As with the development of any other great technical/art project, indie game development is the process of making and executing decisions between what the creator’s ambitions are and what the creator is capable of doing. We are all empowered with different skills and a different set of problems we are faced with overcoming. Making calls which reconcile the two throughout the course of a project’s development shapes everything from what it is about, how it is played, how large it is, and what it looks like. By creatively picking these battles with full consideration of our resources and capabilities, allowing our project goals to bend and change in response to them as we do so, we can not only ensure the completion of our projects but also make them livelier, more creative, and original. The session will consist of a lecture which highlights problems between ideation and execution and how an open-handed philosophy of rolling with the punches can mold innovative solutions from otherwise restricting problems. Leaning on my background and experience in Architecture, I will use that field’s long history to analogize how this problem-solving methodology can make projects all the better. Like game development, architectural practice consists of shaping moving experiences for people by balancing incredibly delicate technical and financial restrictions with a self-motivated artistic vision. By doing so, I hope to show how important it is to make these calls honestly and with self-awareness throughout the course of game development. Empowered to assess our own design practices in such a way, we can start creatively reworking them to make our games that much more responsive and vibrant.