What is your game idea?

[Arf]

As a gamer, you've surely must have said (or thought, unless you are a soulless freak of nature :( ) while playing a game: "You know, it'd be awesome if...!".
You probably have wanted to make your own games and such, so how about we hear some of it? (NOTE NOTE NOTE: Be original, nobody wants to hear of your sonic the hedgehog clone which relies around running fast fast fast and collecting HOLLOW DISCS or such). Also, feel encouraged to discuss other people's ideas and how they could be improved and such. And BTW, I don't think any of us can actually make any of these games, so don't make claims about how you're "TTLY MAKING THIS HAPPEN, I NEED HELP THOUGH". Take this elsewhere.
Let me start:
In this 2D game you control a man with an umbrella. He is old and tired but quite acrobatic. You have a lot of moves, like using the umbrella as a sword, use it as a shield, pushing objects, floating, etc. (Kinda like the range of moves in Mario 64). The game is played in an enormous seamless world, with no loading screens or anything to divide it, possibly searching for some thing equivalent to "stars" in Mario 64, something to drive you to do all the acrobatics and jumps and such.
Events that affect stuff. Whatever you do, you must feel there is a consequence to it (Pushing a rock from a floating platform only for it to end up rolling down a hill and crushing a house. You CAN see any of this if you follow the rock, but usually, you just see the after-effects).
Story would be minimal, perhaps dealing subtly about how the old man regrets doing some stuff, and events ingame could be related metaphorically to his life and the causality of his actions (What would have happened if I didn't do this?/What would happen if I did?). Most important of all, no text. No explanations. No hud. Just you and a game. No tutorials either, although it'd be difficult to teach you the controls, I bet it can somehow be done.
So yeah that's basically it, huge organic world, a man with an umbrella with a large arsenal of movements, causality. Something kinda fun.

Phew, nice to get that off my head for a while. Now let's hear some awesome ideas!

 

[Wombatwarlord777]

I thought it would be cool to have a 2D platformer like Megaman, except that the player can change the gravity at will to help the character advance or solve puzzles. The game would have RPG elements: After defeating certain bosses, you'd gain the ability to change gravity to an additional orientation (down, up, left or right), and you could backtrack to gain access to additional health and weapons in parts of stages where you previously could not go.

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And then I had this idea that's like a combination between Lode Runner, Hotel Mario, and The Incredible Machine. Your goal is to walk acrossed all the platforms in a 2D stage, to transform them from barren to blooming with plant life. However, the player cannot access all areas of the stage from the get-go. Instead, s/he has to collect "gimmick kits", which sitting on accessible parts the stage. Once the player does so, they're able to enter "construction mode", where they can place various gimmicks (springs, pullies, teleporters, ect.) on any empty space in the stage. Some gimmicks can be modified and replaced while the player is still on the current stage, while others cannot be altered once construction mode is exited. Then the player switches back to "platforming mode", and uses the newly-placed gimmicks to advance to new areas of the stage, gaining access to new platforms and gimmick kits. In addition, there are optional gems on some stages that can be accessed if you use gimmicks especially efficiently or creatively. Collecting gems unlocks additional and extremely difficult stages.

The game would have two basic categories of enemies: Those that can harm the player, and those that revert platforms to their original barren state. Normally, the player cannot attack foes until they locate either one of two weapons on each stage: A hammer or bombs. If the player collects the hammer, they can attack enemies at will while they are still playing on that stage. If the player collects bombs, they can lob them at enemies (and possibly kill more than one with the bomb's large damage radius). However, bombs have a finite supply on each stage. Hammers and bombs would tend to be inaccessible to the player, until he or she finds and utilizes gimmicks. No stage will feature both hammers and bombs. A third item, stars, would render the player invulnerable to enemies for a limited time, but the player would not be able to damage enemies.

Boss stages would feature tougher enemies which require multiple hammer swings / bombs to destroy, or are totally immune to conventional weaponry and must be destroyed using gimmicks / a stage's unique environmental hazards / their own reflected attacks.

The game would have multiple stages, as well as its own stage creator that becomes more customizable as you play the game (when you find a new gimmick in the main game, it's added to your stage creator inventory. When you first reach an icy stage that features slippery platforms, slippery platforms become available in the stage creator, ect). There would also be a multiplayer mode, in which players either cooperate with each other to complete specially-made stages, or race against each other in the single-player stages.

I was thinking this could actually be a game in the Sonic Franchise, titled Sketchbook Sonic. The plot would be that Sonic has successfully chased Eggman out of another one of his bases, and is searching through a research area to find notes concerning a doomsday device Eggman is rumored to be developing. Sonic comes acrossed a tattered notebook and opens it, seeing that it contains dozens of sketches of two-dimensional schmatics. Sonic is about to toss the notebook aside when a bright flash of light envelops him. Next thing Sonic knows, he's actually in the sketchbook, which turns out was a powerful magical trap planted by Eggman. To escape the sketchbook, Sonic must manipulate its contents to travel through its pages and defeat the powerful bosses that bind the whole thing together.

This proposed game and its story were inspired by the below imagining of Sonic in Sega Saturn de Hakken!! Tamagotch Park.

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That's it. If you like either concept, feel free to develop it. Lord knows I don't have the technical prowess to do so.

 

[LongcrierCat]

Holy crap, Wombat. That is brilliant. If we could make that work rather quickly as well as challenging we could be onto a winner.

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I have more of an idea for all games rather than A GAME. I had this brilliant thought to make a game where you and only you make the decisions on what happens in the story. Cutscenes? Why does a game require them? You should experience a story as your progress through the game. Story points do have certain camera styles, but they are done in a way that makes it possible to play through. The best control scheme would be to have yourself as a controller as I believe in making your character do anything. However, I understand that a standard controller for any system (Wii, PS360) limits the capabilities that your character can do. What I want to do is make a practical virtual reality where you can do anything affect your character's destiny. While, yes, I do like the idea of switching characters out, it is difficult to think of how you can do this with the limited capabilities of AI. They must understand how to change, for these to work, and for technology to understand, we have to be intelligent enough to program technology this way.

But that's it. I want to make the ultimate game. I know many have come close, but I want to do it for real. And if I were to choose which franchise I would do that with it would of course be my longtime favorite series, Sonic. I want the franchise to be revolutionary again.

 

[clairebun]

I have a lot of game ideas, but above all else, I want to turn this into a full-fledged game. Give the player a couple characters to choose from, each with a lot of different moves in just an NES-style control setup, and make the enemies, scenery, and music as memorable as possible, and there's a game. I've always seen videogames as a work of art as well as a device used to entertain people, and I want that to be reflected in a simple but deep platformer.



Another idea I had is a game where the player takes the role of an antagonist (such as Bowser or Dr. Wily) in a sidescrolling platformer and tries to keep heroes like Mario, Link, and Megaman from getting to the end boss by laying all sorts of level design traps along the level. Basically, kind of a tower defense game.

 

[SML]

Let's see... Sonic game... With high customization ability... And all the fan characters I've made! In some insane adventure through the galaxy! (Super Mario Galaxy, much?) And tons of unlockables! And more!

 

[SpaceKGreen]

Back in middle school I had an idea that was essentially a cross between Legend of Zelda and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater. Basically like giving Link a skateboard and the ability to jump. (Argh.)


Right now, the idea floating around in my head works like this... An athletic sword-wielding character in a large open environment. Getting around would be relatively easy, but the character would shine when moving at high speeds... long jumps, wall jumps, etc. In their first time through an area while on their way to the next whatever, they'd just push through, but on a second time through, after having some time practicing some new/old moves, they'd realize, "Hey... that ravine... those outcroppings... I think I could make that." And lo! New area!

These athletics would tie into the fighting as well. Most fights could be won without too much trouble (depending on the enemy), but moving faster would result in an advantage, from being able to circle a group of enemies and dashing in to take one out, to bowling over a large enemy to crush smaller ones, to being essentially a super pinball with a sword.

Both movement and fighting would also probably be assisted by short bursts of slowed time. Example: a few seconds of extra time to aim that next wall jump, realize a cannonball is coming at you, and pick a different spot (or aim for the cannonball and rebound off that). Some treasures and artifacts the player picks up would increase the time you have.

Music would tie in heavily to the gameplay. The character himself would have musical cues for every action (in tune with the music), and the background music would vary greatly depending on what's going on. Example, first time in an area, background music's not much more than a beat, or something sad/evil, depending on how long the enemy has been there story-wise, but the more you destroy enemies and generally improve the area, the happier the music gets and the more instruments join in until you have some sort of awesome, well, can't really describe it. Boss battles would involve the background music battling between the boss theme and the area's happy theme (or the character's theme in the final battle). (Possibly a bonus to attack if your attacks are in time with the music.)


Another idea I've had is a piano-controlled RPG... plays like your average RPG, except in battle, you play along to the background music as your characters fight. The better you play, the better your characters do in battle; the farther you go, the harder the songs get.

 

[Bigboi]

There's this scene in one of the Saw movies where one person is chained to another. One is blind. The other is mute. This gave me the idea of a game where two players are given (maybe random) handicaps that makes them dependent on each other. I suppose it could be a platformer. It'd really make for an interesting co-op experience.

 

[Scarbo the Black Sheep]

Nyvyrym: The World of a Million Forms.

The way it plays is just like Myst, but yet each level is segmented, and any one of five possible layouts for each segment could appear. One-room puzzles that don't require any 3D sector layout modification will have far more than 5 different puzzles and a huge number of possible solutions. The game would choose from a random seed to determine what game you are playing, much like FreeCell. Before you start (and in Pause menu), you will be playing Nyvyrym Form #500,392 or #1,299 or #339,016 or what not. Myst has no replay value, and this would be how you get around it. You would have to play the game AT LEAST five times all the way through to see every possible major puzzle.

But what if you get stuck? Making a walkthrough is gonna be, um, rather hard. There's a way around that, though. There would be a spot on the website allowing you to plug in your random seed number and receive hints and other assistance, and it would be programmed to provide the right assistance with each level, as it would know which puzzles are in which seed, just like the game.

 

[XAlted]

A have a few Sonic related ideas, and some others I might post later I dunno.

Any who; as for my one Sonic ideas:

Chao MMO: Like the last time I mentioned this; I think is a really good idea.

-First off; Chao are known for their customization to your individual preference; so I think it's a really good match-up if it were to be combined with an MMO.

-Second; The Sonicverse is large with a multitude of locations. I've been thinking that Chao Gardens would be spread about the world as towns were can shop for various items. Perhaps you can set up a Clan/Guild where you can purchase your own Chao Garden on a far-off island (like Guild Wars sorta)

-Chao can become Hero/Dark; which sets itself up for some awesome PvP action. It could work like WoW, and be able to attack each other outside at will; but I prefer something a little more organized like the Luxon/Kurizick in Guild Wars. "Contested Territory" can be won by either side through organized PvP matches.

-As for gear; maybe you can upgrade yourself using certain animal parts; like lets say you want a set of Bear claws for your Chao; well you can buy the claws at a shop for some rings. (I always find this strange though since I think of it as chopping of their claws and your Chao wears them.....).

So the basic idea I have for a beginning is this. When you're going to create a character; you start as a Baby Chao. Still on Creation, you can pick one of 3 starting areas for your Chao. One is a Forest-like Area; One is s Snowy Mountainous area, and the other is at a Beach.

Then you can choose the area your Chao specializes in in. Melee Ranged Magic etc. From there you can choose what your Chao's Face, Color, "Hair-Style" etc (another thing I was thinking about is that you could get some specific hair styles and what-not from the different locations you choose as a town stage, and from the profession you choose). Then you can create its name and you can start the game.

Based on your preference, you can choose to go through becoming a Light or Dark Chao (I'm not sure about neutral though). Through choosing which one you want to be, you will get sent to another town depending on which side you choose (so technically there'd be like 6 starting towns).

Progression throughout the game proceeds through levels; and you can unlock/ upgrade different skills by using "skill points" through different skill trees (think of like WoW, where there are about 3 skill "trees" and you can choose which skills from the different trees you want). But the twist is; when you spend points into those trees; your Chao's apperance will start to change depending on what tree you put your points in (So spending points in one tree will make your Chao look different; but you can also spend points in another tree to make him have another look).

Those are just some of my ideas I have.... It's kinda of a mish-mash between 3 of my favorite games. WoW, Guild Wars, and Sonic; really sounds like my cup of tea.

 

[BlueZero4]

You know, I'd be happy if someone just made a Metroid Prime-ish game where Samus was acrobatic like Faith from Mirror's Edge.

 

[MilesTraysandor]

My idea has always been based on RPG elements in a semi-futuristic setting, only that when you start the game, your characters don't start out as any specific archetype (such as warrior, mage, defender, archer, etc), but each character can basically be built to your preferences from scratch. You start with some basic weapons and equipment, and your characters will get better and learn better abilities the more they use their equipment and abilities.

Basically you can build the characters any way you want, keeping in mind that every character in your party can learn any ability at any time, given they've spent enough time learning, doing, and using requisite items and abilities (though effectiveness will vary depending on how you've built your character) but in order to win the game you're going to need a good team that can do a wide range of things to support each other.

For example, if you want your character to be a classic warrior, then use sword-based attacks and abilities.

For Black/White/Color/Arcane mages, you use attacking, healing, status, or defensive spells a lot.

For physical tanks, you use a shield, heavy armor, and defensive abilities a lot. Add some healing magic in to make a paladin.

For Thieves/Ninja you use a lot of knives or light swords and sneak-based ablilities and such.

Just to name a few things, not counting any jobs specific to the game, such as dealing with the various robotic-type enemies, as well as other creatures.

Also another idea: Make a better final boss. I've seen countless games where if you've taken the time to do sidequests and level the party up a lot... you get to the final boss and it's a total joke -- like oh yeah, I'll just use this attack, spell, whatever, hit the boss for 9999 a couple dozen times or so, then kick back and watch the post-game movie and credits... boring. =p

So my answer: Make a final boss whose strength and abilities scales according to what the party brings to the final battle, so that regardless if you've rushed through the game in 12 hours, doing nothing but the required quests to get to the end... or if you face the final boss after playing the game for over 100 hours with your entire party at max level with all sorts of high-level abilities and stuff... or if you're somewhere in between the two, the final boss is still extremely hard to beat no matter when you decide to face off against it.

But not a joke final boss either with ultra-cheap moves, like oh by the way, I'm casting a spell or something every turn that does 8000~9999 damage to the party, or instantly kills the healthiest person in the party or whatever. We're talking good solid tactics and counter-tactics as your party and the final boss trade blows

And to get the game's best ending, you'll have to beat the final boss at it's most powerful form (which of course requires your party to know almost every ability there is to learn, to some extent)

So yeah, there's my two cents' worth. =p