Group Inspired Creativity

Creativity often seems to be as much a product of a vibrant communities as the contribution of any particularly great individuals. There are many examples - the technology explosion from Silicon Valley, Florence during the Renaissance, European political theory in the 1700’s, Seattle’s music scene in the 1980’s and 1990’s, Pittsburgh’s robotics because of Carnegie Mellon. The list goes on and on. Once a community reaches critical mass, not only do its members spark ideas in each other, but the community itself naturally attracts talent from a wider and wider range as it gains a reputation for success.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the past year, its that you don’t need to be great to start doing great things. You just need to do something. If you’re surrounded by a group of people who bring their own ideas and thoughts and inspiration, refining your ideas becomes a very rewarding part of the process in its own right. Let greatness happen later. I know too many people who seem to be stymied by perfection.

I was thinking of this based on a conversation I had with a friend the other day over dinner. My friends and I have been playing games our whole lives. I’ve started making my own. It’s a great group of people, because we have a solid mix of men and women. We also have a wide range of backgrounds from software to art, business, parenting and social work. All of us enjoy the playing games though, so it really helps get a broad perspective for what people really like about games.

My creation has also helped inspire some of the other people to get back into their development. We all sort of gave it a go a couple of years ago, made a lot of mistakes and got quagmire in details. I would love to see one of my other friends show off a game they’ve made sometime soon. Its wonderful to be in a creative community that’s capable of generating good ideas. I’m excited for the next step where I show these games off to strangers.

- Jake