Mark Rosewater, the lead developer of the card game Magic:The Gathering constantly talks about how restriction breeds creativity.
"The explanation he gives is simple: when someone is building a house, the more tools they have, the better off they are. But when someone is looking for something, the more space they have to explore, the worse off they are"
and the original article (on Magic:The Gathering design, but with useful information - scroll down to the "Design Tool #1: Restrictions" header where he discusses this point):
"The explanation he gives is simple: when someone is building a house, the more tools they have, the better off they are. But when someone is looking for something, the more space they have to explore, the worse off they are"
from:
http://lesswrong.com/lw/3ir/narrow_your_answer_space/
and the original article (on Magic:The Gathering design, but with useful information - scroll down to the "Design Tool #1: Restrictions" header where he discusses this point):
http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/dai...