For the theme, a sound file was played of a beating heart – there were a ton of different directions we could go!  The craziest part was settling on a game idea in less than 30 minutes so we could start building something right away!  Nate and I started out building a rhythm based Uno experience – we were to tap the right card on the heartbeat!  Along the way, the gameplay evolved into more of a solitaire mechanic and took on a not-too-bloody, blood cell theme  We named it Blood Thinner.

We built it for the iPad, but it is also playable online just the same.  Tap blood cells one number higher or lower than your last – Zero and Nine loop around.  The faster you tap, the faster the blood cells spawn.  Try to tap as many blood cells as you can in 60 seconds to get the highest score!

Play Here and let me know what you think!

Nathan and I met at the Rochester Institute of Technology in 2001 where we were both Computer Engineering Technology students.  As I arrived at Electronics Lab on the first day of class, I was faced with a bunch of options on where to sit.  Each workbench sat two people and was equipped with a single set of lab equipment.  Whoever I sat next to would become my lab partner.  Naturally, I chose to sit next to the cutest boy!

After the last lab session, and as the student body was preparing for final exams, I came back to my room with a message on my instant messenger.  It was Nate from Electronics class!!!  He said he had misplaced his electronics breadboard and was wondering if I had seen it.  Awwwwww!!  Of course I hadn’t seen it, there was no missing breadboard!

Soon our classmates started referring to us as Krystanate – we were inseparable then and 11 years later we still are.

Nate and I worked together on a couple of small game projects in classes at RIT – an maze generating game and a 20 Questions-like Simpsons trivia game.  Those were tons of fun!  Nate and I even worked together on his interview assignment for his application at Three Rings.  He was given the option to code an already existing game like checkers, but Nate wanted to do something original!

Together, we came up with a brand new multiplayer puzzle mechanic, prototyped it with paper and then Nate programmed “Locksmith.”  After Nate was hired, he developed the game further by working with an artist to add sweet graphics and renaming it “Astrologic.”

Signing up for the Global Game Jam with Nate sparked this wonderful trip down memory lane.  I look forward to this unique opportunity to build something awesome with my most special partner!

I believe great creative visionaries are only one small part creative and one large part analytical.  Creative visionaries must come up with ideas, but ideas are a dime a dozen.  Most importantly, they must use efficient, insightful and analytical processes to judge their ideas and to prove them out.

I believe it’s necessary to work in an environment where you feel safe to fail, where you feel safe to flounder and where you feel excited about bringing radical new ideas to others without fear of unfair judgement.  You will need to learn the ability to defer your own judgement and to look for the ways something might succeed instead of focusing on the many ways it could fail.

I believe you will become a great creative visionary and you will be amazed at what you achieve.

After working for IDEO and utilizing their innovation process, I believe innovation is merely a function of time.  I believe almost anything is possible – as long as you’re willing to devote the time to make it happen.  I’d like to talk about deadlines as it pertains to the innovation process.

Innovation can and should be efficient, but due to the nature of the ambiguity of innovation, it’s next to impossible to put a hard and fast deadline on it. When time is short, people tend to settle on a ho-hum idea thinking they can work out the kinks as they develop it.  Extending the deadline down the road is no better either. When the deadline is extended, the team rushes to fix the smaller details since they are too invested in what they have or still don’t feel they have enough time to solve the bigger problems. Therefore, this leads to wasted work, a longer development time overall and a less-than-ideal product launch.

In the world of game design, if you are working on something other than a tried-and-true mechanic, I would suggest spending time to rapid prototype the game.  If you want to try out a risky mechanic, I suggest starting with a quick and dirty prototype.  Use programmer art and don’t worry about the UI.  As long as you can try the mechanic and show it to a few colleagues  that should be all you need to quickly gauge it’s fun-factor.

If you want to get a quick gage at the mass-market appeal, it might make sense to start with a ‘look and feel’ prototype by making a power point or video fakery of the experience. It must look and feel as close to the final product as possible or your feedback will be useless.  People are easily caught up in details that aren’t a part of the final game, this will skew your results.  Put it in front of a FEW people one-on-one and pay close attention to how they react.  Ask lots of questions to see if they understand what’s going on and try to gauge if you think they would want to play it if they could.  If it goes well, ask more people and/or send out surveys with a video.  It won’t tell you everything but there will be a TON of learnings there and little time investment.

Now it’s time for a fully-fleshed out playable prototype (or you may want to start here if it is easy enough).  Don’t forget, the prototype must look and feel like the final product as close as possible.  Don’t stop developing and modifying the idea until you receive tons of positive feedback.  Once you do – run full speed with development!  There will be many challenges as you build the game, but hopefully your playable prototype reduced these risks substantially and any changes are minor.  Always remember, work efficiently to solve the big problems first, then focus on the details.

For projects desiring the highest innovation factor, I suggest loosening the importance of deadlines, particularly in the design phase.  Set milestone dates for tasks to keep the team moving quickly.  But for the final shipping deadline, take a “we’ll release it when it’s right approach.”  Better yet, have a design team devoted to designing and prototyping these more innovative ideas well ahead of production without a deadline at all.  That way you can build up a pipeline of ideas to grab from whenever you have a production team ready to go!

However, if you’re working with a strict deadline that doesn’t allow the time to work through any unknowns, I suggest working on something with a tried-and-true mechanic.  Don’t try to innovate on a hard and fast deadline – it doesn’t work.

As part of the 60 Minutes segment featuring David Kelley, a web extra was created highlighting the Toy Lab’s “Elmo Calls” iPhone app.  It was SOOO cool to see my old stomping ground on TV!  Back then we were called Zero20 and not yet working on apps – but the place looks the same!

Take a look here!

In fact, the first thing I noticed when I flew to IDEO’s headquarters in Palo Alto, CA for my 10-hour long interview workshop was how supportive people were in conversations.  This communication style wasn’t just used when coming up with ideas – it was a communication style that permeated almost every conversation I had at IDEO.  This doesn’t mean people were ‘soft,’ on the contrary conversations discussing difficult matters would still be effective and had the unique ability to do so without reducing morale, creativity or productivity.  I’ve written a few blog posts about this topic, the most relevant being Be Courageous:  Look for Success and Feedback is Not a Four Letter Word.

Since I’ve already posted about HOW to do use this communication style, I’d like to share a few communications and development methods that are NOT effective for creativity, morale and productivity.  After all, this blog post is titled ‘How NOT to Design Breakthrough Inventions:’

“Your Idea Sucks”

Actual wording can be anywhere from “not compelling or inspiring,” “that’s a bad or terrible idea” to “that’ll never work or that would fail.”  This is what can happen when this method is used:

They may have worked hours on this idea and were very proud of it.  Now they may feel like their hard work was poo-pooed on which can make them feel undervalued, like they wasted their time or that they suck at coming up with ideas.  This type of feedback is unlikely to be a good experience for them.  As a result, they may feel they are being unfairly criticized and become resentful.  Worse, they may become fearful of bringing forth new ideas so they can avoid this negative experience in the future.  Even if they do continue to work on ideas, they’ll have a hard time being creative since fear dampens the creative process.  Don’t expect innovative new ideas from this person in the future.

My advice to you, give actionable feedback, empathize with your team and spend the time to teach and not scold.

“This Just Isn’t It”

This is a basic lack of feedback.  This can happen by using phrases like “its not really want I want,” “come back with something else” or “this just isn’t it.”  Without following up with detailed feedback, this method should rarely be used.  This is what can happen when this method is used:

They are most likely eager to please you and probably tried to give you what you wanted.  Now they may feel directionless, like they are spinning their wheels and are wasting their time.  If this pattern continues, they may start to lose faith in the leadership since they may think you aren’t confident in your vision.  Ultimately, they may feel like a drone following orders, lose their sense of ownership or feel their expertise is undervalued or underutilized.  This kind of environment may make it difficult to hold a strong vision for the project.  Without the core team member holding the vision, and without being motivated by ownership, the project will suffer.  In the end, the person may spend their efforts just trying to get anything approved so they can move forward and to get out of the stressful loop – even if they don’t fully believe in it.

If you’re the manager, my advice to you is to have the confidence to give actionable feedback and spend the time to do so.  The more you put into your employees, the more you will get from them.

“Let’s Pivot… for the 15th Time”

In fast changing markets sometimes pivoting is an important strategy, but pivoting too many times can lead to ineffective results.  When this type of decision comes from above and when it becomes a regular occurrence, this is what may happen:

Similar to a lack of feedback from above, the person may feel they are spinning their wheels and wasting their time.  If the changes seem arbitrary  they may think you don’t have a confident vision in the product and may lose faith in your leadership.  Again, the more time spent in the pivoting process, the less ownership they may feel and they may lose their vision.  At a certain point they may begin to feel that any work they do complete will be lost in the next pivot and they may stop putting their heart into it.  Whether the changes are arbitrary or valid, the more time spent in this stage, the further away the ship date becomes.  Soon, competitors will have released multiple products in the time you’ve spent fumbling around with one.

My advice to you, settle on a clear goal before sending your team down any path.  Remember the 80/20 rule – even if there might be something “not exactly aligned,” as long as the product is fun, it’s likely to be more beneficial from a commerce and a team morale perspective to settle on a direction and move forward.

The show airs Sunday, January 6th, at 7PM on CBS.  Here’s a link to the preview!

And if you haven’t seen the Nightline:  Deep Dive video yet, take a look here:

If you’ve read my posts A Tribute to Emma and How I Became Creative, you’ll notice I’ve had my fair share of heartaches in my life.  But I also talk about how I’ve been able to work through those difficulties to find rainbows in the end.  Here’s a poem I wrote at the very moment when I found my rainbow:

Have you ever seen pain?

I’m not talking about the sight of a child who skinned their knee,
Or the empathy felt with someone struggling from illness.

I’m talking about the stabbing edges that appear on the smoothest objects,
Or the heaviness perceived at the sight of a feather.
I’m talking about the blood-red sheen that permeates even the prettiest of sights.

I’ve seen pain.

I’ve looked away from the photos that ignited heartache.
I’ve drowned in the darkness of grief from love that I’ve lost.
I’d even close my eyes in anticipation for a seemingly destined gloom.

But, I opened my eyes.
And I forced myself to see through the pain.

And then, the heaviness lifted like a kite in the wind,
And the edges melted like an ice cube in the sun.
Soon, the redness transformed into the most brilliant rainbow!

And since I know what it’s like to truly see pain,
I know I can say I’ve truly seen beauty.

A true legend of design, Bill Moggridge passed away on Sept, 8th 2012 at the age of 69.  After designing the first laptop computer, Bill pioneered interaction design, cofounded IDEO and most recently was the Director of  the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum.  Here’s a wonderful video outlining his achievements and design methodologies:

I was honored to have a photo of myself collaborating with other Toy Inventors at IDEO included in his book, Designing Interactions.  While you’re there, check out the great video interviews of Bing Gordon, the founder of EA and Will Wright, the creator of the Sims franchise.

We’ll miss you dearly, Bill.

David Roche, you are my hero!