“Inspiration and Game Writing”

At the Writing for Games Conference today, I attended the “Inspiration and Game Writing” session from 3:00-4:15pm.  The session was led by Rowland Cox, Community Director at BioWare Mythic.  He presented very briefly and the rest of the session was used for questions.  Although I am not planning for a future career in the gaming industry, this presentation was particularly interesting to me because inspiration is a transferable subject matter across mediums.

The most important points of his presentation were his sources of inspiration and strategies for fostering creative and imaginative growth.  He spent time discussing the importance of passion.  The video game industry is tough and competitive. Passion is sustaining and vital, and it is the key ingredient to success, especially to survive the game industry.  It is what will get you up in the morning, and get you through the hard times when inspiration may be low.

When discussing sources of inspiration, Cox said, “What made your eyes light up as a child still has the power now…” – This quote really stood out to me during the session.  From his presentation, it seemed that most of his inspiration derived from childhood enjoyments and current forms of entertainment such as movies, books, and other video games.  People often forget what it takes to inspire them, but the answer is as simple as looking back into your childhood.  When he mentioned this point, this simple exercise brought me back to the sources of my inspiration, which is something that I have not thought about it a long time.

He brought up some very important points about inspiration within a professional setting.  Collaboration is essential to work in the video game industry.  However, a good strategy to employ is establishing “circles of trust.”  These circles are creative and inspirational outlets with trustworthy and supportive people inside and out of the professional environment.  Having “circles of trust” enables you to share your passion with other people in a constructive manner.  I thought this was a very valuable and worthwhile strategy for a long term career in the gaming industry or other inspiration-based industries.