Searching for and choosing an idea for an indie game

What the talk is about

Ivan Kovalev explains how to look for indie game ideas systematically and how to choose the best one. He stresses that creativity is a skill, not pure chaos: new things come from combining familiar elements, and the brain needs raw material such as books, films and images. Using his own game G30, he shows how an idea grew in several layers rather than arriving at once. He then surveys techniques: brainstorming, synectics, focal objects, the morphological box, add/remove/replace/invert tricks, constraints as a stimulus, and splitting roles into dreamer, realist and critic. He closes with advice on choosing an idea: honestly judge whether you can finish the project, and play to indie strengths such as uniqueness and unusual style instead of competing on budget. Useful for game designers and solo developers.