5 Common Sources of Inspiration for Game Developers

Video game developers don’t typically get as much respect as other creatives, such as musicians or filmmakers, but they probably should. After all, video games have been slowly earning more and more respect over the past couple of decades. Whereas in the 1990s the industry was seen as a relatively niche interest, today video games are well and truly mainstream. The industry is worth more than $250 billion and is growing every year. That figure, incidentally, is more than the Hollywood and music industries combined. So, let’s show video game developers some respect.

And let’s also take a look at where those developers get their ideas. Below, we’ll run through five common sources of inspiration that result in the world’s most beloved games.

Real-World Sports

People love to watch sports on television, although they don’t always like to put on sporting clothing and take to the field themselves. Even people who do enjoy physical sports often find that time or personnel constraints mean that they can’t engage with it as often as they’d like. Sports games, which have been popular since the beginning of the video game industry, aim to fill that gap. Indeed, the very first widely popular game, Pong, was based on a sport: tennis. Today, game developers come up with ever more advanced ways to make sporting video games more realistic than ever before. 

Diving Into History

We tend to think of the video game industry as being future-oriented, but that’s only really from a technological perspective. From a narrative perspective, game developers tend to look to the past. Some of the most popular titles are based on historical eras. The Assassin’s Creed series includes games that take place during the French Revolution, Victorian England, and Islamic Golden Age. The Book of Dead slot game, one of the genre’s most successful titles of all time, takes place in Ancient Egypt, while The Oregon Trail uses 19th-century pioneering frontierism as its concept. You can understand why game developers look to the past since it’s endlessly fascinating, and it’s an approach that clearly resonates with gamers, too. 

What’s Trending 

You’ll also find game developers looking towards existing popular games as a basis for their projects. This is especially true for big-budget companies, which, due to the level of financial commitment at stake, are not as willing to take a risk on more experimental games. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing — some of the best games in recent years were born purely because a predecessor was successful. Apex Legends, for instance, surely would not have been made had it not been for the overwhelming success of Fortnite.

Technological Capabilities 

Video game developers, especially independent ones, also benefit creatively from increasing technological capabilities. This has been seen most obviously in recent years in the rise of mobile gaming, which has gone from strength to strength in the past decade. Today, some of the most inventive games are mobile games. Developers are significantly more restricted when developing mobile games than console games, and it forces them to become a little more creative. Games such as Florence, Device 6, and Monument Valley II are all exceptional games that probably wouldn’t have been made had the mobile gaming genre not existed. The comparatively low cost of producing mobile games means developers can take more risks with these types of titles. 

Standing on the Shoulders of Giants

Finally, in the vast majority of cases, game developers aren’t looking to reinvent the wheel. Rather, they’re just looking to carry the torch a little further down the road. While there’s a world of difference in the quality of the games of the 1980s and the games of today, for most of the big titles, you can usually trace the evolution of a gaming genre back to the pioneering titles of yesteryear. After all, those video game developers chose their profession because they were inspired by the groundbreaking games they played in their younger years.