In October 2006 Pierre-Alexandre Garneau started a blog in which he shows us his attempts to train himself in game design:Â
While I already have a few years of experience as a videogame designer, I’m not at a world-class level. I want to reach that level however, so I decided to train myself. A sprinter trains himself by running a lot; a game designer trains himself by designing a lot of games. This blog will hold the resulting designs.
Here’s how it works. At the beginning of each week, I choose a random theme (eg. “Space Raceâ€) and a random platform (eg. “Nintendo DSâ€). I must then come up with an interesting game concept that fits the theme and is appropriate for the platform before the end of the week (eg. a game about a space race for the Nintendo DS). As the week progresses, I plan on posting some bits of informations about how things are shaping up. The end result should be a description of the main characteristics of the game, that give a good idea of the overall vision of the game — what’s called a “pitch†in the business.
It isn’t a weekly exercise anymore, more monthly, but he’s still going. I like the idea.
Check it out: http://www.gameideas.org/