Our Contentious Relationship With Constraints
“To infinity and beyond!”
We're drawn to the infinite. The infinite is where our God lives; it's who He is. As creators, we want to be like our Father, The Creator. We yearn and stretch to break through our boundaries and shed our constraints. Yet we are finite creatures; flesh and blood. We live within limits—our intellect, attention, strength, resources, and even our lives all have limitations. This dichotomy brings us to the subject of creative constraints.
Constraints are something of a four-letter word to most people. Humanity, now maybe more than ever, seems to be hyper-focused on the pursuit of freedom and choice. We chafe at the thought of being restricted, and we are suspicious of a loving God who places boundaries in our lives. Our relationship with constraints is a contentious and confusing one. It feels forced upon us, imposed, rather than a relationship we willingly entered.
I believe creators feel this tension most acutely. Anytime we try to bring something new into the world, we run into real-world limitations. As video game developers, we often bump up against the limits of technology. Are we CPU-bound or GPU-bound? What are our texture limits? How fast is the processor? Not to mention the ever-present time and budget constraints. I am comforted that we will shed some of these limitations in the New Creation, but where does that leave us in the meantime?
The answer is counterintuitive. We think that if we could somehow remove some of our constraints, our creativity would be set free; however, our instincts deceive us—at least in this present time. Based on personal experience and my research into creativity and innovation, constraints are actually the magic ingredient. They create the fertile ground where new and novel ideas sprout and grow.
“The more constraints one imposes, the more one frees one’s self. And the arbitrariness of the constraint serves only to obtain precision of execution.”
Don't believe me? Here are a few celebrated works birthed out of constraints: Picasso's Blue Period, Dr. Suess' Green Eggs and Ham, R.E.M.'s Out of Time, Disney Hall by Frank Gehry, and Metal Gear. They are just the tip of the iceberg. With a bit of research, you can find countless other examples. The flipside is true as well. There a cautionary tales about projects with seemingly unlimited resources and few constraints that failed in spectacular ways.
So what do we do? Stop running away from constraints and start running toward them. Embrace them. Lean in. Many blessings come from constraints; here are a few.
The Blessings of Constraints
Clarifies the problem
Sharpens your focus
Encourages exploration of multiple solutions
Helps you prioritize
Fosters the editing process
Creates distinguishing features
Keeps you from the trap of perfectionism
Forces you to ship
