The problem with game design

I've been studying creative techniques, and the biggest issue when translating them to game design is that they usually deal with problems. Game design doesn't, at least not on the level of the game designer. The product we make contains problems and tools to achieve solutions, but our design of the game cannot be abstracted to a problem.

So far I've found that creative techniques that, aside from inspiring creative thinking, demand the designer to specify a domain or system of properties (of a concept) allow to be used in game design more easily than others. I think this is mostly due to the need for specification of a concept direction, once a basic theme or starting point has been chosen. Moreover, I think concepts that do both (inspire creativity WHILE specifying the concept domain) are most potent for game design.