anyone feel their creativity is lessening as they grow?

[Gavin]

I'm now in my early 30s. I can still come up with levels and still do so for CC amongst other games but the ideas don't seem to flow as thick as they did back when I was in my teens.

Even giving levels titles I find myself having to think a little whereas over a decade ago a fitting title would just appear in my mind.

[Joshua Bone]

I personally don't believe that creativity lessens with age; however I do believe that it lessens when I'm not prioritizing it. Like anything else, the longer you go without using it, the less of it you have. Look at the lives of many great artists, composers, and poets, and you see that many of them complete their masterpieces late in life.

I highly recommend the book "The Artists' Way" by Julia Cameron if you're feeling blocked, it has a lot of creative exercises which both my wife and I have found especially useful over the years.

[mobius]

I can completely agree; I also feel like I'm not firing as quickly as I once was. I also agree with Josh; I think it has more to do with not using it or losing it.

I (maybe) have an excuse as I've been doing physical jobs for several years now and I feel like my brain is starting to rot. That's partly why I'm planning on going back to college and trying to get a "thinking man's job". I'm hoping if I challenge myself I can stop this downward spiral before it's too late!

[The Architect]

I don't have this issue, and I think the reason is that I read a lot, especially fiction. One's imagination doesn't exist in a vacuum; it needs stimulation. And movies/TV shows aren't enough, because they don't engage one's mind in the same way books, or even some kinds of games, do. (And reading is especially good for stimulating one's language faculties, which would specifically help with finding the perfect level title!)

[AdrenalinDragon]

Yeah. Definitely. While I was working on TomP4 in CC1 I ran out of ideas for new levels and became more stressed/lazy the older I got. It took until CC2 came out that I regained some energy again a few years later and got back in the mood making levels for the game again. I'll never have the same amount of energy I had making those TomP3 levels though. Those days are long gone.

[Gavin]

One thing I have noticed for me at least is that creativity can't be forced. You harder you try the harder it becomes. Creativity just seems to come when you are relaxed, and the mind is relaxed.

The hard part is getting started; having a theme for the level and thinking about what kind of puzzle/obstacle course it's going to be. After that's done filling it out is the fun, easier part.

I do wish CC2 had been released a good few years sooner that it did. But not to worry, it is here. And so are we. New levels await!

[Earthling]

I made a couple hundred CC levels back when I was ~7 years old (admittedly, most of those early ones weren't very good). Now, I haven't even gotten 50 levels made in the last five years. Part of it is that I'm not as interested in Chip's Challenge as I used to be. Also, I've become much more of a perfectionist since then--it's hard for me to sit down and create anything without worrying that it's not going to be good enough. But for CC levels, I feel like I just don't have the ideas in the first place like I used to. I guess that's probably because of not being as interested in it anymore--I'm not thinking about CC very much, so of course ideas for it aren't going to occur to me.

[pillowpc2001]

As evidenced by my level output in the last few years, I definitely feel like my creativity has been dropping as I get older...although I think it is a combination of two things, which others already mentioned - 1) lack of time/real life getting in the way, and 2) being a perfectionist - lately I don't even want to start sitting down to design a level unless I can envision exactly how I want it to turn out...which typically results in me never sitting down to design a level. But then even these I still don't always end up completely satisfied with, so I probably need to just sit down and open up an editor one of these days and see what I come up with.

[Gavin]

Since I posted this thread I have came up with a few new levels I'm happy with so I'm reassured that my creativity is still there. I think it's also a case that I went several years without playing CC and took a little time of getting back into the game and getting a feel and appreciation for the new elements CC2 has to offer.