Putting Dreams on Paper

The brainstorming process seems to be the same for every creative field. Lots of research, intensive thought, and plenty of noodling. This may involve puttering around in a workshop, doodling, or staring out the window. When I think, I process in terms of story and concept. Musicians like Tori may start to hear melodies in their head. There are times that I see images or discover characters. Mostly, though, it is concepts that gel into stories.

That was the case with Paper Planes MOC. The original concept was for a screenplay. I had the first thoughts more than five years ago. I wrote down a rough storyline and came up with some characters, but nothing more came out of it. Then I started school – game design became my focus of learning. More ideas for gameplay and interactivity aligned themselves with this idea. Then, Tuesday, March 3, 2009, all of the years of noodling and staring off into space came to fruition.

I get weekly career emails from www.gamasutra.com . I checked my emails at school, nothing spectacular, or so I thought. I glanced through the careers, not really looking for anything, but hoping that I might find something that interested me. I found a job title that looked interesting, so I clicked the link. It took me to the gamasutra website. I saw a link off to the side for the Games of 2020 contest. I clicked that and read through it. It sounded interesting, but I had a lot of work to do with my school project.

Interested parties can look over our design project here: http://crystalcomet.wiki.zoho.com ; we are developing an RPG with RPG Maker. It is titled Need for Greed: Wrath of the Crystal Comet.

The following morning at work, I mentioned the contest to Tori. He said, "Let's do it." So we spent half the morning, lunch, and a part of the afternoon going over ideas for worlds, game environments, game mechanics, and the technology required to play this game to its fullest potential. Some of our brainstorming can be viewed on the official website: www.paperplanesMOC.com . Just click the brainstorming link.

There are a lot of things that can be said for daydreamers. Most of them, in our achievement-oriented society, tend to be rather insulting and deprecating. However, I will say this for those who fearlessly daydream: fortune favors the prepared, the clear-minded and the courageous.

If your mind is dulled through fatigue, any number of addictions or substances, or you are stressed, ideas probably won't come. If you have put in the footwork – writing ideas down, expanding them, doing what you want to do when you make time to do it – then the ideas will come. There are plenty of ideas floating around for everyone. The reason everyone doesn't seem to get them is because few are courageous enough to actually do something with an idea. The ancient Greeks believed that ideas came from nine Muses – more on that later.

So keep dreaming and put those dreams down on paper. Dreams unwritten are passing fragrances in the wind. If not acted upon, they are gone. Dream on.