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What Larry describes is very similar to my own methods for creating Chess
variants. Many of my games began with a theme in mind. Clockwork Orange
Chess began with the idea of translating the conditioning of criminals
used in A Clockwork Orange into Chess. Metamorph Chess grew out of
watching Transformers: Beast Wars, Fusion Chess is a successor to Sentai
Chess, which was inspired by Power Rangers in Space, and Assimilation
Chess was inspired by the Borg in Star Trek: TNG. Caïssa Britannia was
inspired by the British monarch being a Queen. Some of my games grew out
of the constraints imposed by design competitions. The small variant
contests got me to try out various boards, which led to worthy games such
as Voidrider Chess and Hex Shogi. The 32-turn contest led to Wormhole
Chess, one of my best received variants. Insights into what is possible
have also inspired games. I created Storm the Ivory Tower after I realized
that the pieces in Chinese Chess could be distinguished by qualities other
than direction of movement, meaning that they could all be adapted to
Smess without losing their individual character.

An important part of my method is that I don't stop once I have an idea.
Instead, I take that idea and work out the details. For example, Wormhole
Chess began with the usual Chess pieces and closely resembled Parton's
Chesire Cat Chess. I had not yet learned about Parton's game, but it
seemed to me that the usual Chess pieces did not take best advantage of
the rule changes made to this game. I decided to replace the riders with
leapers, whose movement would be more affected by the loss of spaces.

Another important part of my method is reliance on tools. I routinely use
Zillions-of-Games or Game Courier to prototype my games. I normally rely
on Zillions to playtest my games before releasing them. By programming the
games I release, I make sure to cover all the fine points of the rules in
detail.