You decide: great game idea?
by James Ransom-Wiley 
{ Jul 12th 2005 at 5:00PM }
Let's try something new here…
We recently received a tip for a "great game idea". And it got me thinking… perhaps it would be fun to post
your game idea here on Joystiq and let the rest of the readers decide its fate. Great game? Or bargain bin? You
decide:
faulse crime around the world adventure
Rated T theres a guy and he is a bad and good cop. He lives in a city called Port Alberni and someone killed his
best friend. So he is trying to kill the guy who killed his friend. He has to travel to Nanaimo, Mexico, Vancover,
Victoria, and Parkville. All of those places he has to do 10 missions. Each mission he gets $500.00. Nanaimo, Mexico,
Vancouver, Victoria, and Parkville are all connected together.
He has to do missions to get money to go to those places. He starts off in Vancouver and travels to all the places.
When he gets to the last place and the last mission he has to go to a soccer field he has to get something to kill him
with or fight him or arrest him. There are trucks, cars with hydraulics, skate boards, boats, jet skies, planes, street
bikes, dirt bikes, quads, bikes, and you can just walk. You can go into houses, shops, and malls. There is just a
little blood, you can get a gun and shoot people.
The name of the guy is Butch and the guy he has to kill is Rocky and Butchs best friends name is Brandon. You can go
into gun shops and buy guns. Some swearing. When people die an ambulance comes and picks them up. You go up to someone
on the sidewalk and press L and R then a big rectangle comes up on the screen with the whole alphabet on it and you
pick letters to spell a word. When you are done you press done at the bottom of the rectangle then the person you were
talking to will answer back. You have to take a fairy to some of the places and take a plane to Mexico and you have to
pay for that.
On missions there is no time. Cops come after you if you kill fifty people and you can steal cars. When you first
start the game you have to get your drivers listens at a car shop. You can steal cars and you can run over people.
Butch starts off wearing a blue baggy jeans, black muscle shirt, skater shoes, and blue socks. You can swim. You can
get go carts and you can ask for directions.
NOTE: Joystiq did not edit or tamper with the original submission beyond rough paragraph breaks, which we felt eased
the reading experience.
Please, do your best to be kind when judging. And if youd like to submit your own idea for public review use our
tips form.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Austin @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM
Grand Theft Auto 27? Besides being GTA with extra features, it's just plain lame. This is pretty terrible, and makes almost no sense.
travis @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM
gotta agree, this is straight GTA ripoff...
flyNN @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM
Too much effort spent on detailing names of characters, $$ of successful missions and travel expenses, vehicles to ride, joystick controls and prompts on screen. When you draft a game design document you need to inspire! Detail similar technology that makes your game ideas viable, but concentrate on what makes it unique.
Nick @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM
Ever played GTA 3 or any of it's successors? I'd say that GTA is pretty much the game you are describing with a few exceptions. Those exceptions being...
- A set reward for each mission. What's the point in this? Why can't it change depending on what he's doing. Maybe Butch can get a gun for a reward rather then exactly $500.
-You have to kill fifty people for the cops to come after you. Isn't that a little much?
- Being able to "talk" to people. This is too much. The vast majority of the time people would reply with "I don't understand" or "Huh?" as there is simply too many words and combinations of words in the english language for the coders to code the people in game to interpret.
n8 @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM
y'know, when I was like 14 I made a game that I'm convinced was ripped off by RockStar - it was called Shoplifter (the title being based on the then-popular Choplifter game). In it you played a lo-res dot that had to run around in a supermarket lifting things from the aisles. Every time you lifted something, it would tell you what you got ("Carton of milk: $0.54!") and you had to collect a certain total before you could leave the supermarket. There were, of course, security guards that made the process harder, and they tended to hang around the areas of the store where the higher value items were.
You can see that with such a brilliant idea for a game, it's not that much of a leap to Grand Theft Auto. I oughta sue.
Justin C. @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM
GTA ....sounds more like the scrapped version of true crime 2 lol
jc @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM
Starting a game where you have to kill someone, well, is kind of limiting. Give us choice and options.
One of the GTA strengths is that you could do most of your missions in a number of ways. (not really a good example, as you still had to kill a good number of the baddies).
But there are games that you can choose. You can go in guns blazing, or you can sneak around. Give us the choice to use our brains, not just our brawn.
Calvin Carl @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM
I don't think this could be a worse idea for a game. It's not even an interesting GTA ripoff. And the names...Butch, Rocky...could you possibly be anymore cliche? Whoever wrote this should have their face stepped on.
Jim Daschle @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM
1. Good luck trying to get a Teen rating on this one. Driv3r couldn't do it, and it had no blood at all.
2. Wow. That's pretty much all I have to say, just wow. Apart from being an incredibly cheesy and nonsensical GTA rip, this game is just... undescribable. GTA + Animal Crossing + Hitman + Max Payne + The Sims 2? Yeesh.
Digi Smalls @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM
so i take it this is the original napkin scrawl that became GTA?
Fez @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM
Umm, if I'm a cop, why do I need to go and get my "drivers listens at a car shop" at the start of the game? Isn't knowing how to drive a prereq to getting hired as a police officer?
I'm also interested in why he needs to "take a fairy to some of the places." In case he loses a tooth? Or is it a different kind of fairy? (yes, I know what the author meant, but come on... :) ).
retro @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM
Well, I just sent in my idea for a game. Maybe Joystiq will read it.
ill trooper @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM
"On missions there is no time." I'm guessing this means 'no time LIMIT' as you would need lots of time if you had to "press L and R then a big rectangle comes up on the screen with the whole alphabet on it and you pick letters to spell a word." Cool - a text messaging game! Total action!
ARRRRRGH!
"Liking to play video games" does not translate into "designing good video games." This guy should look into a spelling game. Play games all you want, but read books more - it will improve your writing and communication skillzzzz...
This is a totally wack unoriginal concept for a game. People already make this game. We already play this game.
Paragraphs about guns, go-carts, killing 50 people, blue socks... These are details that have been added on to the concept and playability of GTA, but these do not a 'new game idea' make.
But what is cool is that the guy wrote it out and tried to make something up, so I would say spend a few years getting your writing chops up, learn a bit about game design, and keep trying.
My suggestions for future game pitches would be:
- Tighten up your writing skills. Learn about concepts like 'character motivation,' 'protagonists,' and 'spelling.'
- Be aware of what is already out there - for instance, take a look into what RockStar games has been putting out, sounds like you might enjoy playing their games.
- Try getting good at something that video game companies need, like photoshopping backdrops and texture maps, work at a company, learn the ropes, and work with producers and then spring your concepts on them when they're drunk at E3.
- Don't worry if it's a rip-off of GTA, but use the game engine in a different way - change the era, location, or concept. Focus on details like objectives, a better overall story arc, a type of control/camera scheme, online things... And try to be realistic - there is a reason that you can't talk to the people you run into in GTA and you can't go into every building you see.
Plus, guy - who wants to play a game that puts you in blue socks?
the2bears @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM
This is more a story treatment. Where's the game? What is the actual gameplay like? A game pitch requires something called a "Game Design Document" that goes into a little more detail than this. Ideas are a dime a dozen, and stories are even cheaper. But... don't let me discourage you. Keep at it, learn and improve.
Bill
Jake Fry @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM
Overdone and cliche.
As for me, I have very serious aspirations to become a general producer at a second party developing studios to Nintendo, Namco, or Capcom. I'm only 16 but I'm very serious about my goals in the video game industry and about the games I make.
All the games I make nowadays are on paper and in my mind. But I take them very serious and will make them real games someday. My role model is Miyamoto-san, so that should give you a little insight as to what kind of games I'd like to head in creating.
My pride and joy of my game creating and the first game I will helm the creation of when I become a general producer or manager is titled Elements. Its a working title because I want to add a subtitle to it. It will take a long time to explain though, so get ready to read a lot.
To start out, It resembles Zelda more than any other video game series. It's an adventure game where you play as someone pretty similar to Link, in that he carries similar weapons and is about the same age. Its set in a medieval/greek mythology mix time period, but focuses more on ancient empires and mythology.
Though its an adventure game, it has many RPG aspects, since the game started out as one when I began creating it 2 years ago. The elements of RPG's that are in this game are:
-A large assortment of weapons, armor, etc. to choose from
-A leveling up type system with different weapon types and skills
-Abilty to cast certain spells and perform magical stuff and what not
and thats about it. The rest plays a lot more like a Zelda game.
The goal of the game is, in short, to defeat the 5 dungeons and 5 temples and then go beat the boss of the game. Dungeons are more cave-like, theyre dark, dirty, dreary places and focus more on fighting enemies and action-type stuff. The temples are perfect like they were made by the gods, theyre well-lit, clean, and focus more on puzzle solving and enemies that you have to find out how to kill. They focus on different elements, like a water dungeon and temple and all have a mini-boss and main boss.
The staples of the game are:
-Having an epic, collossal map where every thing is in proportion so that when you want to go somewhere, you have to make the provisions and take the time to get there. Being in a realistically-sized and proportioned world will immerse the player.
-Many different and varying locales that, given the size of the map, dont seem to unrealistic, such as, you wont find a desert and a swamp anywhere near each other.
-Immersing the player in a world they will believe to be real. The game will be crafted so that it seems like its a real world. If anyone else here is a big Tolkien fan, thats something I'm basing this world off of. You'll have many towns, cities, fortresses, castles, harbors, etc. that are placed throughout the world to make it seem like an actual living world. Like in Zelda: Majora's Mask, theres one major city, clocktown, right in the middle of the game. Then, in each of the 4 completely different locations, theres an establishment of some sort. Thats not what I'm aiming for. I want the world to be as immersive as possible.
-Many colorful and diverse characters. Again from Zelda, mostly in the trade sequences, you usually meet many different people in the game that all desire something completely different. In Elements, you'll meet many diverse people like that who will play some role in the quest.
And now for where the Miyamoto-ism comes in. Something very important I want to do in this game is have a seamless world where what you do or dont do, or how you do something, affects the game. It wont be like in Fable where what you do affects the person you are. You'll be told something to do. If you fail to do it, you wont have to start from the last save or anything, the game keeps going on but there will be an outcome. Like the first part in the game that I put this aspect in is a part where you see a ship headed for a harbor town. If you beat the ship to the town, you can warn people of their coming, if the ship beats you, the people on it will have dispersed throught the town. They aren't villians or anything, its just, whoever gets there first and by how much affects a small portion of the game. So in other words it wont be linear. You'll probably have to beat the dungeons and temples in a specific order, but as for your progress in the overworld, you can do whatever you want, go wherever you want (given that you have the proper equipment to get there IE: you cant make it to any Islands until you have access to a boat or ship) and how things happen over the course of the game will change.
I'm very serious about this game. Its going to be a gigantic game full of tons of different areas, people, things, everything. Its like a cross between Zelda and Lord of the Rings. It has the Zelda gameplay of freedom, how the game is played (meaning the character you're in control of), and the dungoens/temple deal. It will have a rich storyline, I've got all the major plot points and what not, but all the specific little things I dont yet. But really, the main appeal of the game will be the gameplay. It will offer an unbelievable amount of freedom and immersiveness. Its like a MMORPG except its an adventure game and as of now, it doesnt have any online play. All the major aspects of the game, such as the huge overworld, the realistic proportioning of distances and time (it will feature the same night/day thing as Ocarine of Time only the time runs much slower), the affects of what and how you do things in the game, the many towns, cities, military establishents, governments and nations, everything we can put in the game to make it seem more like a real world (like Tolkien's world of middle-earth and beyond), the different and varying locales and people, everything I take very seriously. To expand more on Tolkien-izing the world you play in, there will probably be many areas in the game you wont even know existed during your first few times playing through the game. Taking the time to explore the world will open up new caves, bodies of water, villages, etc.. Something that will be put in the game is where you like to explore the most (and trust me, it will be so big, it would take a very very long time to explore every area) will allow you to find new equipment and what not to explore more areas like that. Such as, if you like exporing the cliff-shores of the great sea that borders 1/4 of the world, you'll find new upgrades for boats and ships and new tools to help you swimm and traverse the submerged caves. But if you like to explore the desert-areas more, you'll find stuff that helps you delve farther into the desert.
It will be such a massive an epic game, it would take pages and pages and hours and hours to explain everything. If anyone is interested in Elements and wants to know more about it, you can IM me on AIM, my sn is jakefry806 or you can email me at elements8062003@yahoo.com . I've told you a lot about the game, but theres so much more about it.
2play @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM
I'm not going say I love the Idea but wouldn't it have been cool to have some interactivity with the people in the city though the xbox/ps2 communicator? I mean, there would be a list of sentences you can say something like 10 or and the people can respond to you with information. Example would be like, "Did you see anything?" or "need help?" Dependng on what they say will hinder or help you out on your mission. I mean people can lie to you and you wouldn't know. It would take at least 3 people to talk to to really know whats going on. BTW the name Butch is like really really ummm....I'll be quiet. I would name him something like Erik Ryder a.k.a. "Mental" or Izzy Madd there just less umm...you know. What would also be cool would be cool is that each mission would effect the game's environment. If you blow a bridge down you can't visit that side of town or if you destroy a building you can't use it again.
raindog_mx @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM
About the first game, I'd suggest that the words you type in the alphabet box should be in spanish to put goredutainment into the game (in the spanish version the words'd be in english and so on). I very much like the taking a FAIRY to some places part, I'd buy the game just for the fairy, then tey could make a mod to get the fairy naked??? Great gaim! three thumbs up!
About Jake Fry's, I like the Miyamoto-ism but i'd like to add that if the interactivity of it is based on skill rather than real choice and that could be frustrating to less skilled players. Maybe you could like don't do some stuff or fail at it and that'd have a consecuence but then you could come back later with the same character only more developed and try to make up for your mistakes bu then there'd be a different outcome.
I'd like to suggest Psychonauts for all you interested in game design. You tell me after you play it. It's a gem!
lumberg @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM
ding ding ding...
we should put these two in a chat room and see which one comes out more lobotomized...
Full disclosure, i couldn't get past the 3rd paragraph due to the "author's" blender in a garbage can literary rhythm.
Andy @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM
uh.... i think this is a joke
and even if isn't, you all are taking it way too seriously
now if you'll excuse me, i need to take a fairy to the car shop, where i'll get my driver's listens
SlipstreamBRO @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM
My idea for a great game would be a different approach to the action market, one that is much more politically correct than the GTA's and other Mature Rated problem games. I haven't been able to iron out all the sequences, because it isn't as complete a thought as I know it needs to be. So, I'll sum it up in a few sentences and hope that y'all here can shoot it down, or help me out with some of it so it will be a fun game to play:
Disaster Relief Rescue Team (DRRT for short)
I'm not talking Twister: The game. this would focus on the future, the future all of us has been raised knowing it would happen. When the world shifts that one bit to much in California and it becomes an island. Or the seafloor moves and causes another awful tsunami slams the coast D.R.R.T. will be their to rescue whoever needs it.
The game would need to be a single player, Vs., and/or co-op. The types of missions and hazards would require a great amount of physics in order to depict a realistic catastrophe (I failed physics in High School, DOH!). The entire environment would be destructible. Their could be a mini-game built into it that allowed you to manage the evacuation from the area as well. This would be the "God-like power" of deciding of where to isolate problem areas making the mission different every time. Especially if the game's disaster engine has a random location generator, which would change the entire disaster everytime.
The versus game would be fun, because one group could be the disaster team, and the adversary could be people in mobile homes, or even be the disaster.
So, this is the basics of my idea, what do y'all think? :)
Pille @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM
that idea blows SlipstreamBRO. so does your clan.
ator1 @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM
I always thought it would be cool to make a physical breakout game, based on pinball technology. The paddle would slide from side to side via a paddle controller and have a bumper that would bounce the ball back up . The bricks could either drop down into the table or flip up when hit.
the_wivil @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM
Here's mine.
I've thought of this game a lot and have wished and wished a company would actually make it. It would be a MMO set in a world where zombies have spread throughout the entire world and the only humans left are in small clusters and a few military zones.
The game would start off with showing you how all the world has gone down the shitter ever since the zombies came. Then it shows you witnessing your own family being murdered and killed by the zombies, but you manage to make it into your attic and wait it out there for a few days until the zombies go away. But when you come down, you find out that your family has turned into zombies and you have the option of killing them or letting them live their undead lives out as zombies.
Basically the point of the game would be to stay alive and try to make it to a small colony. Once you get to the colony, you have the option of what kind of job you want. You can be a Collecter (A person who goes out and gathers supplies for the colony), a Soldier (Pretty obvious here, but your job is to protect the colony from the invading zombie hordes), a Rescuer (Someone who goes out and finds other people who may be trapped inside buildings) and there could be a few other different kinds of characters.
But you can also just stay by yourself or with a few others and try to make it by yourselves, or join a biker gang and raid other colonies killing the horses and raping the women.
Also while you're away from the colony or traveling alone, you have a small radio that the only channel it picks up is an old FM radio station with a crazy old man who gives news and other tips to everyone in the game.
You would also have to find food and water to drink, and once you get bitten by a zombie, you'll have small amount of time to use a serum that can heal you from the virus. But if you succumb to the virus, you will turn into a zombie and either have the option of dying and restarting your game at the colony or some other save point or becoming a zombie yourself and joining your once enemies trying to eat as many humans as you want.
I thought using an engine similar to GTA would look kinda neat. But basically, the game would be so awesome if it could give you a sense that you are actually alone in the video game until you find someone else to help you out.
I could go on and on about this game, but that is pretty must the gist of it. What do you guys think of it? Personally, I think it would be a crazy addictive game, especially when you add the Massive Multiplayer Online aspect of it.
Jim Daschle @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM
that idea blows SlipstreamBRO. so does your clan. Ouch. 0wned.
Jake Fry @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM
"About Jake Fry's, I like the Miyamoto-ism but i'd like to add that if the interactivity of it is based on skill rather than real choice and that could be frustrating to less skilled players. Maybe you could like don't do some stuff or fail at it and that'd have a consecuence but then you could come back later with the same character only more developed and try to make up for your mistakes bu then there'd be a different outcome."
What the hell are you talking about? Skilled over choice? I'm not trying to insult you but you've got the whole picture completely wrong. I think you think when I talked about the example of beating the ship to the harbor, you thought itd be some skill race thing. But it won't.
Its being immersive by being realistic. You can beat the ship to the harbor if you want, or you could just fudge the bucket and get back to whatever you were doing. Its not like theres a negative outcome if you fail to beat the ship, like I said, theyre not villains, its just a simple example I use. Like maybe the town wasn't expecting the ship to come and you can tell some people so they can prepare for trade or whatever the ship is doing.
And if the same thing happens over and over again that you can't complete until you get to a certain level, itd really take away from the immersiveness. Its not really even so much of a choice, its just if you do it or not and how you do it. Fable was a choice based thing, Elements is where what you do will affect what happens, its not linear in that you have to do something or another so something has to happen, what you do affects what will happen. Well, I guess logically, it is a choice where you do this or that, if you say it like "Either you beat the ship to the harbor or you dont." But I'm not focusing on a choice system, its just what you do affects what happens. There isn't much difference between teh two but it wont focus on choice, it'll focus on just what you do will affect what happens, be it significant or not.
Jake Fry @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM
@ the_wivil:
I'm the complete opposite than you. You want a company to make that game, but I dont want anybody to make a game like elements. If they did, I'd buy it, but I'd just be pissed someone took my idea and made it before I had the chance to.
ill trooper @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM
...So pissed you would be about it, apparently, that you risk posting the whole thing on a video game blog?
Good luck if anyone releases yet another fantasy adventure game, you just might think they stole the idea from you! What is it with these fantasy make-swords-and-battle-orcs games? If the main post is GTA, then yours is Zelda bro.
If you really want to be the one to make it, keep it to yourself and continue to create it. Then get a lawyer, a development team and start making it.
Twist @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM
There is a whole web site devoted to this kind of thing at http://www.gamediscovery.com/
Here is an idea:
Basically GTA with a post-apocalyptic theme like The Road Warrior. It is one of three unique themes Rockstar can do before they end up having to rehash what they have already done by my count (1920-30's style gangsters and futuristic are the other two I can think of). Guess they could also do a western themed game but that would be more Grand Theft Horse than Auto.
diginutt @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM
Wow, never thought I'd see a troll post on Joystiq. Nice.
grable @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM
Heres a cool game idea:
Riot Police, with all the non-lethal equipment against angry mobs of civs with sticks and stones.
and make it RTS like.
now that would actualy be fun to watch =)
OtakuCODE @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM
How about this for a game idea? A racing game. Not just any racing game. THE racing game. The end-all be-all racing game. Start with a solid racing physics engine like Forza. Rework the interface so it's not crap like every racing game ever made (Forza isn't too bad, at least it's not like Gran Turismo that is so turned on by their own work on replays that they try to force you to watch one after every single damn race). Then, the fun starts...
Tracks, cars, and events designed by users. This would most likely be a PC-based game because all great games are that have any level of customization. So, you've got cars and tracks designed by users. Big fantastic library of stuff to play with. If the car makers don't get uppity about people making Lambourghini Countaches and them being in your game without you paying a licensing fee, or if you win the court case, the users will love it.
So kick it up a notch. Take the mapping data behind sites like MapQuest, etc and use them as barebones track bases. Pepper the sidelines and such with procedurally generated content, geographically tweaked as well (adobe buildings in the south, pitched roofs in the north, etc). Infinite tracks right there.
But it can get better. Input your zip code. Now you can race the streets you drive every day. The buildings will be different and such, but they'll be the same roads. How real do you want it to get? How about syncing to the time and weather where you are? It's a nice day out and you want to tear up the street in a Ferrari Enzo? Do it. Your street. Your weather. Your time of day. Sick of the rain? OK, go race on the outskirts of San Francisco. Opponents? Other people who have hopped to those streets, maybe people who live around there.
User designed events. Everything from simple challenges (Race from my house to where I work in 3 minutes: creating the map would be as hard as setting the time of day, weather, and start and end addresses) to a completely new "career mode" type event. Author would setup what cars you start with, what cars you get for each races reward, etc.
The goal of the game would be nothing less than what I said at the beginning. THE racing game. Fully customizable. Something not perfect about it? Change it.
You could buy this game and play it for 10 years possibly. Graphics architecture right now is perfect for building in extensibility. When a new generation of graphics cards comes out, or a new version of DirectX, a simple patch could enable upgrading. User created properties could be created initially with high resolution textures and high polygon count models, downsampled for anyone whose machine isn't up to snuff.
Oh, and just for me... numbers. Numbers in abundance. Statistics on every thing you can imagine. And something every game should have by now - automatic cheater detection. I don't know why game makers insist this is hard (actually I do, look at a company like Valve... they watched the Counterstrike scene and they know full well that 98% of their market is cheaters), but its not. Statistics. If someone is 3 standard deviations above the mean in a significant sample size, they're cheating. Period. Statistics do not lie.
Anyhow, any game companies... feel free to steal this idea. Just someone make the damn thing already.
grable @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM
hey #30 .. thats actualy a good idea =)
i to want to race around where i live,
and with multiplayer its even better .. hehe
Twist @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM
The racing game idea sounds kind of like http://www.racer.nl/
phantomprophet @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM
So, you kill people, steal cars, work for shady individuals, but you are law abiding enough to get a drivers license before you drive?
Lets think that through a bit now....
OtakuCODE @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM
Twist: I'd never heard of the project, thanks! I'll have to grab that tonight and see how far along they are. Too bad it's not a commercial product. A lot of the features I'd like to see would really benefit from a large playerbase.
grable: That could be pretty dang sweet for a short game. As long as whoever made it didn't try to drag it out into some long game with a big story, it could be a lot of fun. Heck, even as a flash game it could be a blast with the right animations and style.
Pat @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM
okay heres my idea for a game. ive worked on it for years and i am finally ready to reveal it.....
you start off as a duck. you get lost from the rest of the flock and dont know where to go. so you start flying and get hit by a car and die. the end.
David @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM
Mr. Madison, what you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.
Ohmz @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM
My idea for a game is this...
You are a paddle, you have to hit a ball to the other side of a screen where another paddle has to deflect it, if they miss you gain a point.
Jeebus, I see why the video game industry is stagnating, everyones idea of a Uber l33t new game is a rip off of something else.
streets of sim city does the racing one btw, mix streets of sim city with something that generates sim city games from GPS mapping software.
The future of gaming lies in innovation not immatation.
Multimodal gaming, games that trancend console pc whatever, a game you can be playing on you mobile and then your pc and maintain the same character but doing different things.
Fuck it I cand be arsed.
Darrell @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM
Editors, please note: the town is called Parksville, not parkville.
OtakuCODE @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM
Ohmz: There will always be racing games. There will always be football games (if EA deems the masses worthy to receive them, that is). Imitation is not instant death for a game idea, otherwise there'd be no such thing as genres.
Multimodal gaming could be interesting to a degree, but would never catch on. The game would either have to be different on the separate platforms (requiring the game designer to score multiple homeruns, rather than just one), or the game would have to adapt to the lowest common denominator. The only situation in which I could see such a thing working would be like with Tetris where your high scores could be shared and such. Something that can survive on any platform and still be playable.
You're never going to find an entirely unique idea. But here's one that hasn't been executed as fully as I envision it:
Roguelikes. A genre of games defined by procedural content. Randomly generated dungeons. THOUSANDS of enemies, THOUSANDS of items, and gameplay that can range into years. I've been playing them on and off for 12 years or so and haven't beaten one yet. We're at a point where I think it could be done. How do we get thousands of enemies without killing our modellers? They create archetypes and define constraints on the models, and the game uses that to extrapolate out new 'breeds' of creatures. Individual creates could also have their appearances customized. This might have a chance of blowing all kinds of vertex buffering that is currently used, but I think with shaders now it could be done acceptably. Imagine being faced by a horde of goblins and not seeing one face identical to another. Some have long noses, some have short, some have lots of hair, some have little... how's that for immersion? Every enemy, even though there are thousands of different types, is a unique being. You see them once and you will never see them again.
Yeah, Diablo did randomly generated dungeons. But with a tiny selection of items and monsters. And a severe limit to the amount of actions available to the player. Roguelikes are turn-based. They have a small rabid following who still mostly play the games in text-graphics mode. Bring it into 3D and it could be a gorgeous game. Don't be afraid to bring the turn-based action, it can be prettied up. And the first time someone is down to 1 hit point, backed into a corner by a harpy and a giant white worm, with 2 potions of unknown effect and a wand they don't know how to fire and they try to decide what to do with what might be their next move... people will come to appreciate turn-based action. Especially when you include one of the best things about roguelikes... when you die, you're dead. Period. No going back to your last save point. Savegames are only used so you can go do something else and come back to the game later, not for resurrection. This is why I haven't finished one of these games in the 12 years I've been playing them. They're not that hard, I'm just not careful enough.
gograh @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM
What about a puzzle game where you're a Tetris block that desperately DOESN'T want to be cleared? You spend your time avoiding being locked into a line, and the more backed up you can get things the more points you're awarded. Or start the game as a Tetris block that gets cleared and shows up in some kind of alternate world, where cleared blocks gloomily wait to be permanently deleted, and you rally other blocks to fight their way back to the "real" world. ;-)
L'Emmerdeur @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM
OMGWTFBBQ teh ROCKSORZ !!!1111eleven
OK, seriously, either it will be revealed that a youngun wrote this up, gave it to his father, and the father went on to turn it into the original GTA
or
You wrote this to fark with your readers, you sorry excuse for a blogger. I'll never get those 28 seconds of my life back! Ever!
Asher @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM
"You have to take a fairy to some of the places"
Interesting. What do you do with the fairy once you get there?
On second thought, don't tell me because I don't want to know.
Rare Hare @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM
nah, i wouldn't buy it.
and, just a note.. the developers don't rate their own games. saying right off the bat that it would be rated 'T' and then going on to say that there is swearing, death, grand theft auto, etc.. doesn't make sense.
guslav @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM
"You can go into gun shops
and buy guns.
Some swearing.
When people die
an ambulance comes
and picks them up."
is it me or is this brilliant abstract poetry?
Jake Fry @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM
#27
What the hell is your problem? Do you usually look for groups of people who are enjoying themselves and then start randomly making fun of them? Theres really no other way to insult you other than reading your comment and then thinking of how much of a sad, pathetic person you must be. So much anger and attempts to insult for nothing. I just dont get it, were you raped as a child (assuming you're not some little 12 year old at a stage in his life where he's unsure of his sexuality) or something? But, it was a halfway decent attempt to insult me.
swawkohlyelk @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM
In response to #23 -- Posted by the_wivil,
Don't you think that your idea sounds a lot like Half Life 2? Don't get me wrong, you have some good ideas there, but if you haven't played that game, do yourself a favor and grab a copy of it.
Nobody does the immersion thing better than Valve. I spent like 3 weeks straight thinking about HL2 after I bought it--it grew to be quite an unhealthy obsession. If you think you can create something more realistic than that, then more power to you.
And for those of you who have not picked up on the cues from the original post, it had to have been written by a very young person. At least I hope it was, otherwise somebody fell asleep in English class way too much.
Designing video games is like creating any other type of art; people are always going to accuse you of ripping other artists off, because your idea sounds like that of someone who came before you. Then again, it could be worse. You could be a rock musician.
010111 @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM
"39. Posted Jul 13, 2005, 11:50 AM ET by Darrell
Editors, please note: the town is called Parksville, not parkville."
interesting. i'm more curious about :
a) where the hell "Parksville" even is.
b) why the hell i'd want to base a game on it. it sounds truly enchanting.
my impression is the original poster is from this "Parksville" and his name is in fact "Brandon". and he has a propensity to wear blue socks and skater shoes. and thinks he is a grade-a pipe hittin' mofo when it comes to coming up with ingenious game ideas.
the fairy and the blue socks though. man oh man. had me rolling.
"15. Posted Jul 12, 2005, 7:49 PM ET by Jake Fry
Having an epic, collossal map where every thing is in proportion so that when you want to go somewhere, you have to make the provisions and take the time to get there. Being in a realistically-sized and proportioned world will immerse the player..."
... in complete boredom. like real life isn't big and time consuming enough. let me guess. i have to wait in real-time to cook food and eat it and in real-time to take showers in the game too. and spend 5 real-life in game minutes dropping a loaf or pissing behind a tree. hopefully i have to like mail shit and wait for it. like pay bills and stuff too. rad. seriously. make this game dude.
and of course... "it will feature the same night/day thing as Ocarine of Time only the time runs much slower"
... awesome. this must be a real fun game. when it takes you a full ACTUAL REAL LIFE DAY to cross 20 miles of map. yeah. i got 8 hours of real life to waste on crap like that. make the guy get tired too. even more fun! or get sick. and it takes like 3 days of bed-ridden game play eating soup and playing backgammon with a hobo before he feels up to doing anything again.
i'd rather spend a real-life 5 minutes walking to the console, getting the disc out, and tossing it in the real-life trash can than take a real-life 5-minutes walking through less than a mile of some lame forest in some ridiculously gigantor in-game map.
the amount of AI and processing required to keep an even remotely populace 'huge overworld' filled with ever-interacting ever-changing ever-influential characters is damn near impossible. now or anytime in the near future.
unlike the original GTA guy though... at least you seem to have at least a little bit of actual drive and ambition and work put into your idea. just needs a little bit (read: a lot) of a reality check. ya know?
Jake Fry @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM
#48
For some reason, when I read what you wrote, I get the picture of some fat, pimpled, cheese doodle eating, antisocial pile of shit who spends the majority of his day insulting movie directors and comic book people and what not and say you could make a better movie, song, comic book, game, etc. on the internet and actually considers his sad excuse for a life to be worth something.
Maybe if you spent a fraction of the time doing something with your life as you do looking for more people to call "TEH SUX. I KULD MAK3 A B3TT3R GAM3 IN MI SL33P!!!!121!@ONE!", you wouldn't have to live with your mom anymore and be able to look at real women without shitting yourself. Seriously, find a life or at least something to do where you don't make a bigger pile of shit out of yourself.
Its obvious you have nothing better to do with your sad, pathetic excuse for a life than insult other people who actually have goals, ambition and a life because youre jealous they dont have to cry themselves to sleep every night, so why don't you skip all the dramatics and just shoot yourself in the head, trust me, it'll be an overall beneficial move. Dont bother replying, I'm not going to drag my life down your shit-hole any more by communicating with you.
Jake Fry @ Dec 18th 2005 9:59PM
#48
For some reason, when I read what you wrote, I get the picture of some
fat, pimpled, cheese doodle eating, antisocial pile of shit who spends
the majority of his day insulting movie directors and comic book people
and what not and say you could make a better movie, song, comic book,
game, etc. on the internet and actually considers his sad excuse for a
life to be worth something.
Do you think anybody on this website, or at all, gives a shit about your prowess at whatever the fuck it is you do. Just shut the fuck up, you're the kind of person nobody wants to make eye contact with because that will let you know that the person knows you exist. You're such a sad pathetic little man raving about how much everybody but you sucks. You're the type of person that people don't want to live, but they're not going to waste the time or energy to kill you, because they know the longer you live for, the bigger of an everybody-sucks-but-me jackass you'll become.
Maybe if you spent a fraction of the time doing something with your
life as you do looking for more people to call "TEH SUX. I KULD MAK3 A
B3TT3R GAM3 IN MI SL33P!!!!121!@ONE!", you wouldn't have to live with
your mom anymore and be able to look at real women without shitting
yourself. Seriously, find a life or at least something to do where you don't
make a bigger pile of shit out of yourself.
Its obvious you have nothing better to do with your sad, pathetic
excuse for a life than insult other people who actually have goals,
ambition and a life because youre jealous they dont have to cry themselves to
sleep every night, so why don't you skip all the dramatics and just
shoot yourself in the head, trust me, it'll be an overall beneficial move.
Dont bother replying, I'm not going to drag my life down your shit-hole
any more by communicating with you.