Finding inspiration games

Masterfully hand-drawn characters and environments. Repeating the same areas can feel tedious. The game can leave you feeling confused at times. See all results. Architecture Books : Most major bookstores have tons of architecture books usually coffee table books in their bargain section. There are billions of photos online you can peruse whenever you need a bit of inspiration.

Look at composition, color, and balance within an image to get ideas. Also keep in mind what the story behind the image is, and think about how something similar could be applied to your design project. There are thousands of photo sites online. Flickr : Flickr has billions of photos. Some are fantastic, and some are far from it. Use groups and pools, as well as galleries and their explore feature to find the best images.

DeviantArt : DeviantArt has a fantastic photography section to browse. These are often full of images of all kinds, and can be picked up for next to nothing.

Used bookstores are another good source of this kind of book. The change in format can lead to surprising adaptations that extend far beyond the original inspiration.

Packaging surrounds us, making it easy to find examples in the real world. You can find inspiring packaging all over the place, from your own kitchen to the grocery store down the street. Stores : This is the most obvious place to go for packaging design examples.

Every store you go into will have some kind of packaging, from boxes and bags to hang tags and labels. TheDieline : TheDieline is one of the best package design blogs out there. Packaged Group on Flickr : The Packaged group on Flickr and their pool has more than 4, product packaging images for you to peruse. There are hundreds of board games out there. And the thing about a lot of them is that they have fantastic color schemes and graphic elements.

Sometimes the layouts of the games themselves can be used as a source of inspiration. Flickr Pools : There are a number of Flickr pools and groups dedicated to games, but two of the better ones are Games, Board and Otherwise and Board Games. Flea Markets and Thrift Stores : You can often find used board games for next to nothing at flea markets and thrift stores.

Often these are vintage games that either have newer versions out or are no longer in production. The inspirational opportunities present in the natural world around us could make an entire post all on their own. There are literally thousands, if not millions, of things to be inspired by around the world and in our own backyards. Birds, trees, animals, bugs, the sky, mountains, valleys, deserts, rivers, lakes, the list could go on forever.

Look around at the shape and texture of things, the colors, the patterns, and anything else that catches your eye. For daily wisdom, join the Tiny Buddha list here. This site is not intended to provide and does not constitute medical, legal, or other professional advice. The content on Tiny Buddha is designed to support, not replace, medical or psychiatric treatment.

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Click here to read more. We all want to feel moved, and then to use that to create love, joy, passion, and purpose. Find Inspiration in Nature 1. Meditate or practice yoga in a nearby park. Take a camera outside and photograph everything that looks beautiful to you.

Draw or paint a scene outside your window. Find Inspiration on the Web Read blogs written by people who have overcome adversity. Search Facebook for new inspirational pages to follow. While these are certainly game concepts that can be incorporated, what we found in our workshop is that we can incorporate game design principles deeper into what we do, blending game design and learning design into a single active learning experience with a shared goal.

Specifically, we admired how the creators of the game:. Some of our ideas for improvement included:. Here are just a few examples of gameful design from recent projects:. Critical Chemistry: The Science of Saving Lives teaches chemistry principles using a narrative built around real-world events that threaten human health and safety.

The Inspark chemistry course Critical Chemistry: The Science of Saving Lives uses game design principles of powerful narrative and conflict in many lessons, where case studies feature real people and fictional characters engaged with life-threatening scenarios. Through these case studies, students explore chemical principles and concepts, motivated to resolve the conflict and providing valuable context for their learning. By tying learning to a strong and personal narrative, students can construct their knowledge in the framework of their own experiences, which research has shown leads to deeper understanding of concepts and longer retention.

Critical Chemistry also uses another game design pattern: breaking down large quests into smaller tasks. Failure in the mission is met with specific feedback on what went wrong. In the Inspark Science Network biology course BioBeyond , students learn principles of human anatomy and physiology in the context of a crewed mission to Mars.

The capstone experience for the unit, called A Mission Beyond, is a game-like launch simulator which requires students to select a ship and crew, and plan meals and exercise to keep their crew healthy on the way to Mars. The launch simulator brings in game design components with random challenges and encounters, student choices with consequences and trade-offs, and a clear mission objective: get to Mars healthy and ready to explore.

When students fail, they are presented with the opportunity to retry their mission, learning from their failure and progressing by iteration.

This type of experience — learning by failure and iteration — is particularly prevalent in open world games where players may encounter a challenge they are not ready for, fail, and restart from an earlier checkpoint. The Resiliency Series , developed in cooperation with the Northeastern Resiliency Consortium, makes heavy use of game components to teach concepts critical to building resiliency.