# Why did you use the Tree house pyramids to make your game?
Because I invented the pyramids! And even after 20 years I can't stop
thinking up new ways to play with them...
# How did you get your idea?
Sorry, I can't reveal that, it's a Trade Secret. :) Seriously, inspiration
is one of the hardest things to get a handle on sometimes. Where do ideas
come from? The thought muscles in my brain just does it, and not usually on
a useful or predictable schedule. There's a great quote from Captain James
T. Kirk: "Genius does not operate on an assembly-line basis, you can't
simply say, 'Today I will be brilliant!'" Sometimes the idea is the hardest
part. But there's another quote I love which also applies, from Stephen
Peek's book GAME PLAN: The Game Inventor's Handbook: "Ideas float freely in
the air, waiting to be picked like fruit." As Jacob has already said, ideas
are everywhere, the trick is finding that one awesomely great idea in the
haystack.
# Could you describe the process you go through to turn your idea into a
# finished game?
Here's an article I recently wrote that might be helpful, about the design
history of my most recently published Icehouse game, World War 5:
<http://www.wunderland.com/WTS/Andy/Games/WW5/DesignHistory.html>
I basically describe the whole process I went through in creating that
game, from idea I brooded about for literally years to an actual finished
which I designed and developed in about 2 weeks.
I would also direct your attention to this list of my Game Design
Principles:
<http://www.wunderland.com/WTS/Andy/Games/DesignPrinciples.html>
... and to these interview questions I answered from another student some
while ago:
<http://www.wunderland.com/WTS/Andy/Games/VGinterview.html>
Good luck and have fun thinking up new ways to play with pyramids!
-- Andy Looney