This week was the first week was an especially engaging week as it has been the first week I got to work on an artefact. With the weeks theme being creativity I was excited to see what was in store, as I have never discussed creativity from an analytical point of view. Looking forward to the week ahead I hoped to gain some insight on my creative process that I might be able to apply to future projects.

ICEDIP Iterative Method

Introduced by Geoff Petty in his book ‘How To Be Better at Creativity’ (PETTY 2017), the ICEDIP method outlines several phases a person should pass through in their creative process. These phases are:

  • Inspiration: In which multiple ideas are generated.
  • Clarification: In which you define your goals.
  • Distillation: In which you determine which of your ideas to work on.
  • Perspiration: In which work is done on the best ideas.
  • Evaluation: In which you review the progress of your work.
  • Incubation: In which you do not actively engage with the ideas, but let them sit passively ‘on the surface of your mind’.

Considering these phases in the context of my own work, I came to some interesting conclusions. Though I have never approached a project before with this iterative model in mind, I can see aspects of it in my development. Having participated in several Game Jam events in the past, the first 4 points are already very familiar to me. As such in the Global Game Jam (“Global Game Jam” 2021) once the theme for the event has been announced, the first four phases come into effect. With a limited amount of time to produce a game, it is important to maintain as much structure to the development as possible.

Generally the first thing that happens is a brainstorming session, or an ‘Inspiration‘ phase. Everyone will gather around and rapidly start sharing different ideas they have for how the team should approach the game. Once a number of ideas have been accumulated, the ‘Clarification‘ phase begins. There needs to be a clear common goal for the team if they are to maintain coordination. This goal will be then be broken down into the steps that will need to be accomplished in order to achieve it, this to me resembles the ‘Distillation‘ phase. Then begins the mad sprint to get all these steps completed before the deadline, without a doubt this is a ‘Perspiration‘ phase.

In terms of ‘Evaluation‘ and ‘Incubation‘ however I have less experience. I have certainly left things sit with me, only for the answer to a problem to present itself at the most unlikely of times, this essentially being my understanding of the ‘Incubation‘ phase, I’ve rarely done it intentionally. And most certainly never as part of a greater plan. Looking at it now, I can certainly see the benefits of an ‘Evaluation‘ phase in my development, but up until now this is something I have actually never attempted. Going forward I hope to use this journal as a form of evaluating my performance, but I also think it might be interesting to approach a challenge with this iterative method at some point.

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