IQubic
Level: Delver

Rank Points: 89
Registered: 11-22-2015
IP: Logged

I want to get into architecture, but I am in a giant creative slump. I have no ideas for holds. Also, I fear that whatever rooms I make will be horrible and nobody will like them. How does one exit this creative block? Do I just need to try stuff and see what works?

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Trans Woman (She/Her Pronouns)
121st Skywatcher

blorx1
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 920
Registered: 07-18-2009
IP: Logged

It partly depends on what you're going for with your architecture.
If you aren't super concerned with everything being perfect and super new to the people who play it (which is a healthy attitude) you should just make stuff and post it and we'll tell you what we think. If there are any significant problems it's better to post what you have anyway, because some criticism is better than no input whatsoever and will also help you more with your architecture.

Another way to get new ideas for rooms is to play lots of holds. Stuff like Advanced Concepts is an especially good way to learn some of the interesting mechanics in DROD which can be helpful to building rooms with those mechanics.

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If you need to think outside of the box, then you didn't build a good enough box.

IQubic
Level: Delver

Rank Points: 89
Registered: 11-22-2015
IP: Logged

I'll just spend a week or two playing around with things in the editor and then post what I have. It's probably not going to be that great.

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Trans Woman (She/Her Pronouns)
121st Skywatcher

Xindaris
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1609
Registered: 06-13-2015
IP: Logged

What I tend to do is
-Mess around in the editor
-Try and think of unusual element combinations sometimes
-Go do a thing that uses a different paradigm if I've been using a specific paradigm for a long time
-Play other people's holds for inspiration

I can firmly suggest that last one if you're really in need of some new ideas. Not necessarily using the ideas from those other holds, but just seeing something you hadn't thought of before may spark an inspiration to do something of your own with it, or tweak the idea into something you'd like to do.

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109th Skywatcher

Here are some links to Things!

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[Last edited by Xindaris at 06-19-2016 02:40 PM]

disoriented
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2424
Registered: 08-07-2007
IP: Logged

Skell's DROD idea generator

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34th Skywatcher

Best to PM me, since I might miss your message on CaravelNet chat.

Insoluble
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1639
Registered: 09-04-2014
IP: Logged

I'm going to emphatically agree with blorx1 and say play a lot of holds and try to get inspiration from other rooms you like. A lot of really fun holds take ideas that have been done before and just do them again very well. Don't worry too much about originality, you can always put your own twist on an idea you like. Try to rebuild a room from scratch that uses the same general idea as the room you like, but with some sort of twist that makes it your own.

Another way to get inspiration from other holds bares mentioning. This is mostly a thing for linchpin based rooms. But see if you can come up with a creative unintended solution for a room that you like and try to design a room around that solution. It doesn't matter if that unintended solution works in the original room or not, just try to make a room of your own based on it.

IQubic wrote:
I'll just spend a week or two playing around with things in the editor and then post what I have. It's probably not going to be that great.

Perfect is the enemy of good. Don't worry about making a great hold. Get some rooms built and you can always weed out the not-so-fun ones later on. I'd say that most active architects (and probably most inactive ones too) had a hold in the editor that is just full of room ideas. Try making a room repository like that with no intention of publishing it. Then when you've collected a good number of rooms, you can start tweaking them and picking out the more interesting ones for publishing.

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Links to neat forum tools that I always have trouble finding: