Ideas for games you've had

[Zanzoken]

Thought we could use a thread for kicking around game ideas. Can be as simple or detailed as you like.

If nothing else I will use this as a place to write shit down whenever I think of it, since these things come to me from time to time.

 

[Zanzoken]

#1 for me is a fantasy game with systems borrowed from several of my favorites.

The central premise would be something similar to Sid Meier's Pirates and Mount & Blade. Instead of a main story you just have a general goal of acquiring loot & power. The Player has a party of retainers that are his personal bodyguards, as well as a larger army that doesn't appear on screen but plays a key role in battles.

Spoiler

A map from Fire Emblem that I like

The tactical / battle layer would consist of fights between the Player and his party vs the Enemy Leader and his party. The battle system would be turn- and initiative-based, similar in presentation to Fire Emblem, with each unit having a clear combat role and only a handful of abilities.

Spoiler

I like simple 2D sprites and effects. These are from from Fire Emblem 5 on the SNES.

The twist is that while the Player's party and the Enemy's party are battling, so are their respective armies. These are represented just as numbers on the screen, but they count down over the course of the battle to show each side taking losses. To win, your army must outlast the other side.

The armies are inspired by the fight between their leaders -- if the Player fights well, his troops morale improves, and vice versa. This creates an incentive for the Player to be as quick and decisive with his tactics as he can be, and allows the possibility of defeating larger armies.

Spoiler

This mechanic is stolen from Pirates. But instead of a sword fight mini-game between you and the enemy captain, it's a turn-based battle between opposing parties.

Eventually the realm descends into total war, and like in Mount & Blade, the player would eventually gain the ability to join a kingdom. This will allow the player the combine armies with his fellow lords, creating larger armies and battles for the end game.

 

[Zanzoken]

I've also been thinking through a design for a single-character RPG like Gothic, Morrowind, and Elex... but in isometric perspective, as seen in Seven: The Days Long Gone.

Spoiler

Seven looks super cool but I thought the setting and gameplay were meh.

The setting would be an Earth-like civilization with futuristic tech, but also fantasy tropes such as noble houses, magic, etc. The game would take place not on the home planet, but on a distant, newly discovered world with a small, tidal-locked habitable zone. An expedition is sent to this zone to explore its suitability for a colony, but after a successful initial landing, the expedition goes dark. The Player is sent with a new expedition to find out what happened, but upon reaching the new world the Player's ship is hit with a surprise attack and nearly destroyed, resulting in a crash landing where everyone except the Player and the ship's AI are killed. This leaves the Player fighting for their survival as they work to unravel the mystery of what went wrong.

I have the story of this one almost fully mapped out, and I think it could be really cool. And in terms of scope I think it could actually be feasible for a small team.

 

[Zanzoken]

Last design I've been working on lately is a tactical squad shooter in the vein of Syndicate, but with a pause feature instead of strictly real-time.

Spoiler

Satellite Reign looks cool but ends up being kind of a clusterfuck in real-time. Adding a pause feature would fix a lot of its issues.

I think RTwP sucks for fantasy RPGs but could work well in a squad-based shooter. There are a lot of mechanical possibilities to work with to create a complex and challenging game. With a pause feature you can throw quite a bit at the player without overwhelming, since they have time to stop and think it over.

Haven't put too much thought into the setting for this. I like sci-fi and cyberpunk dystopia but would want to explore it in a way that is novel and believable. The whole "multinational corporations eclipsing governments" a la Syndicate and Shadowrun is tired and unrealistic.

 

[DraQ]

Odd, it's mostly 'idea people' who keep whoring for developers, not the other way around.

Anyway, I have a whole bunch of ideas stored for later/never.

 

[Zanzoken]

Odd, it's mostly 'idea people' who keep whoring for developers, not the other way around.

I guess I just like thinking about game design. I'm not expert or anything but it's fun to sort through what works, what doesn't, and what ends up just being a preference that is neither right or wrong.

 

[ItsChon]

A Sci-Fi RPG where you're part of a massive expedition to help colonize a jungle/forest planet that is inhabited by alien natives and massive beasts that are all hostile to you. Along with the hostile natives and fauna, there could be other expeditions/camps that have been established by rival elements, whether that's another country/planet that's hostile to your own or criminal elements. Lots of elements could be brought in, and since there is a distinct mix between primitive and future technology, I can picture some gorgeous art. I'd say the game should be turn based, very much akin to Underrail's own systems.

 

[boot]

Dream game is a Sword & Sorcery JA2. Magic and horses in place of mortars and Jeeps.

However, rather than having to Assault Meduna and kill Deidrana, I'd like the winning condition to be defending as much of the country as you can against endless waves of enemies (lead in coherent, seperate forces by killable leaders with their own personalties and command styles). Holding onto towns and cities as long as possible, escorting refugees back to Drassen. Sidequests would be few, but impactful - like assassinating enemy commanders(slowing down attacks on certain fronts), investigating rumors of a sage hidden in some mountain lands, trying to restore a legendary weapon to it's former condition, and convincing an enemy leader to defect.

Winning condition would be striking down the enemie's leading general/chosen one Messiah-like prince figure, who would only join the front after you had successfully stalled them for a certain amount of time, or crippled their invasion badly enough.

Then as in many jrpgs the bottom would drop out of the game, and it would be revealed that the pretext for the invasion- that your country was descended from devils and must be eradicated (which had been taken for propaganda) was actually true. And sort of like in KuF Crusaders, both countries would have to unite to face teh ultimate evil. Endgame would have the magic elements ramped up and they would literally charge into hell.

I like games with permadeath, but the thing about it is when you play well no one ever dies. In my dream game brilliant play would involve sacrificing people. Maybe they could rejoin you in the endgame. I also wanted a mechanic where if a unit dies, their friends stats/growths/skills would be effected in some way.

I could never make a game because it's impossible to enjoy anything I make. Also I'm retarded. My best chance would be hiring a brilliant team to do it, but alas, I'm poor as well as retarded.

-also, I'd like there to be certain checkpoints in the game (one right at the start basically) where you're told to report to the king/guy in charge. If after a certain amount of time you do not go you'll be warned, then branded a rebel/deserter. I'd like the game to be playable in this state where you're a mercenary/bandit just trying to survive.

 

[boot]

#1 for me is a fantasy game with systems borrowed from several of my favorites.

The central premise would be something similar to Sid Meier's Pirates and Mount & Blade. Instead of a main story you just have a general goal of acquiring loot & power. The Player has a party of retainers that are his personal bodyguards, as well as a larger army that doesn't appear on screen but plays a key role in battles.

Spoiler

A map from Fire Emblem that I like

The tactical / battle layer would consist of fights between the Player and his party vs the Enemy Leader and his party. The battle system would be turn- and initiative-based, similar in presentation to Fire Emblem, with each unit having a clear combat role and only a handful of abilities.

Spoiler

I like simple 2D sprites and effects. These are from from Fire Emblem 4 on the SNES.

The twist is that while the Player's party and the Enemy's party are battling, so are their respective armies. These are represented just as numbers on the screen, but they count down over the course of the battle to show each side taking losses. To win, your army must outlast the other side.

The armies are inspired by the fight between their leaders -- if the Player fights well, his troops morale improves, and vice versa. This creates an incentive for the Player to be as quick and decisive with his tactics as he can be, and allows the possibility of defeating larger armies.

Spoiler

This mechanic is stolen from Pirates. But instead of a sword fight mini-game between you and the enemy captain, it's a turn-based battle between opposing parties.

Eventually the realm descends into total war, and like in Mount & Blade, the player would eventually gain the ability to join a kingdom. This will allow the player the combine armies with his fellow lords, creating larger armies and battles for the end game.

I like that one, but making randomized FE style maps would probably end badly, and if you hand made each of them the scope of the game would have to be much smaller than Mount and Blade. Also, screenshot in spoilers is from FE5 sir

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

My dream game would be an 'open-world' first-person RPG with a strong focus on 'survival' within a futuristic city while on the run from the law enforcement/corporate agents/whoever else you manage to piss off in the process.

You'd have access to several large districts and would have to use unlicensed taxi services and other means (such as stealing/forging IDs and use facial masks to avoid being spotted while using the subway) to move around the world.

The main goals would consist of assassinations of several high-ranking corporate officers, but with another twist -- their public appearances are limited to holographic displays, so you'd have to acquire information on where to find the real deal or where they tend to appear and when.

But most of the time you'd have to survive in the concrete jungle -- for example, you could use abandoned buildings as temporary hideouts during the day or murder someone and use his ID to use his apartment for a few days -- provided their employer won't send cops/security to check up on them sooner.

You'd also have to do heavy networking -- find people willing to supply you with meds, guns, cybernetic implants, and various services, such as information, ID/data forgery or diversions. And when you need money, you either do favors for local criminals or mug people on the street -- although it's tricky, since pedestrians might possess small firearms and give you money easily, only to put a bullet in your head the moment you turn your back on them.

Ideally, this game would allow you to:

• Pay big bucks to someone to forge the surveillance data to keep the cops occupied somewhere far away from the area you're targeting;
• Use your reputation to ask a bunch of gangsters for a favor, so they start shooting up the place you're targeting, keeping the corporate security busy;
• Use the ongoing chaos to sneak into the building and assassinate your target;
• GTFO quietly before anyone realizes what the hell happened;
• Possibly do something to pin the crime on a known organization in order to cover your tracks.

Also, it should have an awareness system -- if you're not careful, you might catch an eye of private investigators and run into blockades between districts, making it harder to travel around.

 

[Zanzoken]

#1 for me is a fantasy game with systems borrowed from several of my favorites.

I like that one, but making randomized FE style maps would probably end badly, and if you hand made each of them the scope of the game would have to be much smaller than Mount and Blade.

Agreed, the battle maps are super important. I think you definitely need hand-crafted maps, at least for the big battles. I had the thought that you could place battle maps with different features in "nodes" across the world map. Some maps would be more defensive, some might favor a certain type of troops, etc. So it introduces the element of terrain as a possible advantage for one side.

Also, screenshot in spoilers is from FE5 sir

Good catch! I originally had a different screenshot in there from FE4, but forgot to change the caption when I swapped it out.

 

[odrzut]

I have this idea for turn based combat with planning for more than 1 turn (with mechanical benefits if you don't change your plans).

Each character has X action points each turn (let's say 10 but it will be based on attributes), and each action has cost in action points, but if you plan it for this round it's multiplied by 3, if you plan it for the next round it's multiplied by 2, and for 2 rounds later it's multiplied by 1. Action points are spent when you plan, not when you execute (so if you want you can do nothing for 2 turns but plan and then in 3rd round do stuff for effectively 10*3+10*2+10*1 AP).

Example:
- 1 step forward/left/right/back costs you NOW 6 action points if you plan it for this turn. If you plan if to the next turn it costs you NOW 4 AP, if you plan to do it 2 turns later it only costs you NOW 2 AP
- turn 90 degree costs 3/2/1
- normal attack costs 6/4/2
- strong attack costs 12/8/4
- riposte costs 6/4/2 (parries 1 attack and attacks, but doesn't do anything if you're not attacked)
- feint costs 3/2/1 (wastes 1 riposte or parry)
- parry costs 3/2/1 (parries 1 attack)
etc.

Turns are executed simultanously (like in Into The Breach), you have 10 AP each round and each round you can use your current AP to change your orders for this round, next, and the round after that. But editing orders scales the same as adding them. For example if 3 rounds ago you planned to do 5 steps forward in this round (5 steps * 2AP = you spent all 10 AP these 3 rounds ago on this) and last round enemy placed a trap on your path - you can only edit 1 of these steps because it costs 6 AP now to change that and you only have 10 AP. So your best option is to add order to step ssidewayss or turn before that 5 steps forward.

If you predict what happens you can weave between the enemies hitting them left and right while they swing at air. If you don't - you bump into someone in the middle of your move and they hack you to pieces Some enemies will be very predictable, especially animals etc - so after a while you can kill them no problem by abusing their patterns. But more intelligent enemies will choose randomly from several tactics and you have to plan for several possibilities.

Later you get skills like seeing enemy orders for the next round or action boost where you can move some points to the next round (so you have 5 AP to spend this round and 15 AP the next round - so you can be more reactive).

My problem with the idea is:
- how to explain it to the players
- what the UI should be

And especially the UI is hard, I prototyped a few things and it's always ugly and inconvenient. The most convenient was basically a command line and list of orders looking like BASIC program besides the tactical map. I don't think that will work in a game

 

[AdolfSatan]

I've actually had this idea about writing an artsy IF game set around the myth of the Minotaur playable from three different povs. Every now and then I find myself thinking about its puzzles (how they could be coded most efficiently and what not), writing, music, and aesthetics.
But first of all I'm a poet, not a prose writer, so I fear most of what I might write would lack the down-to-earthness a proper story teller has to communicate a story.
Then there's the fact that simply thinking about pre-planning to lay it all out stresses me.
And also my passion is music, and I don't think I wanna take time from that to put into this project, at least not now.
Alas, some day perhaps.

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

I've actually had this idea about writing an artsy IF game set around the myth of the Minotaur playable from three different povs. Every now and then I find myself thinking about its puzzles (how they could be coded most efficiently and what not), writing, music, and aesthetics.
But first of all I'm a poet, not a prose writer, so I fear most of what I might write would lack the down-to-earthness a proper story teller has to communicate a story.
Then there's the fact that simply thinking about pre-planning to lay it all out stresses me.
And also my passion is music, and I don't think I wanna take time from that to put into this project, at least not now.
Alas, some day perhaps.

An interactive poem about the Minotaur sounds interesting, I'd like to see a playable proof-of-concept of that.

 

[AdolfSatan]

It wouldn't be an actual poem* but something more like prose poetic in its style. Mechanic-wise I imagine it quite simple, somewhat akin to Zork.

*on that subject, interactive digital poetry is a thing and it's amazing how creative some authors have gotten. If anyone hasn't ever experienced it yet, don't waste any time: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_poetry

 

[Ninjerk]

Got a notebook full of ideas for games, movies, music, and art that mostly probably won't happen.

 

[Krice]

People in a classical role-playing world wake up one day and notice they have genitals. Finally they can have sex and the game is focusing on that aspect of the life. War and fighting is no longer a substitute, now everyone is trying to have sex. And that's the game in a nutshell.

 

[JarlFrank]

1. Shopping Trip RPG. You start out with character creation that asks you several questions about yourself and mocks your character a bit (like when you dump a stat, it tells you "So this is why you're single, huh?"). You play as a somewhat depressed guy/girl who decides to go on a shopping trip to release some stress and distract him/herself. After character creation you go to the mall and can basically dick around and do whatever. Try to shoplift without getting caught, just buy some junk your character likes, meet people and talk to them, start a brawl etc. There'd be over a hundred Steam achivements to hunt down by experimenting and exploring. The main goal is to find meaning for your life on your shopping trip, and there are multiple endings depending on what you do during the game. You could just shop for some useless stuff, go back home, and end up changing nothing. You could meet the love of your life and start a relationship. Or you can go on a shooting spree and end up in jail (requires buying a gun at the gun store, and then stealing ammo from their storage because they don't hand out live ammo to customers, they only mail it to your address, so getting your hands on ammo requires a break-in).
It would be a relatively simple game to design and its main appeal would be the dicking around. Could become a hit because of the meme value.

2. Island Survival RPG. You are on a plane and survive a crash into the ocean. You wake up on the shore of an uncharted island and gotta survive and find a way off the place. You'd meet other survivors and hostile natives on the island. Big focus on survival and keeping your sanity. Lots of things can reduce your sanity and get you closer to a breakdown.

3. Sexy clothes destruction dungeon crawler. You're playing as a good sorceress entering the tower of an evil sorceress who has a lot of mind-controlled women fighting for her. You can break the mind control by bringing these women to orgasm! Combat would have you target their clothes and destroy them bit by bit so you can get to their erogenous zones. Best erotic dungeon crawler ever!

4. Stone Age RPG with dinosaurs. Set in a fictionalized stone age where humans co-habited earth with dinosaurs. Classic stone age megafauna like mammoths exists, too, of course. You're playing a character from a stone age tribe and have to explore the world and encounter other tribes whom you can try to communicate with. Each tribe has their own language so communication will consist of learning words and conversing with gestures until you're firm enough with the other tribe's language. Kinda like the adventure game Heaven's Vault where you're an archaeologist piecing together an ancient language, except here you get to actively use the language with NPCs. The more words you learn from NPCs the more your dictionary expands. Early conversations will consist of a lot of gesturing in order to try to understand each other.
Example: you play a caveman and meet a cavewoman. You point to yourself and say "man", then to her and say "woman". She nods in understanding and then points to you and says her word for man, then to herself and says her word for woman. The words for man and woman in her language are added to your dictionary.

 

[DraQ]

I have two main sets of game ideas:

• Weird fantasy RPG (some ideas regarding setting, a lot of ideas regarding character system, injury system, inventory and intended gameplay, most mechanical ideas generic)
• Spacesim with spaceship engineering and some RPG elements, possibly extended with minor crawler elements (sadly RT) (some ideas regarding setting, a lot of ideas regarding mechanics, systems, gameplay and races)

Also a bunch of generic ones.

classical ... genitals.

david.jpg

 

[Zanzoken]

Good stuff guys.

I'd also like to do a management sim where you play as a retired MMA fighter who is just starting out as a coach. You'd begin with just a couple rookies training in your garage and eventually grow into a world-class fight team. The goal is to train and coach your fighters to win championships on the local, regional, and finally international stage. You'd have to manage everything a real MMA team does -- picking opponents, structuring training camps, negotiating contracts and sponsorships, hiring assistant coaches, dealing with injuries, etc. As your team's prestige increases, you'll get better quality recruits but also have to deal with rivals trying to lure away your top guys. Your character would start at age 35 and be able to coach until he's 75, so you'll also have to deal with your best fighters getting old, losing their skills, and having to retire.

There would be a deep character system for fighters, with attributes, skills, and feats, as well as one for coaches. In the fights themselves you don't get direct control over your fighter, but you can shout instructions to them during the match that adjust the AI strategy and provide temporary bonuses. So when you win it would be entirely due to strategy and character skill.

 

[Reality]

1: Phantasy Star 4 type combat but with heavily modified "row targeting" rules - The original setup of enemy 50% target center charather 25% 2 middle char 12.5% 2 edge charather is just typical - I kind of want to go all out and experiement with a Forced Cover system - the Front Row MUST be targeted once before the middle rows can be targeted at all, and the middle rows must be targeted twice before the edge rows - This would apply to both player and enemy formations - I can see this encourage actual use of the standard "move charather position" command, as well as make D&D "mage tank" type spells pretty important because they WILL be targeted under this system and you can't just leave it up to luck and tank&spank as usual.

2: A simple Squad Tactics game based around the unification of Italy (the Risorgimento in the late 1800s)

3: A 2D Fighting game based on Programming. - It's your input-reading squad against theirs. The strategic element would be AI switching (or just cycling) after fights. So if you reveal that you have someonw who parries low kicks into a frame trap, then the AI will start to try to trap you with charathers who use EX cancels after their low kicks.

 

[Parsifarka]

MANCHINE RAGING 2000™ is a racing game developed with Unreal Engine 1 where the player controls a bald man with indefinite features running really fast against others. Controls and feel are similar to Moto Racer and Screamer, except runners are able to swing their arms and head; T-posing and bending the head forward accelerates the runner, but it is also possible to hit the adversaries: the effects are absurd both in terms of violence and physics. Jumping is allowed. As the race progresses, participants progressively lose their limbs and require to find scrap along the circuit to incorporate it into their bodies in order to keep up the speed, unlocking new powers. There's no death, runners can still roll down as a severed head (but another player can pick it up and shoot it away with his body horror cannon). Random events, like a mysterious blob running devouring participants, bombs falling over the level or the ground breaking apart may occur. Player wins either by crossing the end line first or by fully upgrading to new flesh.
The soundtrack is EBM and Industrial.

Spoiler

 

[laclongquan]

Fallout 2, exactly.

All the maps.

13 years later, you are Young Master Bishop, aka Chosen One's son. Your mission is to keep your Casa alive and prosper, since the Wrights held the biggest arsenal, the Mordino control drug trade, and NCR is advancing their territorial interest toward New Reno.

Broken Hills is broken, home to the final bandit redoubt in the Wasteland, from exBishop mercenaries, to homeless ghouls and senile berserker Super Mutants. They raid NR to the west, NCR caravan to the south, and Vault City caravan to the north.

Vault City annex both Gecko and Redding, eyeing NR greedily in the process.

NCR is more like a behemoth than most, richer and more powerful than 13 years ago. their annexation program is also advancing more steadily than ever. The merchant houses are hungrily looking at the central hub/tourist town that is New Reno.

The Enclave, though headshot and broken, still very much alive and well in their West Coast redoubts.

The Tribals are also recovered and expanded greatly in the West Coast aside from the Enclave. They are too poor to be of interest to techno-savvy army, but can provide food and new blood to their rank (see FTBOS for same relations)

Your job, as Young Master of Casa Bishop, is to lead your house to final victory, prosperity. Which is not easy because this is wasteland. Wasteland never changes.

On a personal side, you can also on a trip to find your halfblood siblings spreading across the land. Either helping them, make use of them, and/or get new rivals in the process.

 

[laclongquan]

Fallout 2 maps.

It's days after you are expelled from Vault 13. Your mission is to lead a caravan of vault dwellers from Vault 13 to Arroyo.

The safer course is to northeasterly toward Broken Hills and New Reno, avoid the waves of Remnants of Master's Army flooding from Mariposa eastward.

Once you take a safe rest in New Reno, you have to think of why you change course northwesterly toward Arroyo instead of northward to Modoc. Seriously Modoc is better by all account, and nearer the new Vault City

 

[Butter]

Disco Elysium, except instead of hallucinate you use detective skills to solve crimes.