[PT#01] The Game You Envision in Your Mind Holds the Seeds of Original Ideas　(Free) (Patreon)

The desire to “create the ideal game I’ve always dreamed of” is a sentiment shared by anyone who has ever aspired to become a game developer. But even after joining a development company and becoming a professional, you’re seldom allowed to make that dream game right away.

The company’s direction usually determines the general type and genre of games, and even when you’re assigned as a director, most of your job consists of executing what’s already planned within the production schedule. Young creators work hard at the tasks in front of them, all while dreaming that one day they’ll finally get to make their own game.

Still, the desire and mindset of “creating your ideal game” is incredibly important. It might be a game you’ve been thinking about since your student days, or your own modified version of a game you love. Maybe it’s rough and unrefined and wouldn’t be usable in its current form. But what matters is that you’ve already found something worth obsessing over—your own creative conviction.

As you gain more experience in your daily work, you begin to realize how immature those early ideas were. You revise them in your mind, add new elements, and sometimes they mature into a complete game concept. Other times, they become a treasured stockpile of ideas that you hold onto and build upon.

This is precisely where original ideas are born.

You’ll rarely find a company president saying, “Let’s invent a completely new gameplay system and sell it!” Business leaders typically look to the market to identify areas of potential and consider how to develop products that will sell.

Even if their ideas seem naive or overly pragmatic to creators, you shouldn’t resist them. The real test is whether you can take that limited direction and still inject your own original thinking into it. And your ability to do that depends entirely on how much effort you’ve put into your work every day.

“Another company’s game sold well, so make something kind of like that, just with a different look.”

Even if requests aren’t worded that bluntly, executives often leave things vague or lacking, but since they’re not creators themselves, that’s to be expected—and as a creator, you still need to deliver a product that stands apart from the competition.

It’s not that producers or executives want an exact clone of a hit game. What they want is to replicate the fun by taking inspiration from another company’s success. And that gray area—that vague request—is exactly where you should see an opportunity to inject your own original ideas.

Even tasks you’re not great at will become valuable if you push through and keep going. Over time, the ideas and concepts you’ve been storing up will become more flexible, and you’ll be able to apply them to a wide range of needs. Eventually, you’ll master the ability to use those ideas as true original thought. And then, someday, you’ll realize that the “someday” you’ve always been waiting for… is now.

Game creators are not artists. They are more like craftsmen, who logically construct the foundation of ideas and gameplay that serve as the core of product development. Of course, it’s important to move players—to make them laugh, cry, or even feel scared. But even that must be done with precise timing, carefully anticipating player behavior and controlling the experience technically, like a conductor.

People who can genuinely say they love making games are incredibly valuable to the industry. That’s why I hope such people will one day become team leaders, and when asked, “What’s your ideal game?” be able to answer proudly:

“Every game I’ve made is my ideal game.”