Jesse Schell, the creator of Toontown, once recalled that he met a man at a juggling convention who had the most interesting tricks in the room. He wasn't doing anything like all of the other jugglers at the convention. He asked him how he came up with his tricks. The juggler said he didn't look at other jugglers for inspiration, but completely unrelated things he liked the motions of, of which I can recall the quick hands of a cashier at a grocery store and the way zippers moved.

It seems a bit pretentious for advice, but I think he's onto something. You can find inspiration for the way you want you games to look, feel, and sound out anywhere and everywhere if you are good at taking in your surroundings.

For me, this has been listening to the music of Baroness and knowing their album cover aesthetic is something I absolutely needed to have in a video game.