that it was reviewed in a podcast by a fellow in Britain. Additionally, a chap in Norway played the game a few times and offered words of encouragement. The fun for me in “Metal Warriors” was more in the design than the playing. It gave me an idea what was involved with fleshing out a design, building a prototype, and writing a rules document that could be used to learn & play the game. I am a fan of simplicity so this first endeavor is quite a simple game. It is classified as a P&P game which mean you can print and play. I think, it is more aptly a P&P&P game. Print, Proxy, & Play. I say this because you need to have some tanks and hex grids that you can proxy to be used to play the game.

About 9 months ago, game design ideas started to spark into my brain like crazy. I was having a renaissance of personal creativity. This can be a bit alarming for a traditionally non-creative person. With new game ideas springing out of this creativity geyser, it can be difficult to sleep at times. I am not complaining. I enjoy this new found inspiration and this is a period of happy exploration for me.

Currently, we have two designs that we are actively working on. “The Earth Shook” is in playtest mode and I have two friends helping with the design. We are having fun with the game and quite enjoy the game play. The other design is quite ambitious and is a very complex game by my standards. I feel the design has a lot of merit and look forward to developing the game further. I have one friends helping me with this design and we could really use another designer. This will be a very rewarding game to prototype and play.

There are a few other design ideas that have surfaced. I have been content to just let the rough notes sit there until I have more time. The thing with me is that I cannot, force creativity. It comes to roost when it is good and ready. I am content to let my muse dictate the pace and course of this period of creative expression. It is fun, challenging, and very rewarding.

Thank you creativity for popping back into my life and giving me an opportunity to explore some ideas. I feel blessed to have you here with me. Together we are unlocking the doors to many new and exciting ideas.

Think left and think right and think low and think high.  Oh, the thinks you can think up if only you try!  ~ Dr. Seuss