Game Ideas

From GDWiki

Main Page >> Game Ideas | Lone Developer

1 Introduction
2 Game Genres and Archetypes
- 2.1 Established
- 2.2 Non-established
3 Concrete Game Ideas
4 Vague Game Conceptual Ideas
5 General Ideas
6 Related Pages
7 External Links

[edit] Introduction

Writers, filmmakers, musicians, painters and a lot of other artists have a tradition for gathering in clubs, where they discuss their work, and borrow and get inspired by each others ideas and visions.

In the indie game industry, however, it's hard to find any clubs for game creation. Most game creators run solo with their own personal projects. This might have a negative influence on their creativity. 'Indie' is short for 'independent'. This is because indie comics/movies/books/games don't need to be a commercial success, and thus, the indie game developer is able to experiment and take chances. But, a lot of indie games do not utilize their independence. Instead, they are often imitations or even remakes of commercial games.

This is a bit sad, since the indie scene has a tradition of being the creative front-line; trying out things that are too unusual or risky for the overground, which is dependent on the commercial success of their product.

This page is no solution to this. But, it is a place where people can share their ideas and visions with others. A lot of people get ideas for games which they don't have the time/skill/ambition to create, but which are original and useable anyway. Even if you dont want to turn your game idea into a project yourself, it might be possible that someone else will. And, even if they dont, your input might trigger some brain cells for someone, who then gets another idea. In short, sharing your ideas won't hurt!

DISCLAIMER: By posting your ideas here, you abandon any ownership of it, and anyone will be free to use it as they please.

IANAL, but even without the disclaimer, ideas are not works, so they aren't copyrightable, so it's not an offense. (There's a reason you can't get in legal trouble for plagiarism at school.)

[edit] Game Genres and Archetypes

The following are a number of established and hypothesized but non-established genres and archetypes to base a new game around. Remember that one should not limit their creativity to a narrowly defined set of game types, and that the best games tend to be the ones that break new ground (often forming genres of their own). Nevertheless, the following provides solid examples in game design and can provide inspiration for new games.

[edit] Established

Established games have strong working examples and often form their own genre with many titles being within the genre. Important and influential titles are shown in parenthesis.

Third Person Shooter (SOCOM, Metal Gear Solid series, Splinter Cell series)
Arcade Racers (Rush, Midnight Club, Need for Speed, Ridge Racer)
Open World Game (Grand Theft Auto series, Saint's Row, True Crime, Jack II)
People Sim Game (The Sims)
Rhythm Game (Guitar Hero, Parapa the Rapper, RockBand, Dance Dance Revolution)
City Sim Game (Sim City, City Life, Caesar series, Children of the Nile)
God Game (Populous, Black & White, Dungeon Keeper)
Evolution Game (Creatures, SimLife, Spore)
First Person Shooter (FPS) (Doom, Halo 1 - 3, Quake, Unreal, Half-Life 1 & 2, Goldeneye)
First Person Stealth (Thief, Splinter Cell)
FPS/RPG hybrid (System Shock, Deus Ex)
Team-Based Multiplayer FPS (Team Fortress, Counter-Strike, Unreal Tournament (C&C), Battlefield 1942)
Real-Time Strategy Game (RTS) (Starcraft, Warcraft, Dune 2, Command & Conquer, Age of Empires, Total Annihilation, Stronghold, Supreme Commander)
Turn-Based Strategy Game (Civilization, Heroes of Might and Magic, Master of Orion, Galactic Civilizations)
2D Platformer (Donkey Kong, Super Mario Bros., Sonic, Lemmings)
3D Platformer (Mario 64, Crash Bandicoot, Banjo Kazooie, Sonic Adventure)
Party Games (Mario Party 1-8)
Interactive Fiction (Zork)
Graphic Adventure (Maniac Mansion, Monkey Island series, Grim Fandango, Kings Quest, Broken Sword)
Puzzle Adventure (Myst, Black Mirror, Runaway, Ankh)
Role Playing Game (RPG) (Dungeons & Dragons, nethack, Baldur's Gate series, Never Winter Nights)
First Person RPG (Gothic series, Morrowind, Oblivion)
Party Based RPG's (Final fantasy I, Pool of Radiance)
Action RPG (also known as Hack`n slash) (Titan Quest, Sacred, Kingdom Hearts)
RPG/RTS hybrid (Spellforce, Heroes of Annihilated Empires)
Massively Multiplayer Online RPG (MMORPG) (Everquest, World of Warcraft, Guild Wars, RuneScape, Final Fantasy XI)
Metaverse (Second Life)
Roguelike (Rogue, ADOM, Angband, Nethack)
Simulator (Flight Sim, Trackmania, Gran Turismo series)
Unique Scrolling Shooting Games [Xevious, Twinbee, Gradius, Side Arms, Darius, R-Type, Thunder Force, EDF(Earth Defense Force)]
Fighting Games (Street Fighter, Tekken, Mortal Kombat)

[edit] Non-established

Non-established games have been hypothesized and possibly attempted but they have yet to become well established and popular in the games industry for various reasons.

RTS/FPS hybrid (Sacrifice, Natural Selection, Tremulous, Spring, Savage:The Battle For Newerth, Battlezone 1&2)
Interactive Storytelling (Facade, Storytron)
Massively Multiplayer Online FPS (MMOFPS) (Planetside, GUNZ, Neocron)
MMORTS (Shattered Galaxy, Saga)
MMORTS/FPS hybrid (Allegiance)
MMO/Puzzle Adventure (URU)