I was watching a podcast episode of the 1UP Show. The hosts were discussing the upcoming Little Big Planet game for PlayStation 3. Little Big Planet will ship with a powerful set of level creation tools — lots of folks are excited about the possibility of dabbling in or doing full level design. One of the hosts described the process of making a good stage by referencing a quote that made me think.
“Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.“
– Scott Adams (yeah, the Dilbert guy)
This quote rang true to me. I was surprised I never heard it before. I think another part of creativity and art is finding partners to collaborate with. You really need folks who are not afraid to fail, can look at things from a lot of different angles, and actually have a well developed sense for seeing potential and understanding benefits and consequences of going down certain paths.
Creative and artistic people are comfortable with play and are able to play well with others. It is amazing what can happen when all these things come together at the same time.
