I am starting this topic hoping that some really good and novelty ideas for future computer games come up and that some game development studios might actually turn them into real games...
I have played computer games since the late 80's. Initially games were full with brand new ideas and the gaming experience/gameplays/stories were excellent. Then later, especially in the last 8-10 years, I sadly noticed that most games made by big name studios have increasingly become ?dime a dozen?, nothing-new, boring games with poor gameplay but with excellent graphics. Unfortunately I am not interested in good graphics, I am interested in good gameplay. I am may be too old, but ? do you really want to play the 150th first person shooter game where time slows down for you when needed and where your health regenerates if you can avoid being shot for 5 seconds? Or a 200th ?click-and-kill? Diablo-clone where you can kill 99% of the enemies with one or two mouse clicks, where a dozen foes or monsters lurk at every corner (quite predictably), and where by the end of the game you will have killed some almost 100,000 enemies? Just soooo booooring... at least, they are boring for me.
So in the last couple of years I turned towards indie games. FTL, Incredipede, The Book of Unwritten Tales, Waking Mars etc.... so many wonderful, fresh, novelty ideas, so good gameplays. But these are usually made by a few people, or very small studios, on a very thigh budget, so expect nothing of Skyrim-sized or depth or length. How wonderful it would be if big studios were not afraid of trying to walk some unbeaten paths too...
So, if you have any good ideas for future games, that you would gladly play, please post them here. Maybe once somebody who have the power and means to turn them into real computer games reads them...
Here are a few ideas of mine:
- A MMO that has non-combatant classes. Myself, and many of my friends like role playing, but we don't like mindless killing. And unfortunately most MMO's about killing and killing. But let's say, there was an MMO where, along fighters, there were ?non-combatant? classes, such as priests, healers, farmers, traders, librarians, blacksmiths etc. They could develop their skills by solving non-violent tasks, by practice, by learning from each other, by experiments, by research etc. (Just think about the Sims 1-2-3, you don't kill anybody there, yet your people develop skills etc, and there are millions of fans of these games). And the big thing: they could interact with each others as well as with the fighters. Let's say a fighter injured and need healing. So he goes to a healer who is not a computer-driven NPC, but a real human player! How effective the healing is, how much the healer ask as payment for the healing is up to the healer. He might want 100 gold pieces. He might just ask the fighter to do a little favor. Or might heal the fighter for free if he agrees with the fighter's mission. Also, when a fighter needs a new sword, he goes to a blacksmith or to a trader ? who are real human players as well! Well he need some extra info he might just ask around or might go to a librarian to see if he has any documents about the given question or problem. And so on...
- Stay at role-playing. Can you remember ?Betrayal at Krondor?? If you don't: an old-old role playing game where you have a party you lead in an open world. The game is ?real time? and has ?first person view? up until you come across some enemy. Then the game changes to turn-based. Yes, all the battles are turn based! If you played old turn-based games like Jagged Alliance or UFO etc. you know these are usually very good battles: rather than just clicking on the enemy to kill it, or pause the game all the time to give your team their commands (when they turned the turn based games into ?real time?, sadly), you have to design every movement, every attack sequence very well in order to be the victor. Every battle is a real challenge. Not just mindless mouse-clicking. So, how about a ?Skyrim? where you have a party of 3-5 people who can wander freely in the world, there are much less battles but all battles are epic and turn-base?
- Space advanture/roleplaying/simulation. Almost all space-games allow you only to navigate in space only. Some gives you the chance to move around on the surfaces of certain planets as well (for example Mass Effect 1). But how wonderful it would be, to have a kind of ?Mass Effect? and ?Elite? mixture, where there is a story, there are quests, yet you can navigate your spaceship just like in X-Wing (and yes, have real simulation-like space battles) but you can still land on the planets! And by ?landing? I mean not just getting close to a planet and answer ?yes? to the question ?do you want to land on this planet?? and the find yourself on the surface of the planet (Again, Mass Effect 1). Imagine you getting close to the planet. You sit in the navigation room, you see the planet getting larger and larger, then getting into the atmosphere (if there is any), the sphere shape of the planet gradually becomes landscape as your altitude decreases and in the end, you land. Of course, you can land only if the planet's gravity not too large. Or if there is a surface, and it is not a gas giant. Or if radiation levels no to high. You might even leave the spaceship on foot but there can be high wing, predators, enemies, heavy rain, radiation, etc. I appreciate this would require lot of textures and maps and the game would be probably many dozens of GB in size. But hey, many of us have 1-2-3-4TB drives in these days and 20-60-120MBit broadband connections, so where's the problem? I imagine many people would (I am sure I would) be fascinated just to visit distant solar systems and land on various planets to explore them and to see the stunning visuals as gradually descending from orbital altitudes to sea level...
- Let's see something totally different. How about a starbase simulator? Let's say there would be scenarios, going from our solar system to distant solar systems or even deep space. Scenarios from building up very small and basic starbases from scratch and making them self-supplying (can be a big task) to manage huge starbases and defend them against an invasion, or direct a intergalactical cross-race summit and look after that their alien guests are all safe and looked after. Some starbases would be on planets or moons, with or without breathable/toxic atmosphere, some planets could be just mere rock, others could be tropical ?Jurassic? jungles. Some starbases could be flying freely in deep space or orbit around planets or suns. The possibilities are endless, there could be a number of expansion packs.
- Look something extraordinary: how about a ?heaven-simulation?? Let's say the story is that human race reached the next step in their evolution, and all people now spiritually enlightened. They won't harm each other or the fauna/flora. They help each other and work freely for the common good. There is no money and it doesn't make any sense any more. All the technology, all the powerplants etc need to be ?green?, not harming the environment. Etc. With other words, building an Eden/Paradise/Heaven for the spiritually developed new human race. Could you build one and make it work? There would be so easy to fail, it would be a real challenge?
- Car games... They are almost all about getting somewhere as fast as it is possible, or be faster than the opponents, race against the clock, be the cop and pursuit bad guys etc. But how about, let's say, a 4x4 simulator, let's say a Camel Trophy simulation? Where you have to know your 4x4 car's abilities, know where to attempt to get across the river, know how step hill you can climb (and yes, fall over if you calculated wrong), know how not to stuck in the deep mud (or how to get out of it if you did) etc.
And so on...
Any new ideas, anything that you would play, just post it here...
Sorry for the long-long-long post
)
I have played computer games since the late 80's. Initially games were full with brand new ideas and the gaming experience/gameplays/stories were excellent. Then later, especially in the last 8-10 years, I sadly noticed that most games made by big name studios have increasingly become ?dime a dozen?, nothing-new, boring games with poor gameplay but with excellent graphics. Unfortunately I am not interested in good graphics, I am interested in good gameplay. I am may be too old, but ? do you really want to play the 150th first person shooter game where time slows down for you when needed and where your health regenerates if you can avoid being shot for 5 seconds? Or a 200th ?click-and-kill? Diablo-clone where you can kill 99% of the enemies with one or two mouse clicks, where a dozen foes or monsters lurk at every corner (quite predictably), and where by the end of the game you will have killed some almost 100,000 enemies? Just soooo booooring... at least, they are boring for me.
So in the last couple of years I turned towards indie games. FTL, Incredipede, The Book of Unwritten Tales, Waking Mars etc.... so many wonderful, fresh, novelty ideas, so good gameplays. But these are usually made by a few people, or very small studios, on a very thigh budget, so expect nothing of Skyrim-sized or depth or length. How wonderful it would be if big studios were not afraid of trying to walk some unbeaten paths too...
So, if you have any good ideas for future games, that you would gladly play, please post them here. Maybe once somebody who have the power and means to turn them into real computer games reads them...
Here are a few ideas of mine:
- A MMO that has non-combatant classes. Myself, and many of my friends like role playing, but we don't like mindless killing. And unfortunately most MMO's about killing and killing. But let's say, there was an MMO where, along fighters, there were ?non-combatant? classes, such as priests, healers, farmers, traders, librarians, blacksmiths etc. They could develop their skills by solving non-violent tasks, by practice, by learning from each other, by experiments, by research etc. (Just think about the Sims 1-2-3, you don't kill anybody there, yet your people develop skills etc, and there are millions of fans of these games). And the big thing: they could interact with each others as well as with the fighters. Let's say a fighter injured and need healing. So he goes to a healer who is not a computer-driven NPC, but a real human player! How effective the healing is, how much the healer ask as payment for the healing is up to the healer. He might want 100 gold pieces. He might just ask the fighter to do a little favor. Or might heal the fighter for free if he agrees with the fighter's mission. Also, when a fighter needs a new sword, he goes to a blacksmith or to a trader ? who are real human players as well! Well he need some extra info he might just ask around or might go to a librarian to see if he has any documents about the given question or problem. And so on...
- Stay at role-playing. Can you remember ?Betrayal at Krondor?? If you don't: an old-old role playing game where you have a party you lead in an open world. The game is ?real time? and has ?first person view? up until you come across some enemy. Then the game changes to turn-based. Yes, all the battles are turn based! If you played old turn-based games like Jagged Alliance or UFO etc. you know these are usually very good battles: rather than just clicking on the enemy to kill it, or pause the game all the time to give your team their commands (when they turned the turn based games into ?real time?, sadly), you have to design every movement, every attack sequence very well in order to be the victor. Every battle is a real challenge. Not just mindless mouse-clicking. So, how about a ?Skyrim? where you have a party of 3-5 people who can wander freely in the world, there are much less battles but all battles are epic and turn-base?
- Space advanture/roleplaying/simulation. Almost all space-games allow you only to navigate in space only. Some gives you the chance to move around on the surfaces of certain planets as well (for example Mass Effect 1). But how wonderful it would be, to have a kind of ?Mass Effect? and ?Elite? mixture, where there is a story, there are quests, yet you can navigate your spaceship just like in X-Wing (and yes, have real simulation-like space battles) but you can still land on the planets! And by ?landing? I mean not just getting close to a planet and answer ?yes? to the question ?do you want to land on this planet?? and the find yourself on the surface of the planet (Again, Mass Effect 1). Imagine you getting close to the planet. You sit in the navigation room, you see the planet getting larger and larger, then getting into the atmosphere (if there is any), the sphere shape of the planet gradually becomes landscape as your altitude decreases and in the end, you land. Of course, you can land only if the planet's gravity not too large. Or if there is a surface, and it is not a gas giant. Or if radiation levels no to high. You might even leave the spaceship on foot but there can be high wing, predators, enemies, heavy rain, radiation, etc. I appreciate this would require lot of textures and maps and the game would be probably many dozens of GB in size. But hey, many of us have 1-2-3-4TB drives in these days and 20-60-120MBit broadband connections, so where's the problem? I imagine many people would (I am sure I would) be fascinated just to visit distant solar systems and land on various planets to explore them and to see the stunning visuals as gradually descending from orbital altitudes to sea level...
- Let's see something totally different. How about a starbase simulator? Let's say there would be scenarios, going from our solar system to distant solar systems or even deep space. Scenarios from building up very small and basic starbases from scratch and making them self-supplying (can be a big task) to manage huge starbases and defend them against an invasion, or direct a intergalactical cross-race summit and look after that their alien guests are all safe and looked after. Some starbases would be on planets or moons, with or without breathable/toxic atmosphere, some planets could be just mere rock, others could be tropical ?Jurassic? jungles. Some starbases could be flying freely in deep space or orbit around planets or suns. The possibilities are endless, there could be a number of expansion packs.
- Look something extraordinary: how about a ?heaven-simulation?? Let's say the story is that human race reached the next step in their evolution, and all people now spiritually enlightened. They won't harm each other or the fauna/flora. They help each other and work freely for the common good. There is no money and it doesn't make any sense any more. All the technology, all the powerplants etc need to be ?green?, not harming the environment. Etc. With other words, building an Eden/Paradise/Heaven for the spiritually developed new human race. Could you build one and make it work? There would be so easy to fail, it would be a real challenge?
- Car games... They are almost all about getting somewhere as fast as it is possible, or be faster than the opponents, race against the clock, be the cop and pursuit bad guys etc. But how about, let's say, a 4x4 simulator, let's say a Camel Trophy simulation? Where you have to know your 4x4 car's abilities, know where to attempt to get across the river, know how step hill you can climb (and yes, fall over if you calculated wrong), know how not to stuck in the deep mud (or how to get out of it if you did) etc.
And so on...
Any new ideas, anything that you would play, just post it here...
Sorry for the long-long-long post
)
