@nivrig one thing I regret never putting in place at my company was something I read about 3M. They’d give people time to work on whatever they wanted.
In game space I think that would be amazing and I really should have done it.
Find something you want to do. Rally people from the rest of the company if the project requires it. See what happens.
Double Fine has something like that but I would do it with less pressure than they do. For it not to become another source of stress but creativity.