Shocking! A game designer is saying that experiencing the real world matters more than *dramatic pause* creativity. What? You mean I can’t just stare at the wall while staying inside all day to come up with The Most Wonderful Fictional Universe Ever? Scandalous!
What’s next? Is he going to shock the Game Industry more by saying video games need to be profitable and not sold at a loss?
For longtime readers, you know this is actually Writing 101 advice. Of course, most writers will never take it. They keep punishing us with terrible works because they don’t want to go outside. I like pointing out that Melville did three tours on whaling boats before he could write Moby Dick (very, very dangerous job). You’re not going to write anything if you don’t do anything. You need to become an interesting person before you can make an interesting work. People would agree that Shigeru Miyamoto is an interesting person. He became interesting before he made interesting games. Boring people make boring products. Don’t be boring.
Look at what Notch says about game design. I really like his approach. If there is a tree in the game, it should be able to be chopped down. This reminds me of the Richard Garriot way of thinking. I would LOVE to try out the games Notch describes. That spaceship game sounds great. Spaceship sandbox would be… beyond awesome and perhaps a true spiritual sequel to Minecraft. And I understand what he means that he is so famous that he isn’t allowed to fail on large games anymore. There are good things with fame (such as money), and there are bad things. Everyone I know who is famous wish they weren’t. You have less freedom when you are famous.