The Greatest Game Never Made

JoJo

and the Amazing Technicolour Dream Goat 🐐
Moderator
Legacy
Mar 31, 2010
7,160
125
68
Country
🇬🇧
Gender
♂
You have been given unlimited resources, cash and staff to create the game of your dreams. What's it about? What's the genre, gameplay, story, etc?

Your version of the best video game ever.
 

SckizoBoy

Ineptly Chaotic
Legacy
Jan 6, 2011
8,681
199
68
A Hermit's Cave
Iron Kingdoms strategy game that allows scaled up tabletop battles (still warcaster/warlock-centric, but with Company of Iron situations on the side). Basically Total War: Iron Kingdoms, but with different hero action mechanics owing to a different style of source game and campaign unit assignment flexibility that got removed post Shogun II.

Best ever? Could be, but strategy games are already pretty niche, so no chance of being the most successful. But I'd get it without a second thought.

...

More identifiable for the Escapist user base, I've long entertained a combat mechanic which is based on slowing time just as you're about to be hit to get out of the way at the cost of luck/power points (which recover outside of combat) and actual damage, while it won't instantly kill, will debilitate quite severely, a la Deus Ex without the comfort of medkits. Quite what sort of combat it'd be and how it fits into general gameplay, haven't the faintest.
 

Yoshi

Elite Member
Legacy
Apr 5, 2020
186
42
33
F-Zero Switch.

basically like F-Zero GX but with an online mode.
 

Worgen

Follower of the Glorious Sun Butt.
Legacy
Apr 1, 2009
14,448
3,416
118
Gender
Whatever, just wash your hands.
I want to see CD Project Red make a Shadowrun game. I don't know about mechanics or what, but I really want to see someone with their talent do Shadowrun. I loved Shadowrun Dragon Fall and Hong Kong but the games were a bit rough.
 

Elfgore

Your friendly local nihilist
Legacy
Dec 6, 2010
5,655
24
13
Ya'll know Dwarf Fortress? Take that, add in a few more playable races, each with their own nifty features. Maybe throw in a little bit more cool shit. Then, the most important part, make it not shite at controlling. Boom. GOTY 2020.
 

Fat Hippo

Prepare to be Gnomed
Legacy
May 29, 2009
1,991
57
33
Gender
Gnomekin
Ya'll know Dwarf Fortress? Take that, add in a few more playable races, each with their own nifty features. Maybe throw in a little bit more cool shit. Then, the most important part, make it not shite at controlling. Boom. GOTY 2020.
Tbh, Rimworld was that for me. Dwarf Fortress but actually playable. Maybe not quite as insane as its Dwarvish inspiration, but still real damn good.
 

Elfgore

Your friendly local nihilist
Legacy
Dec 6, 2010
5,655
24
13
Tbh, Rimworld was that for me. Dwarf Fortress but actually playable. Maybe not quite as insane as its Dwarvish inspiration, but still real damn good.
I love Rimworld but... Rimworld doesn't go as in-depth as DF and that's even with mods. The control scheme and graphics is around what I want though for sure.
 

Neurotic Void Melody

Bound to escape
Legacy
Jul 15, 2013
4,953
6
13
There was once this rumour of a sequel/prequel to Perfect Dark. It was going to be bigger, better, morer, beautifuller, shootier and probably with bonus giblets to aid the 18 rating.

Sadly, it never materialised.

And Rare disappeared off the face of the Earth.

Crazy mysteries.

Nevermind! At least we still have...

Errm...

...

Fuck!

We have nothing!

Literally nothing.

😔
 

SilentPony

Previously known as an alleged "Feather-Rustler"
Legacy
Apr 3, 2020
12,050
2,460
118
Corner of No and Where
I would like a rogue-like(as if failure is all but inevitable) Bioshock themed city sim game. You pick a water city, sky city, maybe cave city and space city and pick your weird moral obsession and get started. Recruit all the wrong people, relax restrictions on shit and watch the city thrive, grow and eventually turn to ruin.
Now I can't tell if it should be how long can you keep the city running through cut-throat practices, murder, intimidation, etc...or if its a dungeon sim where you design the city around the idea the hero will eventually be coming through. See if you can defeat him, yadda yadda...

Hmm...
 

The Rogue Wolf

Stealthy Carnivore
Legacy
Nov 25, 2007
16,334
8,831
118
Stalking the Digital Tundra
Gender
✅
If you haven't heard of the game "Vivisector", well, it was a really weird diamond-in-the-rough of a game where your weapons could literally blow chunks off of enemies. I want a polished, triple-A sci-fi FPS game like that, with the kinetic feel of arcade games like Crisis Zone and L.A. Machineguns, where hits knock the enemies around and environments can be damaged.

And I also want the player character to be a genetically-altered Utahraptor who likes to wisecrack and tell jokes.
 

BrawlMan

Lover of beat'em ups.
Legacy
Mar 10, 2016
26,903
11,276
118
Detroit, Michigan
Country
United States of America
Gender
Male
I always wanted a new Comix Zone game done cel-shading, an actual continue and lives system, and to be done by Platinum or Hideki Kamiya. The game would be 2.5d, similar to Viewtiful Joe. There would be a dodge mechanic, blocking, some light puzzle solving, and get rid of the stupid you lose health from breaking inanimate objects. There would be three playable characters, with 2 player co-op. Sketch of course would be the balanced one. While the other two would be the Mighty Glacier and Fragile Speedster respectively.

With Sega not developing any of their games internally; other than Sonic or Yakuza, them outsourcing to Platinum would not hurt at all. They already outsourced Streets of Rage 4, Panzer Dragoon Remake, and Sonic Mania. If Sega does not care, then the actual fans or other developers are willing to make kick-ass games. Let'em.
 

Drathnoxis

Became a mass murderer for your sake
Legacy
Sep 23, 2010
5,466
1,915
118
Just off-screen
Country
Canada
Gender
Male
I seem to have a startling lack of imagination for these sorts of things. I've never had a an idea that I thought would be perfect for a game or a book or something. It's probably why I'm not a game developer.

As for games that were never made. I'd like to see the next season of D4 for one.


Ya'll know Dwarf Fortress? Take that, add in a few more playable races, each with their own nifty features. Maybe throw in a little bit more cool shit. Then, the most important part, make it not shite at controlling. Boom. GOTY 2020.
Well it is supposed to have an upcoming Steam release that proposes to fix the UI and add graphics, so we'll see.
 

SupahEwok

Malapropic Homophone
Legacy
Jun 24, 2010
4,028
1,401
118
Country
Texas
I actually am planning to make a game at the moment. Maybe I'll start it while quarantine is on and I'm dropped out of school.

I want to create my own Fire Emblem clone game. My design philosophy follows that of FE Thracia 776 and Vestaria Saga, to create expansive maps with layers of scripted events to create more of a puzzle feel. I'm creating a narrative that leaves off the apocalyptic climax of FE games to focus more on the political thriller themes. My big design innovations are going to be an upgradeable home base system, a between missions training system, transparency in regards to how units will develop (providing an in-game means to asset growth rates and caps and future skills and what-not, given most players will just wiki that shit anyhow), and an overhaul of the item economy, which will make weapons unbreakable (a la FE Fates), but very few in number, and inventory space restricted. I'm trying to balance it right so that players have to make firm decisions on the type of weapons units will use, instead of carrying a full arsenal. For instance, a common strategy in FE games is to load up each unit with at least 1 weapon of each weapon type they can use, plus a weapon they can use at range, plus a healing item, and then a weapon super-effective against certain unit types if there's enough space left. I want players to only be able to pick out 2 or 3 of those options, and for there to be few enough of each weapon that the player has to make a deliberate decision of who gets what. Out of 5 lance using units, which 2 get to have a lance with ranged ability? On your sword user, do you give him the weaker sword that guarantees multiple hits, or the stronger sword that some enemies may outspeed? The usual answer in that case is "give them both", but I want to take that out of consideration. I think this'll help distinguish units from each other: this is my pegasus knight that has a ranged weapon for hit and run attacks, while this pegasus knight has a spear that's heavy and slow but boosts their defense, to let them fill an emergency gap in a defensive line. Things like that. And to emphasize that, I'm trying to plan out a sort of universal skill system. Every unit will have the same number of skills, 4-5 by the end game, at regular level intervals. Some will be specific to the unit, others will come from the class, all of them can be upgraded down the line, and most of them will be chosen out of 3 options. So for instance, mounted class units will probably have a class skill tier for movement. They can select +1 movement, or to take out penalty for moving through terrain, or to reduce movement in favor of a defense bonus. Something like that.

Basically, I want to create a Fire Emblem game that takes all the half-baked design ideas the series has ever had that were worth a damn but were idiosyncratically implemented, and approach them from good design principles and a lot of player freedom to tweak units, and pair that with a grounded, believable story with excellent map design.

So I want to catch the moon with my bare hands, basically. It's highly unlikely my one man show will accomplish creating this into a commercial product, but Grimiore managed to be made eventually so why the hell not give it a try and see what happens? I have an outline for a business plan to get funding for art and music assets if I ever manage to complete and implement my game and narrative designs, but I'm not sweating that part too much cuz that'll be years down the line. I just hope to find enough free assets on the Unity store to be able to prototype enough to get the design work down after I get the framework coded.
 

Elfgore

Your friendly local nihilist
Legacy
Dec 6, 2010
5,655
24
13
Well it is supposed to have an upcoming Steam release that proposes to fix the UI and add graphics, so we'll see.
Eh, I'll believe it when I see it. Announcement was like a year ago, release date is still "time is relative" and it sounds like they're not doing to much to improve actually controlling it, like adding mouse support.
 

Gordon_4

The Big Engine
Legacy
Apr 3, 2020
6,090
5,386
118
Australia
I’d pay Naughty Dog to make Overstrike for PC with the tone it was intended to have based on its magnificent trailer.

And I’d licence Tick, Tick, Boom for its soundtrack
 

TheMysteriousGX

Elite Member
Legacy
Sep 16, 2014
8,317
6,824
118
Country
United States
I'd actually finish SaGa Frontier.
Take the basic structure it has, flesh out *everything*, run it through another dozen balance maths, and update the sprite work with the team and tech that did Octopath Traveler.
 

Xprimentyl

Made you look...
Legacy
Aug 13, 2011
6,243
4,510
118
Plano, TX
Country
United States
Gender
Male
I’ve always wanted a puzzle stealth game set in a small GTA IV-like city where EVERY building is enterable and realistically laid out in the interior and each NPC is unique. The laws of decent society apply, so speeding, carrying a gun in public, driving on the sidewalk, murder, everything one might do in GTA-likes all result in penalty or outright failure state of the game.

You play as a hitman, and when you receive a contract, part of the game is researching your target, locating them, learning their schedule, y’know everything an actual hitman might do, and then choose a time, place and method of eliminating them. Poison, snipe them from a rooftop, blow them up, however you want to handle it. But you can also leave clues like fingerprints, DNA or eye witnesses that could lead authorities to you, so you have to try not to be sloppy.
 

hanselthecaretaker

My flask is half full
Legacy
Nov 18, 2010
8,738
5,905
118
I want to see CD Project Red make a Shadowrun game. I don't know about mechanics or what, but I really want to see someone with their talent do Shadowrun. I loved Shadowrun Dragon Fall and Hong Kong but the games were a bit rough.

I loved the SNES one. Never played anything like it at the time, but for some reason nothing cyberpunk since has appealed much.

I played through Deus Ex GotY Edition a few years ago and it felt too busy

Played about half of Deus Ex: HR Director’s Cut which is a wonderful port but it feels too “cinematic”

Played a few hours of Shadow Run Dragonfall: Director’s Cut but I’m not crazy about turn based design and there’s too much focus on the wrong type of upgrades.
 

Worgen

Follower of the Glorious Sun Butt.
Legacy
Apr 1, 2009
14,448
3,416
118
Gender
Whatever, just wash your hands.
I loved the SNES one. Never played anything like it at the time, but for some reason nothing cyberpunk since has appealed much.

I played through Deus Ex GotY Edition a few years ago and it felt too busy

Played about half of Deus Ex: HR Director’s Cut which is a wonderful port but it feels too “cinematic”

Played a few hours of Shadow Run Dragonfall: Director’s Cut but I’m not crazy about turn based design and there’s too much focus on the wrong type of upgrades.
I loved the SNES one also. Shame Dragonfall didn't do it for you. What do you mean wrong type of upgrades?