Misc Game Ideas
by Created By: X · in Game Design and Creative Issues · 11/05/2004 (12:24 am) · 16 replies
General Game Ideas - Created by: X ( Part 1 )
The following is a list of my likes and dislikes that I have compiled over the past few months, as it regards to game play and a game's fun factor. www.createdbyx.com
Dislikes
1: Do not like dying!
2: Multiple weapons, multiple items with multiple settings.
3: Leader / Henchmen structure (been done to death!)
4: weapon reloading
Likes
1: Simple colors. ( Legend of Zelda A link to the Past for the SNES )
2: hand to hand combat with or without hand weapons
3: A narrator narrating the story as it progresses (Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver)
4: Puzzles that flow well with the story line (Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver "Cathedral")
5: No load times
6: Easy to grasp story line
7: Storylines completely based on the evil side and or from the evils perspective
8: Many different forms of transportation trains, planes, automobiles, snowboards , bicycles, etc.
9: The ability to pull weapons off of the walls and use them.
Misc Ideas
1: Character becomes who ever gets assassinated or destroyed
2: Character has ability to adapt. For example in hand to hand combat, if an opponent uses a spin kick, eventually players character can learn to do it also.
3: Other players can join into and leave a single player game at any time.
4: The game demo should be a prelude to the actual game and not just be the first couple of levels etc.
5: If second household has no copy, try to set up the game so that it works like the Gameboy Advance, and only one person needs the game to play.
6: Energy weapons use the same energy modules as the lights or other energy powered object in the environment. The player can take an energy modules from lights witch are refueled through circuits and the walls. Dead weapon energy modules can be replaced with one's powering a light for example, and vice versa.
The following is a list of my likes and dislikes that I have compiled over the past few months, as it regards to game play and a game's fun factor. www.createdbyx.com
Dislikes
1: Do not like dying!
2: Multiple weapons, multiple items with multiple settings.
3: Leader / Henchmen structure (been done to death!)
4: weapon reloading
Likes
1: Simple colors. ( Legend of Zelda A link to the Past for the SNES )
2: hand to hand combat with or without hand weapons
3: A narrator narrating the story as it progresses (Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver)
4: Puzzles that flow well with the story line (Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver "Cathedral")
5: No load times
6: Easy to grasp story line
7: Storylines completely based on the evil side and or from the evils perspective
8: Many different forms of transportation trains, planes, automobiles, snowboards , bicycles, etc.
9: The ability to pull weapons off of the walls and use them.
Misc Ideas
1: Character becomes who ever gets assassinated or destroyed
2: Character has ability to adapt. For example in hand to hand combat, if an opponent uses a spin kick, eventually players character can learn to do it also.
3: Other players can join into and leave a single player game at any time.
4: The game demo should be a prelude to the actual game and not just be the first couple of levels etc.
5: If second household has no copy, try to set up the game so that it works like the Gameboy Advance, and only one person needs the game to play.
6: Energy weapons use the same energy modules as the lights or other energy powered object in the environment. The player can take an energy modules from lights witch are refueled through circuits and the walls. Dead weapon energy modules can be replaced with one's powering a light for example, and vice versa.
#2
Licensing Ideas
1: Unlimited copies or installs per household.
2: For commercial licensing, license should allow for say 10 installs per 1000 square feet of floor space.
3: Purchase always includes two licenses or disks.
4: Free LAN party distribution but requires non-owners to uninstall before leaving the premises.
5: Game should ship with all or partial source code and utilities etc, bound by its own licenses.
6: The actual game engine is free but the game data is not. (Textures/Maps/Sounds etc)
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Comments made at The Game Programming Wiki
The Game Programming Wiki
Comment by ShoDaN:
Well. that are nice ideas, but:
1.) How do you do the LAN-Party-Leavers-must-uninstall-check ? This is impossible to implement. -> The Game would spread from Lan party to Lan party -> Nothing to make money with anymore.
2.) The Game engine should be free: Impossible. Implementing the Game Engine costs more money than any other part. This is the main answer to the Question: Why is the Quake (I) Engine still used in many new games? Many Commercial Game Companys make money through selling their engines. (Much more than selling their games in fact. (Example: Quake - Engine))
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Comment by Created by: X(Reply to ShoDaN) - Nov 5, 2004:
True the LAN party uninstall idea is if'y at best. But it also kinda ties into the first licensing idea "Unlimited copies or installs per household." Which would imply that you could take your computer or laptop over to somone elses house, install and play the game there but again have to uninstall before leaving the premisis. I did not specify this in the post but I had the .NET framework in mind at the time. With apps created under the .NET Framework you don't need installers. You could simply hook up a LAN line to both computers and the visiting computer could run the app off of the hosting computer, all over the wire without having to copy the game over to the visiting computer. So the visiting computer could come and go as it pleases without having to void the "Unlimited copies or installs per household." licence because no part of the game or game files were copied from the hosting computer.
As for your second point,... Quote from my Doom 3 Review "...After all there is no competition when game engines like Doom 3, UT2004, HL2, Halo2 at there core are all the same. They all render fancy graphics to the screen, they all play sounds and music, they all have characters running around, they all simulate phisics etc etc. The only difference between them is not there technology but something completely seprate from it. Textures, Sounds, Music, and 3D geometry. You can take a game like HL2 and move/convert all of it's textures, sounds, maps etc and run the same "game" using the doom 3 engine, with only minor technology difference between the two engines." So it's not the code that makes games different its the data files that make up the content of the game.
11/05/2004 (12:29 am)
General Game Ideas - Created by: X ( Part 2 )Licensing Ideas
1: Unlimited copies or installs per household.
2: For commercial licensing, license should allow for say 10 installs per 1000 square feet of floor space.
3: Purchase always includes two licenses or disks.
4: Free LAN party distribution but requires non-owners to uninstall before leaving the premises.
5: Game should ship with all or partial source code and utilities etc, bound by its own licenses.
6: The actual game engine is free but the game data is not. (Textures/Maps/Sounds etc)
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Comments made at The Game Programming Wiki
The Game Programming Wiki
Comment by ShoDaN:
Well. that are nice ideas, but:
1.) How do you do the LAN-Party-Leavers-must-uninstall-check ? This is impossible to implement. -> The Game would spread from Lan party to Lan party -> Nothing to make money with anymore.
2.) The Game engine should be free: Impossible. Implementing the Game Engine costs more money than any other part. This is the main answer to the Question: Why is the Quake (I) Engine still used in many new games? Many Commercial Game Companys make money through selling their engines. (Much more than selling their games in fact. (Example: Quake - Engine))
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Comment by Created by: X(Reply to ShoDaN) - Nov 5, 2004:
True the LAN party uninstall idea is if'y at best. But it also kinda ties into the first licensing idea "Unlimited copies or installs per household." Which would imply that you could take your computer or laptop over to somone elses house, install and play the game there but again have to uninstall before leaving the premisis. I did not specify this in the post but I had the .NET framework in mind at the time. With apps created under the .NET Framework you don't need installers. You could simply hook up a LAN line to both computers and the visiting computer could run the app off of the hosting computer, all over the wire without having to copy the game over to the visiting computer. So the visiting computer could come and go as it pleases without having to void the "Unlimited copies or installs per household." licence because no part of the game or game files were copied from the hosting computer.
As for your second point,... Quote from my Doom 3 Review "...After all there is no competition when game engines like Doom 3, UT2004, HL2, Halo2 at there core are all the same. They all render fancy graphics to the screen, they all play sounds and music, they all have characters running around, they all simulate phisics etc etc. The only difference between them is not there technology but something completely seprate from it. Textures, Sounds, Music, and 3D geometry. You can take a game like HL2 and move/convert all of it's textures, sounds, maps etc and run the same "game" using the doom 3 engine, with only minor technology difference between the two engines." So it's not the code that makes games different its the data files that make up the content of the game.
#3
Dislike reloading??
Those are integral parts of any game...
11/05/2004 (12:32 am)
Dislike multiple weapons??Dislike reloading??
Those are integral parts of any game...
#4
2: Ubscene ammounts of weapon choices and weapon settings or configurations is lame. How are you ever supposed to know exactly what weapon and what weapon configuration is the best?!?
11/05/2004 (12:37 am)
1: Trying to find more ammo because you are a total dweeb at shooting, sucks! No i don't suck at shooting, but you have to realize that there are people that could not hit the broad side of a barn if there life depended on it!! Aka anyone over 40! :p2: Ubscene ammounts of weapon choices and weapon settings or configurations is lame. How are you ever supposed to know exactly what weapon and what weapon configuration is the best?!?
#5
Also, people have different styles of play, and a broader choice of good weapons for each situation lets them find one that best suits them, rather than being stuck with the only weapon that's any good, which may not suit how they like to play.
I mean, it's not like the choice of 50 chainsaws and 50 sniper rifles is going to make you any more likely to pick a chainsaw for a sniper mission.
11/06/2004 (4:13 am)
I like having a choice of lots of weapons cause it lets you have a favourite weapon for each situation. That beats having only one decent weapon for each situation, in which case once you figure out which one is best for each situation. You may as well just let the game pick the right weapon automatically when it's too obvious.Also, people have different styles of play, and a broader choice of good weapons for each situation lets them find one that best suits them, rather than being stuck with the only weapon that's any good, which may not suit how they like to play.
I mean, it's not like the choice of 50 chainsaws and 50 sniper rifles is going to make you any more likely to pick a chainsaw for a sniper mission.
#7
1. Complicated Inventory Management
2. Being forced to talk to everyone in a town to figure out what the next quest is
3. Walking long distances in a game without anything happening
4. Having to find "save points" or some other junk
5. Having to hit some ridiculous combination of controls just to attack
6. Jumping over pits in Mario-like games (jumping a few pixels too early means starting the level over)
11/06/2004 (6:21 am)
Dislikes:1. Complicated Inventory Management
2. Being forced to talk to everyone in a town to figure out what the next quest is
3. Walking long distances in a game without anything happening
4. Having to find "save points" or some other junk
5. Having to hit some ridiculous combination of controls just to attack
6. Jumping over pits in Mario-like games (jumping a few pixels too early means starting the level over)
#8
>1. Complicated Inventory Management
What sorts of things would you consider too complicated? In my inventory system, there is basically just a list of equipped and un-equipped items. But it is somewhat complicated: Items can be made out of different materials which give the item different properties (IE a steel sword does more damage than an iron or bronze sword). In fact some items are made of 3 different materials so there are a lot of combinations. But you can tell what material an item is made of just by looking at it, so if you see a crossbow that has a rusty mechanism and a stock made out of flake board, you know that it's crappy.
>3. Walking long distances in a game without anything happening
In my game, there is a town area and a combat area in the woods. The two areas need to be seperated by at least one giant hill so the engine doesnt have to render them both at the same time. So it takes a good while to walk between them. Any ideas on how to make the walk more interesting? I could have random monsters spawn, but that would just make it take even longer.
>6. Jumping over pits in Mario-like games (jumping a few pixels too early means starting the level over)
I agree. What I really hate is when a monster hits you, only does a tiny bit of damage, but knocks you into a pit.
11/06/2004 (7:58 am)
@Steven:>1. Complicated Inventory Management
What sorts of things would you consider too complicated? In my inventory system, there is basically just a list of equipped and un-equipped items. But it is somewhat complicated: Items can be made out of different materials which give the item different properties (IE a steel sword does more damage than an iron or bronze sword). In fact some items are made of 3 different materials so there are a lot of combinations. But you can tell what material an item is made of just by looking at it, so if you see a crossbow that has a rusty mechanism and a stock made out of flake board, you know that it's crappy.
>3. Walking long distances in a game without anything happening
In my game, there is a town area and a combat area in the woods. The two areas need to be seperated by at least one giant hill so the engine doesnt have to render them both at the same time. So it takes a good while to walk between them. Any ideas on how to make the walk more interesting? I could have random monsters spawn, but that would just make it take even longer.
>6. Jumping over pits in Mario-like games (jumping a few pixels too early means starting the level over)
I agree. What I really hate is when a monster hits you, only does a tiny bit of damage, but knocks you into a pit.
#9
I am refering more to games like the final fantasy series where there are a large vareity of weapons, and spells, to choose from. It's not that I am against multiple weapons with multiple settings so long as it kept to an optimum level, and does not take hours, perhaps even days to find out what weapon/setting config works best.
Replay to Ace:
I' m not that young. But I am also only aware of less than a handfull of people over 30, that actually play video games! Most others I know would be hard pressed in figuring out how to turn the system on let alone play a video game.
Reply to Steven Fletcher:
I agree to all of the points you made!
I to also hate falling down a pit. Especilly if that pit on screen only appears to be 4 feet deep! If you character falls down a pit, like in a mario game, that pit should be deep enough to give the player a change to wall jump there way back out of the pit before falling to there death.
11/06/2004 (10:45 am)
Reply to David 'KrimZon' Laurie:I am refering more to games like the final fantasy series where there are a large vareity of weapons, and spells, to choose from. It's not that I am against multiple weapons with multiple settings so long as it kept to an optimum level, and does not take hours, perhaps even days to find out what weapon/setting config works best.
Replay to Ace:
I' m not that young. But I am also only aware of less than a handfull of people over 30, that actually play video games! Most others I know would be hard pressed in figuring out how to turn the system on let alone play a video game.
Reply to Steven Fletcher:
I agree to all of the points you made!
I to also hate falling down a pit. Especilly if that pit on screen only appears to be 4 feet deep! If you character falls down a pit, like in a mario game, that pit should be deep enough to give the player a change to wall jump there way back out of the pit before falling to there death.
#10
1: Basically, I want to pick up a weapon (or whatever), and - PRESTO - it's equipped. If there's weapons that are different in ways other than just one being absolutely better than the other, I would like to have a maximum of 1 key press or mouse click to switch between them. There could be categories like: sword, bow, flamegun, hammer, and whatever - each with differerent capabilities. There could be at most 10 of them - preferably less.
Armor should always be just - PRESTO - it's equipped.
Optionally, there can be some sort of materia-like system or relics of some kind, but I would really prefer not to have it. If there is one, I want it to be completely seperate from weapons and armor.
As far as one-use items, I wan them to just appear in a list. There can only be a limitted number of them at anyone time (perhaps just a limit to the size of your inventory) because I don't want to scroll around. It's fine to have "Elixir, quantity: 99", but having 99 items to scroll through from is just too much.
There should never be empty space. I don't ever want to sort anything - the program should just display everything in an orderly way.
3: Ever played Diablo 2? Diablo 2 has waypoints. When you step on a waypoint, it's activated. You can use an activated waypoint to teleport to any other activated waypoint instantly. So once you've been somewhere, you can go right back.
@Created By: X
That point about the pits is great. If there's a pit, there should be some sort of sewer or something you can run through. That's fine with me, even if falling down the pit hurts you a little (or alot). There just shouldn't be bottomless pits of death.
11/07/2004 (6:22 pm)
@Eric1: Basically, I want to pick up a weapon (or whatever), and - PRESTO - it's equipped. If there's weapons that are different in ways other than just one being absolutely better than the other, I would like to have a maximum of 1 key press or mouse click to switch between them. There could be categories like: sword, bow, flamegun, hammer, and whatever - each with differerent capabilities. There could be at most 10 of them - preferably less.
Armor should always be just - PRESTO - it's equipped.
Optionally, there can be some sort of materia-like system or relics of some kind, but I would really prefer not to have it. If there is one, I want it to be completely seperate from weapons and armor.
As far as one-use items, I wan them to just appear in a list. There can only be a limitted number of them at anyone time (perhaps just a limit to the size of your inventory) because I don't want to scroll around. It's fine to have "Elixir, quantity: 99", but having 99 items to scroll through from is just too much.
There should never be empty space. I don't ever want to sort anything - the program should just display everything in an orderly way.
3: Ever played Diablo 2? Diablo 2 has waypoints. When you step on a waypoint, it's activated. You can use an activated waypoint to teleport to any other activated waypoint instantly. So once you've been somewhere, you can go right back.
@Created By: X
That point about the pits is great. If there's a pit, there should be some sort of sewer or something you can run through. That's fine with me, even if falling down the pit hurts you a little (or alot). There just shouldn't be bottomless pits of death.
#11
I think if you'll just run a little google search you will find that the largest percentage group of video game buyers that are also players crosses from late twenties into the thirties. Your comments sound to me more like a 16 year old who has got everything all figured out in his head without even doing any basic research. No offense, but my mom who is 55 has a very powerfull PC and is hip to MP3 players, PDA's DigiCams and photoshop editing, etc.. etc..., My dad is 67 and also has his own computer for his record keeping, bill paying, emailing, researching, music listening, etc... And as if that were not enough my grandmother who is 84 also has her own computer which she uses for keeping in touch with family via email and instant messenger, she also uses it to chat with her local church group which is composed of other very old ladies that each also have their own computers, etc... etc.... So from my point of view it looks more like you just don't know anybody at all versus you have done any research on these subjects. All of my family that I can think of and most of the people I know are completely electronic capable. And most of us are getting on in our years.
Oh and BTW, out of the 4 of us that you now know about, my dad is the only one that doesn't play games on their PC's at least occasionally..
11/07/2004 (9:55 pm)
Quote:Replay to Ace:
I' m not that young. But I am also only aware of less than a handfull of people over 30, that actually play video games! Most others I know would be hard pressed in figuring out how to turn the system on let alone play a video game.
I think if you'll just run a little google search you will find that the largest percentage group of video game buyers that are also players crosses from late twenties into the thirties. Your comments sound to me more like a 16 year old who has got everything all figured out in his head without even doing any basic research. No offense, but my mom who is 55 has a very powerfull PC and is hip to MP3 players, PDA's DigiCams and photoshop editing, etc.. etc..., My dad is 67 and also has his own computer for his record keeping, bill paying, emailing, researching, music listening, etc... And as if that were not enough my grandmother who is 84 also has her own computer which she uses for keeping in touch with family via email and instant messenger, she also uses it to chat with her local church group which is composed of other very old ladies that each also have their own computers, etc... etc.... So from my point of view it looks more like you just don't know anybody at all versus you have done any research on these subjects. All of my family that I can think of and most of the people I know are completely electronic capable. And most of us are getting on in our years.
Oh and BTW, out of the 4 of us that you now know about, my dad is the only one that doesn't play games on their PC's at least occasionally..
#12
Holy crap! That's one wired family! Up here in the great white north, wired families like that are rare. At least that's been my experience.
11/08/2004 (1:10 am)
Reply to Gonzo T. Clown:Holy crap! That's one wired family! Up here in the great white north, wired families like that are rare. At least that's been my experience.
#13
Ehehehe, I bet. Haven't seen it in RTS games, some FPS's and most RPG's, though.
11/08/2004 (3:54 am)
Quote:
Dislike multiple weapons??
Dislike reloading??
Those are integral parts of any game...
Ehehehe, I bet. Haven't seen it in RTS games, some FPS's and most RPG's, though.
#14
11/08/2004 (4:55 am)
Manual reloading is what sucks, that has got to be one of the dumbest things a dev has came up with
#15
I like choice of weapons, ie shotgun for up close, rifle for distance. What we dont see enough of is real differences in weapon types. Having used handguns and rifles, I'll take a .45 glock over a .45 1911 any day, the glocks more accurate, handles recoil better, larger capacity mag, etc... Use any two .45's in a game though, and they will be identicle for all intents and purposes.
More often you have one handgun, one smg, one rifle etc. That sucks.
11/08/2004 (5:33 am)
Manual reloading is good, if you forget to reload, and have a half empty clip, it really gets you if you get jumped and have to reload while being shot.I like choice of weapons, ie shotgun for up close, rifle for distance. What we dont see enough of is real differences in weapon types. Having used handguns and rifles, I'll take a .45 glock over a .45 1911 any day, the glocks more accurate, handles recoil better, larger capacity mag, etc... Use any two .45's in a game though, and they will be identicle for all intents and purposes.
More often you have one handgun, one smg, one rifle etc. That sucks.
#16
11/08/2004 (6:29 pm)
I think manual reloading is good for strategy-type combat games (like Fallout Tactics), but I dislike it in FPS's. It just slows down the action. I don't play many FPS's anyways though.
Torque Owner Paul Malyschko
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