I'm still at the earliest stages of learning design, but I'm a veteran game modder. I found that the best way to keep my creative juices flowing is to alternate between constraints (e.g. you can only use the base game with no DLC, which improves accessibility) and absolute freedom (which isn't always practical).

If you never explore the constraints side, you miss out: forcing yourself into a tight corner forces you to do more with less, and tests the limits of what can be done.

On the other hand, if you only operate within constraints, most of your ideas will not be fully realised.

Examples of the constraints/freedom model:

- Buke & Gase started off with just two members playing only home-made instruments (a bass ukelele (the 'buke') and a guitar/bass hybrid (the gass or 'gase'). They then added further instruments.

- JG Thirlwell started off basing compositions around tape loops and a Fairlight synthesiser, but now plays with chamber orchestras.

- The Dogme 95 movement insists on location filming and only 'found' props. (It brought us Lars Von Trier.)

- The New Puritans literary movement avoids poetry and rhetoric. (Alex Garland was involved.)

- Filmmakers like Sam Raimi and Peter Jackson started out by pushing the limits of possibility with very low film budgets.