2. Game Tuning Workshop
What is a Creativity Exercise?
• For our purposes, anything that changes
your way of thinking about a problem (or
opportunity)
• Especially techniques to cultivate new
ideas
• Applicable at any stage of the process.
3. Game Tuning Workshop
What is That Good For?
• Analysis is not a very good means of
generating ideas.
• Intuition is, by definition, not responsive
to systemization.
• What cannot be commanded might still be
coaxed.
4. Game Tuning Workshop
Things You May Already Do
• Many activities change what parts of your
brain are working, and encourage other
parts to relax.
• Identifying these triggers and exploiting
them on purpose can be powerful.
• Not usually a great thing for groups,
though.
5. Game Tuning Workshop
Things You May Already Do
Examples:
• Exercise
• Change of scenery
• Driving
• Showering
• Toys
• Sleep
• Music
6. Game Tuning Workshop
Six Thinking Hats
— Edward de Bono
Knowledge
possessed
or needed
Type of thinking
being used
Risks, drawbacks,
criticism
Opportunities,
possibilities,
alternatives
Advantages,
benefits
Feelings,
intuition
8. Game Tuning Workshop
Tips for Better Brainstorming
• Sharpen the Focus
• Playful Rules
• Number Your Ideas
• Build and Jump
• “The Space Remembers”
• Stretch your Mental Muscles
• Get Physical
– Tom Kelley, The Art of Innovation
9. Game Tuning Workshop
The Least You Need to Know:
A Simple Brainstorming Format
• Present a clear statement of the problem at
hand.
• Everybody gets enough Post-It™ notes
for more than the obvious answers. Go!
(stretch, number counts)
• Put the notes on the wall. Everybody
move them about putting like with like
(get physical, use spatial memory).
10. Game Tuning Workshop
The Least You Need to Know:
A Simple Brainstorming Format
Sift (build and jump):
• Which ideas are very common, which rare
or unique?
• What does that mean? Does what that
means suggest new ideas?
• What are the combinations, gaps,
intermediaries, or components?
11. Game Tuning Workshop
Randomization Exercises
Select a theme, element, or piece of advice
from some random source.
• Get you past a blank slate.
• Encourage very unexpected thought
patterns
12. Game Tuning Workshop
Randomization Methods
Possible sources:
• Dictionary
• Card Draw (e.g. Creative Whack Pack,
Oblique Strategies)
• I Ching (or Ouija Board)
• Boggle™
13. Game Tuning Workshop
Example: Oblique Strategies
— Brian Eno & Peter Schmidt
What would
your closest
friend do?
Try an old
idea.
Look at the
most
embarrassing
details and
amplify them.
Go outside.
Shut the
door.
Tidy Up
What
mistakes did
you make
last time?
14. Game Tuning Workshop
Exercise: The Epigrams of
Heraclitus
• Heraclitus was an Ionian philosopher of
the late 6th century B.C. This is great
because his stuff is way out of copyright.
• His epigrams make a pretty good “oblique
strategies” type deck
• Idea copped from Roger Von Oech. For
his translations, you want Expect the
Unexpected or You Won’t Find It.
15. Game Tuning Workshop
Go!
• Break up into groups.
• If others in your Three Musketeers group
are here, you probably want them at your
table.
• Start by posing questions or issues.
• Pretend to trust and believe an epigram.
What does it mean?
• Repeat.
