Video Game Idea Thread

[milkshark]

Super Hammer Brothers: a 3D platformer where you play as Lester and Max, 2 of Bowser's Hammer throwing Koopa soldiers. Lester was tall, and was the leader, while Max was short and wide, and is the brutish sidekick. They're tasked with rescuing a kidnapped King Bowser from the dream-invading Wart the Toad. Gameplay would be similar to weapon based melee games like No More Heroes or Mad World. The tone of the game would be cartoony but skewing older than Mario games. Levels would range from underground pipe mazes, brick fort battlefields (think NES Mario Bros), and the traditional desert/ice/fire worlds seen in Mario games. I'll draw them up and post it sometime.

 

[kagayaki]

An FPS with motion-sensing capabilities where other players, er, viewers can connect their smartphones/tablets to the current game to check the player's stats (for example, on one smartphone, something similar to the MGS3's survival viewer). With a surprisingly high-degree of realism.

 

[Carlson]

Take your typical realistic, one-shot-kills, gritty first person shooter with an emphasis on expansive environments.....and put it in the Old West. Give it all the traditional trappings (cover system, traditional FPS aiming instead of the ARMA 2 floaty controls, and excellent effects and graphics instead of something bare bones), but make the damage high and the gunfights as close to real life as possible. I spent a long time reading about actual Old West gunfights, and they have a unique feeling to them that you just don't get elsewhere.

Also, a tank simulator set in World War I.

 

[c-no]

An idea I have: A first person RPG game in the same style as the first two Elder Scrolls games, Arx Fatalis, and the King's field series (Everything is from a first person perspective, attack damage is based off stamina bar so a full bar means full attack damage minus whatever your opponent's defense rating would be, same could be said for magic regarding a magic charge bar, you can create the face of your character whose face you could see when doing actions like sleeping). It would have the same sort of actions in Gothic in terms doing pointless things like playing a lute or doing something useful like forging a sword. Said story is just going through a region within an island country where the player is trying to make something out of their own life. After beating the game, the player can just do whatever they want within the region.

Another idea I have: Make a story where the player seeks to fight fate with the help of a powerful, thinking it's just a linear path that is evil (think of fate as a rope) but as the player goes forward, things aren't as they seem. Eventually, trying to actually destroy fate is basically like being a small ant trying to destroy a truck. Fate is undying, being a part of the universe and the player finds out that fate is more like a tree, having many roots, than a rope. The point of this game was to make humanity be more of like an insect in the grand scale of things, thinking it's mighty when in reality, it's just another animal within the universal wilderness but even though fate is an adversary that can't be destroyed doesn't mean the player must despair but instead should brace against the wave and try to stand through it.

Another idea I have though it's more of an animation using machinima: Ultimate Muscle Roller Legend using a couple characters I made from two games (Dark Souls and Skyrim) trying to chase down Rainbow Dash. Don't ask, it's not suppose to make any sense.

Final idea: A SMT fan-game where Jesus is a character who is on the side of Neutrality ( This is due to how Jesus says things like treat your neighbor like how you want to be treated.) The Law hero would make the Law side actually be sympathetic as would the Chaos hero. Good and bad would have an effect like Law and Chaos in terms of ending (example: Chaotic good player fights in a darwinistic world for his clan, chaotic evil is a bloodthirsty pack leader who would eat even the weakest member, Lawful evil would be harsh in judgement to all while Lawful good is more accepting to his allies. I'm sure this isn't clear and I wouldn't blame anyone since really, this isn't thought out well.) The story is that demons come into this island city through a portal (Doom reference FTW), and it leads to a clash between Law and Chaos. Jesus gets in the mix, wanting to prevent Chaos from destroying civilization while also wanting to stop Law from making a paradise that has no genuine love for God, not to mention this would lead to the deaths of many and what not. Player chooses their path by mid-point in the game, siding with whatever side they believe is the best. Siding with Jesus and the neutrals means fighting both Law and Chaos while siding with either Law or Chaos means getting rid of Jesus since Jesus leads the neutrals against both sides.

 

[random_pickle]

I used to come up with all sorts of ideas for games when I was a kid. These days I'm trying to learn how to program said game than to come up with new ideas for it.

Hey Cuddlebug, you worked on that indie game before you left the project right? I have a question: how's the job market for indie game developers?

 

[BatNapalm]

An open-world Judge Dredd game in the style of Fallout 3 or NV that takes place in Mega-City One. And you play as your own custom Judge (and maybe even have specialty classes like Tek Judge, Street Judge, and Psi Judge).

Similarly, a Warhammer 40k sandbox-style RPG in the style of Mass Effect (but with better shooting and combat mechanics).

 

[PvtRichardCranium]

Hell invades Europe during the Medieval times.

Bunch of Knights in shining armor going around cutting up demons and shit.

 

[exball]

Hell invades Europe during the Medieval times.

Bunch of Knights in shining armor going around cutting up demons and shit.

Soo...Diablo?

 

[Smokedaddy]

I used to come up with all sorts of ideas for games when I was a kid. These days I'm trying to learn how to program said game than to come up with new ideas for it.

Hey Cuddlebug, you worked on that indie game before you left the project right? I have a question: how's the job market for indie game developers?

The job market? There isn't one. There's a market for games. For developers, you have to be in bed with a publisher (which kind of negates the whole "indie" thing) or be able to live off your bank account for a year or two. You have to make the game before you get a paycheck --

-- which blows. A nice, round, but not too inaccurate figure for how much it costs to make a game for (say) the PS4 is a million dollars. period. That's before a line of code gets written or one single pixel of a texture map gets set. (I'm not kidding -- do you know how much a PS4 dev system costs?) Kick in a hundred thousand buckazoids per month until release, and you're talking serious money. Hence the kickstarter / early access / etc. wave that's currently upon us -- come up with a concept and a solid demo, and you might be able to get people to fund completion of the thing. Problem is, it's being abused by people that could easily fund projects on their own; for every Don't Starve there's a Godus. That gives the whole kickstarter-for-development thing a bad rep, and makes it practically impossible for unknowns to get their foot in the door.

I'm looking at getting into an indie thing, but I got used to eating stuff besides ramen after I got out of school a million years ago, and I'm more than a little squicked at the prospect of going back to the bad old days. The best I can do so far amounts to a pay cut in the neighborhood of what I was making in 1990. But indie is where it's at, currently, and where it's going. Games need to get back to the garage where they belong; you get a team that's lean, mean, and ruthlessly competent, and it'll shake up the squares and make some money. The problem is survival in the meantime.

I don't feel like blathering more on the subject right now but remind me to relate my Bobby Kotick story about large & expensive development teams sometime after I've had some sleep. (Activision was fun when it was about fifteen people.) =s

 

[Watcher]

I used to come up with all sorts of ideas for games when I was a kid. These days I'm trying to learn how to program said game than to come up with new ideas for it.

Hey Cuddlebug, you worked on that indie game before you left the project right? I have a question: how's the job market for indie game developers?

It largely depends

For video game developers the best way to find work is to attach yourself to a big well known project. Something to boost your portfolio. If necessary develop it yourself. Most of the developers on the project I worked on were working on side projects to build their portfolio for when they would find a really good job later on.

If necessary take a volunteer gig, but bare in mind they aren't always very dependable. Most big video game companies require at least 6 months to 2 years experience and your name attached to a shipped product. So you'd either have to find a job working on an indie game or get a few guys together and develop an iOS title. There are also hundreds of exceptions. Like how Valve tends to hire the creators of large scale modifications for their games. Such as the team that designed Counter Strike or the team that designed Quake Team Fortress. It's not the easiest job but from the stories Smokedaddy has told me it's pretty cool.

I'm barely scratching the surface and there's a lot of documentation about it, as well as forums where people discuss this sort of thing.

 

[geewizz]

I've been thinking about an RPG for a while now and I'd like to develop it for android.

You take control of what is basically game-Chris.
Your challenge as a gamer is to develop Chris into some semblance of a functional human being, the more you develop Chris the more of the story unfolds, however You're on a time limit and will only have 90-150 in-game days (or 3-5 months) to turn him into something and get one of 4-5 good endings, or one of the bad endings.
There will be ways to extend the time limit (for example a minigame with your collections company to extend your deadline to make payments, or if you're a bad enough dude, asking your friend to lend you money to make a payment) but each will have its consequences, not making the game impossible, but harder (for example if you fail the minigame they'll add charges to your debt, or if you borrow money from the friend you make they won't help you in other ways for example giving you a ride somewhere or introducing you to people that can help you).

The storyline I have in mind goes like this.

You have the worst day you've ever had in your life. Your mom is taken critically ill but cannot afford medical care, the girl you've been chasing files for a restraining order, your tug boat is stopped pending investigation on your claim, your mothers mis-management of the bills has lead to crippling debt and the chance the property might be repossessed, the only friend you've ever had wants nothing to do with you and with your last $300 you have to decide what you need to deal with first, this being the first adult decision you've ever had to make in your life.

What you spend that $300 on will act as a difficulty balance setting, but the player will be oblivious to that, it'll become obvious later on where it could have made all the difference. Being responsible with it and paying the bills for the first month will make managing/mitigating the finances easier, but will make finding food, getting your friend to forgive you, getting your mom some medical care and showing your boyfriend-free galpal that you're a stand up guy harder.

The idea behind the game it to teach the player that no matter how much of a piece of shit you are or how bad you think your life is, you can change if you want to or have a good reason to. Every decision you make has consequences that affects not only you but those you care about and the smallest thing can make a world of difference.

If I end up developing this in any capacity I'd love for the player character to have his dialogue lightly peppered with CWCisms and very subtle fedora-tips to everything that helped inspire it, from /r9k/ and /wiz/ to Chris-chan.

 

[exball]

That sounds like a really awesome game. I would actually pay money to play such a game.

 

[Carlson]

After so many Halo games that are simple copies of the same tired formula, I'd like to see what ODST promised: a different, gritty, realistic, difficult Halo game where you play as a regular human in the war. ODST claimed it would do that, but it ended up being the exact same game as the rest of the series, floaty jumps and all. So here's a few key points to this:

* Unless you're playing as an ODST or another commando type, you're about as physically tough as a Grunt or Jackal. You armor will protect from one, maybe two plasma bolts if they hit on the hard armor.

* Elite energy shields can handle one or two bursts from an MA5 and their armor can handle about the same amount. Elites are tough not because they can absorb an entire magazine from your assault rifle without flinching, but because they're bigger, tougher, stronger, and faster than you.

* No more floaty superhuman jumping or circle-strafing. Tactics for both the Covenant and humans are based around taking cover, flanking, suppressive fire, and effective use of grenades.

* Vehicles are still available with improved physics and driving controls because that whole "look in the direction you want to drive" thing is horrific and should be stopped, and the Warthog needs to quit the counter-steering-rear-wheels thing so it stops sliding everywhere and drives like a normal car. Better yet, make it a toggleable option. Also have a good enough damage system that the controls and capabilities of vehicles change based on how they're damaged.

* Hunters are almost identical to their current game levels of health, but their weapons are now guaranteed one-hit kills and can blow cover to pieces. To make up for this, their intelligence, speed, and accuracy lower as they take damage to reflect how they're basically a worm colony in a suit that's gradually losing cohesion.

 

[Kamen Rider Black RX]

I had this idea for an incantation system.

Basically, you could put points into stuff like "Dramatic Reading" or "Quick Tongue," which would effect your spells potency or casting times. For example, every point put in dramatic reading increases a spells effectiveness by a given amount only to increase casting times as well. With Quick Tongue, it lowers casting times but increases the chance of the incantation failing because your character mispronounced a word. "Booming Voice" increases range and Power, while "Soft Whisper" lowers power but allows you to cast spells silently without being detected.

Players would be able to turn these perks on and off, but not remove points already spent. Also, players can put points into studying other languages, which can allow access to incantations in those languages with enough points. This would also translate those languages for the player to actually read.

More potent spells require longer incantations with more complicated words.

 

[Watcher]

After so many Halo games that are simple copies of the same tired formula, I'd like to see what ODST promised: a different, gritty, realistic, difficult Halo game where you play as a regular human in the war. ODST claimed it would do that, but it ended up being the exact same game as the rest of the series, floaty jumps and all. So here's a few key points to this:

With ODST it's weird since the plot contradicted the art style heavily.

The art style of ODST I dug quite a lot. It was dark and the player character was sort of like this tragic figure that was wandering around this ruined city picking up the pieces of his team. I predicted the plot was going to be really tragic and you'd see how all his team died and stuff.

But it wasn't... it was a "we're gonna save the day" plot...

And it's weird considering Halo Reach had that premise of "we're gonna save the day" but it has that tragic plot. It's very jarring and something that took me out of it. I really wish they spent more time on ODST and made all the story elements actually work together.

 

[Carlson]

Forgot to mention about my Halo concept, it would also mandate usage of iron sights and short bursts to mitigate recoil. Basically take the setting and technology of the Halo universe and transplant it into a tactical shooter setting. If you still want to maintain the epic feel, something that feels similar to Battlefield 4 would do well.

 

[Watcher]

Forgot to mention about my Halo concept, it would also mandate usage of iron sights and short bursts to mitigate recoil. Basically take the setting and technology of the Halo universe and transplant it into a tactical shooter setting. If you still want to maintain the epic feel, something that feels similar to Battlefield 4 would do well.

Halo's combat (at least of the games I've played) is more focused on weapon balance and how to combat the AI. Like how energy based weapons affect shields very well but not flesh, whereas bullet based weapons affect flesh of enemies but not shields. It's a very different approach to game design than a modern military shooter has. The enemies in Halo tend to dodge the player's fire and the player has to keep moving and find weapons on their own.

 

[Carlson]

Halo's combat (at least of the games I've played) is more focused on weapon balance and how to combat the AI. Like how energy based weapons affect shields very well but not flesh, whereas bullet based weapons affect flesh of enemies but not shields. It's a very different approach to game design than a modern military shooter has. The enemies in Halo tend to dodge the player's fire and the player has to keep moving and find weapons on their own.

That's basically the point behind my game: to take the Halo universe and some of its conventions (like plasma weapons doing more damage to shields and such) and applying the heightened realism and slower pace of a modern tactical shooter. I think going toward ARMA may be a bit too far unless you could improve the detail up close and how it controls, but the game could have a very interesting turnout if you took all of the tech, weapons, vehicles, and aliens of the Halo universe and put them in a more realistic setting.

The books get closer to this than the games, but you don't see as much because they primarily focus on SPARTANS. Said super soldiers actually turn out more badass, as they get to do more epic stuff like super-strength and super-reflexes martial arts instead of just circle strafing and doing floaty jumps.

 

[Guardian G.I.]

A Hearts of Iron-style grand strategy game set during the Cold War.
Unfortunately, the development of the closest thing to it, Paradox's East vs. West was cancelled.

 

[Carlson]

I have an old B-17 simulator game from the 90s, and I think it would be very cool to see it revived in modern day as a multiplayer game a la the Artemis bridge simulator game. Everyone has their own specific task in the bomber:

* 2 pilots
* 1 navigator
* 1 bombardier
* 1 radio operator
* 1 nose gunner
* 1 top turret gunner
* 1 ball turret gunner
* 2 waist turret gunners
* 1 tail gunner

The B-17 would have a fully simulated 3D interior and crewmembers could be played by AI when not enough players are available. Crewmembers can be wounded or killed, and medical attention could be provided to different wounds (bullet and shrapnel predominately, but also things like burns and oxygen deprivation). Crew could move around to different empty stations to try and fill in for dead or injured players, but that would leave certain positions open for a time.

I'd also like to see a similar concept with things like tanks. Imagine an old Mk IV tank simulator set in World War I with individual players controlling each station.