Though it’s not Crossout, I’m certain it can be applied to becoming creative in making effective designs, and much, much more.
We are creators by every meaning of the word, sense, or idea. It is a natural power, this ability to create; it draws from a source of energy that never empties, Eternity. It is always full, this eternal spring; it wells with energy that moves into form, through form, and out of form. And we soak in this spring all around us, as our senses are like the roots of a tree, spending an entire lifetime soaking up sounds, sights, tastes, and smells. Meanwhile our brains, like the trunk of the tree, by virtue of intuition, make sense of all those sounds and sights and other things, to eventually branch out by letting us create a song, painting, or book…and every leaf on the tree is someone who has experienced your work…and the few leaves that flower are the ones who are inspired by your work enough to pollinate out into The World and carry on your spirit which, in the end, if you have done your work well and filled with goodness, becomes part of an unstoppable Force of Nature…which keeps balance against the lesser forces.I AM - you ARE, too - a Tree of Life in the Garden of Eternity.
Over my life, I’ve had many people tell me that they wish they could be creative like me, and I always try to impress on them that they are creative all the time, but just don’t recognize it. It’s partly due to creativity being portrayed as this magical attribute that some rare people are particularly blessed with.
As someone who has spent the majority of their adult life working in “creative” industries, I have a much less grandiose concept of what it actually means.
Creativity is essentially just the human problem-solving impulse. For me, solving a math problem isn’t that much different from programming a beat, or writing a story.
The new ideas and perspectives come organically out of how our brain solves new problems. By necessity, we need to imagine something new that we haven’t already done. And we all do this all the time, it’s just that most of the time there isn’t an adoring audience telling us we’re special for it.
This is why many artists will tell you that restrictions can provoke creativity. The restrictions create a “problem”, which requires creativity to solve.
When I’m feeling uninspired in Crossout, I will make up some artificial restrictions. Usually arbitrarily deciding to use a specific under-used item and trying to make it work.
It’s not that different from how I might provoke creativity in art. I could decide that I want to attempt a song in a genre that I’m unfamiliar with, or write about an obscure subject that intrigues me, or try to incorporate some new material into a sculpture/installation.
You could argue that creativity is the process of learning.
I forget who said it, and I’m going to paraphrase as well, “Life is nothing but solving problems. Become comfortable with this fact, and watch life become worth living.”