Doing doodles, sketching out ideas, working out mechanics on paper; seeing how one idea leads to another...and God, when you hit on a idea you just LOVE, ooohhh, that's a nice group of pleasure neurons that fire off and make you feel like a God! But THEN once you get one of those cool ideas, I tend to get all like 'ok, don't push it' and then I kind of sit for an hour with NOTHING coming cause it's like the Universe is like a) don't get greedy! and b) ok, YOU may like it but don't be an arrogant ass and assume anyone else will!
Ah ya know, screw it...the (a) above is totally true...the (b) is not. I never feel that way. I fucking KNOW when I've stumbled upon a sweet ass idea. I don't question it. I was just trying to sound humble :)
In fact, here. Check this out:
See? That says 'COOL!' and there is a big circle around it. I do that when I hit on something I really, really like so it doesn't get lost amid the many doodles on the many sheets of paper floating around. I also do it as a way- I guess- of expressing how excited I am. It just kind of comes out.
And the best thing is, this is the part where I- having come up with what I feel is a sweet ass idea, or having heard a sweet ass idea from someone else on the team-get the same charge players get when they play the game for the first time and see/experience something cool. Difference is, now that I've gotten the charge, the team still has to work like crazy the next 10-24 months in order to bring some of these cool ideas life and thus, give players the same charge we've had for over 2 years!
But whatever- that's the job part of it, right? No worries. Especially given the people I work with tend to take a cool idea and then thru execution, make it 50 times better anyway!
And all that aside- WHEN one of the notes/sketches/doodles that I've worked on gets made and then gets in the hands of a gamer and THEY light up and smile in the same way I did when I first sketched the thing 2 years prior...man, that makes it worth it!
Plus, fuck man, even if some of these ideas don't make it (and alot won't), I still get to sit here all safe from the cold outside, warm in my cozy office surrounded by cool pictures, neat toys, and all the latest and greatest video games and just be creative! Fuck dude...what did I do so right in my last life to deserve this?!?!
I'm a happy man.
David