Speaking at Brighton's Develop Conference, LittleBigPlanet creator Alex Evans said that the key to being successful in creating good games is setting "arbitrary constraints," and focusing on creating content within the constraints you set.
Evans explains: "When I look back at the games I've made I find that if I don't have a clear set of constraints, building the glue before you know what the two things you're putting together can be a huge problem. If you don't know what's necessary for the user we waste so much time creating things that we don't need and have a fuzzy purpose."