Author Topic: Game Design Megathread  (Read 554061 times)

why is everyone stealing the surprisingly simple yet ridiculously fun game ideas :(

where can i get good game idees

why is everyone stealing the surprisingly simple yet ridiculously fun game ideas :(

where can i get good game idees

By being creative and original.


why is everyone stealing the surprisingly simple yet ridiculously fun game ideas :(

where can i get good game idees
Obviously there's no "magic super fun game idea" fountain or anything like that; ideas usually just come up when you're in the middle of doing something else, or maybe in your sleep, or really at any time. Said ideas aren't always going to be the best ideas, but if you don't act on them/try them out, you'll never find out if they're actually good.

By being creative and original.
Easier said than done.

Obviously there's no "magic super fun game idea" fountain or anything like that; ideas usually just come up when you're in the middle of doing something else, or maybe in your sleep, or really at any time. Said ideas aren't always going to be the best ideas, but if you don't act on them/try them out, you'll never find out if they're actually good.
yeah i had a dream of some game that didn't exist and it was rly good

i got an achievement for choosing the colours of the powerpuff girls for the characters



Obviously there's no "magic super fun game idea" fountain or anything like that; ideas usually just come up when you're in the middle of doing something else, or maybe in your sleep, or really at any time. Said ideas aren't always going to be the best ideas, but if you don't act on them/try them out, you'll never find out if they're actually good.

i usually come up with ideas by taking simple concepts observed from other places and running entirely too far with it

like last night i was fiddling with the idea of an incredibly fast-paced bridge "simulation" game in which you have to build and maintain bridges in order to keep up with the demands of a toll road, but then the bridges break alarmingly quickly even in absolute prime conditions and you can choose whether or not to add additional supports in order to make it so that you have to repair them less and eventually things like aircraft show up and start bombing things so you have to buy anti-air guns and basically staple them onto the tops of bridges but in doing so you make the bridge it's put on top of both weaker and return less money when people drive over it

it could even be done in such a way that all the tools are assigned to hotkeys and you need specific tools to do specific things that complexifies naturally as you continue along, so you might have to press W to select the welder which fixes concrete and metal bridges and H to select the hammer which fixes wooden bridges but damages other types of bridges, and all of these commands would be clearly visible at the bottom of the screen but none of the instructions would come with them that is revealed to you as the game goes on automatically, so feasibly you could learn more useful things through trial and error

it's somewhere between thinky tactical development game and qwop with guns, basically.

i also come up with ideas basically by writing down the most barebones possible concept of the idea and then bring it to it's logical conclusion by adding new features where it seems like it would need them

my only true way of coming up with good ideas

i step into the shower and it's like holy stuff i should run for president

same thing happens to me but in science class

for real

You guys remember River City Ransom?



Punchie punchie punchie.

But with RPG stuff.

« Last Edit: January 21, 2014, 06:56:38 PM by Zanaran2 »


Maybe someday I will be bothered to finish up that raycasting engine I made once.

Huh.  Reminds me of an idea a friend of mine had back in ye middle schoole days.  He wanted to make a game called Fat Quest.  I'm not sure how serious he was about it, but it was kind of an amusing idea.  Basically, you play as a peasant who wants to get out of work by becoming morbidly obese and collecting welfare.  To do this, however, he needs a lot of food, and so a fairly typical RPG quest for treasure begins.

Not much survives of this idea.  All I really have is an old Stagecast sim with some basic Zelda-like gameplay and a few different items and enemies.  It's pretty good for Stagecast, but I think something like this would be better suited to a game making utility that isn't complete dog stuff.

Expanding on that idea, because you want to get as fat as possible, you'd want to do as little work as possible as to "not lose your gains." Now the RPG has a whole other strategy element to it and players have to really think through their actions instead of just grinding monsters till they can pass the current dungeon.

why is everyone stealing the surprisingly simple yet ridiculously fun game ideas :(

where can i get good game idees

Thinking of the ideas are easy, it's moving them from your brain to a functioning game that is hard. The first step is realizing that nothing is truly original, everyone borrows ideas from everything. Now that you've realized that, look to things that you like. Make a list of your favorite games, favorite mechanics, favorite themes, favorite tv shows, etc. Then figure out what they all have in common. Figure out why those things are appealing to you. Using myself as an example, I really like the games Maplestory, Super Smash Bros, Seiklus, and the Legend of Zelda. What do they have in common. Well, to some degree, they're all platformers. Most of them feature some sort of combat element (focusing on melee, especially swords). Most of them are also exploration based and allow you to do things on your own time. Using this information, I now know what I find enjoyable in games, so I should make a game that uses those things (an action/adventure platformer revolving around the use of swords). Once you have the base idea down, think about the features of similar games that you liked or things that you wish were included. This is a bit trickier because a lot of the ideas you'll think up don't translate well or won't be fun. But don't let that discourage you, try and think of as many as possible and write them down. Now that you have your base and your additions, start prototyping your game. Figure out what is actually fun to play and what is lame or gimmicky. This is the longest hardest process. However, once you have your core gameplay figured out, everything is easier. Now all you have to do is create levels, a story, options, enemies, etc. that fit in that core. All that's left is to think up a theme. Do you want your swordsmen to be space samurai? Or would you rather have them be elemental warriors that can create blades for hands? This is where you let your imagination run wild. If you take a step back and look at all of this, you'll realize you have just created a unique game with fun gameplay. All that's left is polish.
« Last Edit: January 22, 2014, 05:24:23 PM by Thorax »