So you're an indie developer now. What kind of games do you make?

[Reyold]

Exactly What It Says on the Tin.

I like hard games, and a variety of different genres, so I'd probably make a bunch of different games that really challenge the player.

One particular game I'd like to make, though, is an RPG based on Don Quixote. Can you imagine playing a character who is probably the biggest ham in literature? IT WOULD BE AWESOME AND YOU KNOW IT.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Playing as an old madman who fancies himself a knight going around on his decrepit horse fighting windmills with his trusty companion the farmer... well it would certainly be unique.


Can't really match the craziness but I would get together the Gratuitous Space Battles dev and the SPAZ devs to make a Gratuitous Space RTS, because that is what I always wanted out of these games, probably make it play out in similar setup as Sins of a Solar Empire but mandatory with a campaign where you go through the rough ideas behind each faction and learn all the stuff you will need.
Probably wouldn't get much funding for it so a Kickstarter thingy is the only way to fly, then you can add extra goals like ground battles, space station battles, capital ship boarding battles, paying proper voice actors for campaign,...

 

[Greyhamster]

Realtime squad-size Strategy game, in the vein of UFO: Aftermath/shock/light

They're buggy as hell but damn, I love those games. Although, that's a strong word. I love aftershock. Afterlight is cool as well, can't really stand aftermath. I have found precious few games like it (JA back in action, which sucks, two russian games which are also said to be bad) and none of them are good. It makes me sad.

 

[Devon Dent]

Alright here it goes. A wide open space RPG, I'm talking plays like skyrim set in the firefly universe. That is the game that I would like to make because that is the game I would die to play. Land on planets, fly around in your ship, do whatever you want.

 

[karcentric]

Well it'd have to be either, a FPS with a massive variety of things to pick up and interact with. Bit like Postal 2, just a little less psychotic (so it passes with a MA15+ rating)

Or a game that allows you to control a single character that can alter the appearance of a 15th century town, and lead it to glory by making all the families work together...

 

[MrFalconfly]

Arcade'ish Air-Combat Games (Ace Combat style) for PC.

There's simply a great lack of that type of games. Seriously the only game that fits the description is Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X. whose only redeeming feature in comparison to Ace Combat is the fact that it comes on the PC and therefore has Flight-stick support.

Also what is that weird rule that PC flight games either have to be 100% simulator (Il2, Lock On: Modern Air Combat, XPlane so on) or 100% arcade (Crimson Skies, Dogfight 1942, SkyDrift)?!?

 

[DaWaffledude]

Sidescrolling shooter with simplistic controls, mostly story based.

 

[kommando367]

A game that allows for about 4 different playstyles, but it gets harder for each playstyle the more you use it, so you have to adapt.

For example: you can try to stealth your way through the whole game, but that becomes insanely difficult after a while, then you can either run and gun, use mind control type powers and summons, or use telekinetic powers. If you try to use only one of those 3 ability sets for rest of the game, then it gets crazy difficult again and you need to switch it up again.

 

[saintdane05]

A bunch of games that have the exploration of Skyrim and the combat of Xenoblade.

And a game that mixes between TBS RPGs and fighting genre.

 

[BrotherRool]

Story based for sure, if I've got limited resources it can be the easiest to develop without needing an absolutely fantastic combat system or a wide open world, also I'm not a fan of the indie games that are just a mechanic, because the resources they have mean that it's just too similar to a flash browser time waster game for my taste.

The big idea I wanted to always work on was this. The game is called 'He Betrays You' or something like that and the opening tutorial that teaches you how to walk has you walk onto a platform and the other stick figure whose not you pulls a lever and drops you into a pit of darkness(there needs to be some sign this is the end of the game too, maybe a King is congratulating you or a princess throwing her arms around you etc)

Then we get onto the actual gameplay, which mainly involves solving puzzles by moving around and commanding the other stick figure (the one who betrays you) around to do things to help you. There's a focus on animation and the way it works makes it feel like you aren't directly controlling the other stick figure so much as ordering him around (ie he may pause a bit before he moves where you tell him).

The puzzles are designed so that you can't get hurt, but the other stick figure can. When he gets hurt the puzzles isn't reset but he jumps back to the nearest place of safety etc. The player has lots of opportunity to get him hurt on purpose as pre-emptive revenge. Every time he gets hurt his figure changes a little bit to reflect damage. If I was a really good animator he would begin to huddle a bit more etc


Finally you get to the end game. The scene you saw at the beginning is repeated, but now you realise there's a lever/mechanic nearby that was introduced to you over the course of the game and if you get to it in time you can plunge him into a pit before he gets you.

If you notice the lever and use it, the games follows the stick figure as he plunges down the darkness. Words flash up 'You were faithful to him', pictures flash of every moment the stick figure got hurt.

'... and he betrayed you.'


End Game.


Or if they don't notice the level, the stick figure plunges you into the pit and the camera follows you.
'He Betrayed You'
Pictures flash of every time you hurt him.
'But you Betrayed Him First'

End Game



Finally, if you manage to complete the entire game without getting him hurt, you both walk off into the distance 'Maybe Not'. (I'm considering possibly a way where you can choose to get hurt in his place at certain points, but you getting hurt creates an actual negative game experience, the screen gets darker and stays darker, or your character walks slower, something like that)



... but I lack the game making skills and also designing puzzles is a lot harder than it looks =D

 

[Cyrus Hanley]

Anything that Yahtzee Croshaw mentions in Extra Punctuation.

 

[SlaveNumber23]

Survival horror with unique and quirky mechanics, I've been brainstorming ideas with people in my computer science course at university and we've come up with some really cool stuff.

 

[hazabaza1]

For a while I've had an idea of a really cool loot driven hack'n'slash platformer with a bunch of weaopon types that all operate uniquely and has event driven level selection that results in a playthough maybe being 1-2 hours long but then you go to NG+ and can go to the harder levels that you might not have been able to finish before.
Shame it'll never happen.

 

[Xanadu84]

A straightforward, visual novel-ish game based heavily on moral choice that undermines all unrealistic and cliche conventions of story. You save a loved one's life instead of pursuing your important mission because hey, its a story and you will surely get a chance to stop the bad guy too? Bad guy wins this round, exactly as it looked like he would, and hundreds of innocent people die horrible deaths, loved ones weeping over how you would let such an atrocity occur, while your loved one resents the choice you made and suffers from a massive case of survivors guilt culminating in possible suicide. Leaving no man behind can lead to just everyone dying senselessly. Turns out, the seemingly greedy guy who sacrificed peoples lives to get money because he swore it was for the greater good actually does save way more lives than if he didn't, and if you stop him, the families of the people you didn't save for lofty moral reasons resent you. That sort of thing. It would be on Steam greenlight, and then ported to iOS and Android in order to reach a large market that has the best chance to be profitable and fund my next game.

 

[Angry Camel]

I'd make something mixing parkour actions and combat together in dangerous environments, such as on top of moving cars, jumping from vehicle to vehicle. Just need to make sure the controls work very smoothly. I'm thinking somewhat Assassin's Creed style, but I'd prefer a near-future setting and a different game engine, with combat more like Ninja Gaiden's.

The story would revolve around a team of people with these skills being sent in to spy on some sinister country, eventually leading to destroying it. As they go on, they find augments to increase their parkour and combat abilities. Depending on if I aimed for a one-off game or a series, they'd naturally start off with human limitations (stamina, sight, strength and parkour-capability wise etc.) and build up to basically superhuman and later to almost godlike.

 

[Naeras]

A game that can best be described as the mash-up of the moral grey zones and choice given in Deus Ex: Human Revolution and the punishing combat system from Demon's Souls/Dark Souls. The whole point of the game is to have violence as an option, but actively discourage it.

The setting is a protagonist that has been set up as the perpetrator for a crime, manages to escape his arrest and works on proving his innocence after that. He's a martial arts champion and is therefore capable of engaging in hand-to-hand-combat with most adversaries(and the setting is in a country where the police doesn't carry guns. Yes, those countries exist, I live in one). However, the combat is attempted to be "realistic", meaning that getting punched fucking hurts and anyone can get knocked out in 2-3 good hits(including you), and multiple enemies will be damn hard to deal with. Stealth and avoidance is therefore the preferred option. You can also try to use weapons(knives, baseball bats, etc), but considering that you're actually trying to clear your name for a crime, killing someone with a weapon even once will give and ending where you get arrested even if you do manage to clear your name. The game obviously doesn't tell this directly, which is part of the point: you manage to do everything right and still get a bad ending because you followed regular video game logic.

Oh, and police officers that are unaware of your position will talk about regular everyday stuff(movies, cars, their sons playing football, etc), just to further the point that attacking these people would result in hurting actual human beings.

 

[Yopaz]

I would make a 2D side scrolling platform game where you need to jump on enemies in order to kill them and save a princess in the end. It's so original and artistic!

Seriously, I'm not sure. I've been thinking of something along the lines of a survival horror game where your weapons are mainly things you pick up around you, screwdrivers, chairs, knives, lighters and maybe an occasional gun. None of these weapons will last for long before you have to dismiss them. The mechanics aren't really what I have been thinking the most of, but the kicker in this is the plot twist. Turns out you're mentally ill and that you have been going around killing innocent people, medical personnel and cops.

Honestly I don't think this is a great idea since I don't like that my game is mainly based on a plot twist which might seem kinda obvious. It would turn out pretty bad unless I the mechanics turned out great and the atmosphere was done right. It would take a better mind than mine to make this happen.

 

[Simonism451]

I'd make (actually I'd never do it, since I haven't even the patience to finish my ancient project of a very linear,short and straightforward text-adventure wit the working title "Giant fucking bear attack") a Turn-based-tactics/strategy-game not unlike the Jagged Alliance series (1 and 2 at least), but focussing far more on using guerilla/terrorist style tactics against an enemy superior in numbers as well as equipment and military skills.
A typical mission would have the player assault a VIP's convoy after forcing it to change its route from a fairly safe, open stretch of road to a nightmare of narrow sidestreets and rush hour traffic by say, facilitating a car crash on the original route, then disabling most of the escorting forces by detonating an IED (of course killing a ton of civillians as well)then grabbing the individual in question and disappearing in the crowd of terrified onlookers before reinforcements arrive. Naturally, in most cases things won't go according to plan and the dude you told to place the IED will blow himself up in the process, or a member of your organisation will betray you to the enemy because they disagree with your approach to collateral damage and instead of a scared politician you will find a squad of well-trained soldiers in that car, or maybe there's an unplanned car crash and the convoy will take another route still. All this would take place on a seamless map the size of say Vice City in GTA Vice City (duh!) and would nearly entirely rely on giving the player a huge (but constantly narrowing as the enemy forces increase their investment in combatting their activities) set of tools to achieve their goals. The game would of course turn out to be a ridicously broken, buggy piece of shit, but, hey, hey nobody is perfect.