I know that this topic has probably been done to death but if you could have total creative control over the development of a game what would that game be like? You can post as many ideas as you so choose. Mine would be a sprawling open world heist game that would take place across 1960s Europe. You'd play as a suave professional world class thief, you would be given jobs by various underground sources and would then have to plan the heist. The planning would be akin to the processes leading up to assassinations in Assassin's Creed games but much more organic. You would not be given scripted objectives but would actually have to find various entry points on your own, map out guard positions by going on tours and such, as well as many other things. Although if you want to you can just do nothing up until the night of the heist and run in there guns blazing, you will almost surely die if you take this approach. After each heist, depending on the amount of attention you drew, you will have to lie low out in the countryside or in some secluded village. Most of the time a place will be arranged for you to stay at. During this time you will have various things that you can do. For example you could just drive around the countryside, go into a town and take in the sights, go get drunk, help around the house, practice shooting, start assembling a team for future heists, whatever. That'd be your downtime to just relax. That's roughly my idea. Your turn.
Your Idea For a Perfect Game
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okay, first of all, i would love to play your game, it sounds to me like assasins creed mixed with saints row 2 (thats just how i interpretated it)
second: my idea is about a man(you) called "sledge" who was a construction worker who refused to work on a large gang's new building, in retaliation the gang killed his family, to exact revenge he joins the only gang brave enough to attack the other even though they are small and the rival gang is big, your weapon of choice is a sledge hammer, and your main objective is to take out the rival gang (i hadn't thought of the gang's names yet) and build your gang from the ground up. it is a sandbox game though and you can do various things, which adds to the fun, but your main missions consist of taking down the rival gang and the side missions help build up your own gang, getting them more money, ordering weapons, recruiting new members, and eventually you take down the gang that seemed near impossible, oh and there could be a personal rivalry between sledge and the boss of the rival gang because he killed his family personnally
i know the osing you family has been done to death but i still think that some sandbox games should have more story rather than you are russian, you are in america, kill people inbetween taking your cousin to strip clubs.
what do you think?
second: my idea is about a man(you) called "sledge" who was a construction worker who refused to work on a large gang's new building, in retaliation the gang killed his family, to exact revenge he joins the only gang brave enough to attack the other even though they are small and the rival gang is big, your weapon of choice is a sledge hammer, and your main objective is to take out the rival gang (i hadn't thought of the gang's names yet) and build your gang from the ground up. it is a sandbox game though and you can do various things, which adds to the fun, but your main missions consist of taking down the rival gang and the side missions help build up your own gang, getting them more money, ordering weapons, recruiting new members, and eventually you take down the gang that seemed near impossible, oh and there could be a personal rivalry between sledge and the boss of the rival gang because he killed his family personnally
i know the osing you family has been done to death but i still think that some sandbox games should have more story rather than you are russian, you are in america, kill people inbetween taking your cousin to strip clubs.
what do you think?
I would like to play a game i jokingly made up the other day to take the mickey actually, a medivalish style fantasy game but with a different twist.
You can play as a human/orc/elf/dwarf/ or priest, and can have up to 5 squad members though can have none if you prefer, though would be recomended
Humans have no real talent, and barely exist in towns, most are savages, jealous of the other races for theyre better weapons, armour and magic, and are the main eneies in the game and fight mainly with sticks and scavenged weapons.
Elves use theyre inhuman speed and strength to wear heavier armour and prefer 2 handed swords that they wield with grace and like getting into the thickest of fighting
Orcs are all scouts, using theyre naturally green skin as camoflage to blend in with the environment, they prefer bows or theyre bare teeth as weapons of choice.
Dwarves, being the shortest of the races, prefer to be as close to the sky as possible being jealous of how tall everyone else is, they live on house rooves or in trees, and magic is theyre prefered style of fighting, using lots of wind type magic
Preists are an odd race called Bthelen, that are an enchanted blue colour and devote themselves to the God Farthic, the have large bulbous eyes like bugs and use blood magic to hel theyre allies, but to use blood magic they must drink of theyre enemies and thus fight up close and personal using knuckle dusters.
There are dragons in the game too but theyre the shop keepers, having lived so long they no longer care for the squabbling of the lesser races, so they run shops as a hobby to keep them from boredom, and to keep all trade fair(honestly would you try stealing from or ripping off a dragon?)
the game is about a human revolution, lead by a few select humans with natural fighting and tactics prowess who are rallying the outcast humans and aim to bring every other race down to theyre level.
ye i put a bit of thought into this lol
You can play as a human/orc/elf/dwarf/ or priest, and can have up to 5 squad members though can have none if you prefer, though would be recomended
Humans have no real talent, and barely exist in towns, most are savages, jealous of the other races for theyre better weapons, armour and magic, and are the main eneies in the game and fight mainly with sticks and scavenged weapons.
Elves use theyre inhuman speed and strength to wear heavier armour and prefer 2 handed swords that they wield with grace and like getting into the thickest of fighting
Orcs are all scouts, using theyre naturally green skin as camoflage to blend in with the environment, they prefer bows or theyre bare teeth as weapons of choice.
Dwarves, being the shortest of the races, prefer to be as close to the sky as possible being jealous of how tall everyone else is, they live on house rooves or in trees, and magic is theyre prefered style of fighting, using lots of wind type magic
Preists are an odd race called Bthelen, that are an enchanted blue colour and devote themselves to the God Farthic, the have large bulbous eyes like bugs and use blood magic to hel theyre allies, but to use blood magic they must drink of theyre enemies and thus fight up close and personal using knuckle dusters.
There are dragons in the game too but theyre the shop keepers, having lived so long they no longer care for the squabbling of the lesser races, so they run shops as a hobby to keep them from boredom, and to keep all trade fair(honestly would you try stealing from or ripping off a dragon?)
the game is about a human revolution, lead by a few select humans with natural fighting and tactics prowess who are rallying the outcast humans and aim to bring every other race down to theyre level.
ye i put a bit of thought into this lol
A stealth style game with a female protagonist. It would be set in a dystopian Steam-punk version of Victorian London. Her enemies would be the Fae who are well..faeries but what faeries were really supposed to be like IE. not very nice at all.
It would give you the choice to use magic or technology. They have murdered her parents and turned her brother into a black cat which is the focus of the story. He travels along with you and takes part in some of your skills. The style of game play is similar to Fallout 3 but the game is more cartoon like in style.
You will make decisions that effect the outcome of the story, they are geared towards whether you are taking revenge for your parents or focused on saving your brother. However, they are sometimes morally grey and you don't have to go to one extreme or the other to get the best endings it will pick an ending based on a points system for each answer. No ending is 'the best' or 'the worst'
I think I have waffled enough for now.
It would give you the choice to use magic or technology. They have murdered her parents and turned her brother into a black cat which is the focus of the story. He travels along with you and takes part in some of your skills. The style of game play is similar to Fallout 3 but the game is more cartoon like in style.
You will make decisions that effect the outcome of the story, they are geared towards whether you are taking revenge for your parents or focused on saving your brother. However, they are sometimes morally grey and you don't have to go to one extreme or the other to get the best endings it will pick an ending based on a points system for each answer. No ending is 'the best' or 'the worst'
I think I have waffled enough for now.
Black Ops but with cheese.
...
WHAT!?
Okay, okay, a sort of Assassin's Creed sort of game but much more stealth orientated and probably a fantasy setting, you steal and have to make deaths look like accidents.
Or you could have a massive modern-day online city, where many online players are trying to kill you and vice-versa, but no-one knows at face value if that person on the other side of the road is trying to murder them.
...
WHAT!?
Okay, okay, a sort of Assassin's Creed sort of game but much more stealth orientated and probably a fantasy setting, you steal and have to make deaths look like accidents.
Or you could have a massive modern-day online city, where many online players are trying to kill you and vice-versa, but no-one knows at face value if that person on the other side of the road is trying to murder them.
I would have to make a Fallout MMO. Not the "press 1 to attack" kind of MMO but the proper FPS kind of gameplay. I would make a huge world that has been relatively untouched (apart from the nukes of course). People would have to band together to create factions, stick in small teams, create settlements, go lone wolf etc. I would aim to have no human NPCs (monsters would be). Everything from slavers to merchants would be human controlled.
The world would cover most major landmarks including New Vegas, Washington DC, New York, San Francisco, California etc. If you die you would lose XP. The higher your level the more XP you lose. To be a leader aka Mr House you would have to have a certain amount of XP so if you died aka get assassinated you would lose XP and perhaps lose your stance. There could be spots that have more energy, shelter and supplies so people would be fighting over land.
Big rant lol but I think this would be awesome
The world would cover most major landmarks including New Vegas, Washington DC, New York, San Francisco, California etc. If you die you would lose XP. The higher your level the more XP you lose. To be a leader aka Mr House you would have to have a certain amount of XP so if you died aka get assassinated you would lose XP and perhaps lose your stance. There could be spots that have more energy, shelter and supplies so people would be fighting over land.
Big rant lol but I think this would be awesome
A sequel to Deadly Premonition, but of course.
The game is a masterpiece, its rating a crime,
Pick a copy up if you have the time. So says Mr. Stewart.
The game is a masterpiece, its rating a crime,
Pick a copy up if you have the time. So says Mr. Stewart.
I'm going to suggest the entry I posted in the "Last game vs last movie vs last book" thread because I honestly feel I may have conceived something mind-shatteringly brilliant.
For the record, it was:
Last game I played: Batman Arkham Asylum
Last film I watched: Gran Torino
Last book I read: The Zombie Survival Guide
Clint Eastwood stuck on Arkham Island with zombies. The gameplay would pretty much stick with AA's stealth and combat mechanics (imagine Eastwood moving with the grace of Batman and similarly striking fear in his enemies). Joker's Blackgate prisoner thugs would be replaced with zombies which may carry some problems, but I can't recall if I've seen stealth combined with zombies since they are generally reserved for the survival genre. Would being forced to SNEAK around zombies or strategically and discreetly pick them off individually not make for some fucking gripping gameplay?
I've not thought it through further than that, but "Clint Eastwood: Zombie Asylum" would be not only the perfect game but perhaps the most astounding contribution to culture in this world's history.
For the record, it was:
Last game I played: Batman Arkham Asylum
Last film I watched: Gran Torino
Last book I read: The Zombie Survival Guide
Clint Eastwood stuck on Arkham Island with zombies. The gameplay would pretty much stick with AA's stealth and combat mechanics (imagine Eastwood moving with the grace of Batman and similarly striking fear in his enemies). Joker's Blackgate prisoner thugs would be replaced with zombies which may carry some problems, but I can't recall if I've seen stealth combined with zombies since they are generally reserved for the survival genre. Would being forced to SNEAK around zombies or strategically and discreetly pick them off individually not make for some fucking gripping gameplay?
I've not thought it through further than that, but "Clint Eastwood: Zombie Asylum" would be not only the perfect game but perhaps the most astounding contribution to culture in this world's history.
A life simulator where literally ANYTHING can happen depending on what you move the stats to. And you can choose to live in the simulation by possessing any person or animal, in which it changes to first person mode and you can go around, picking up & fucking with whom & whatever.
Though in each simulation, unless you change the % amount, there's always a 1 to %5 chance of something fucking weird happening.
Though in each simulation, unless you change the % amount, there's always a 1 to %5 chance of something fucking weird happening.
My perfect game...
hmm...
It would include Jetpacks, spaceships, parkour (mirror's edge style) and anything else I can think of that made me go, 'whoa'. It would would be about infiltrating massive corporate headquarters and destroying their computer infrastructure (through hacking, and you go into a kind of cyberspace) to take the companies offline and prevent them from committing further atrocities. (haven't really thought through the plot). You then have to escape and there will be multiple methods of escape. However with each successive attack the security and police forces remember and adapt to your previous entrance and escape routes and the route they think you're most likely to take this time. You would be unarmed, but have a few one-use gadgets to help out in tight situations. (When I say one-use I literally mean one use. You NEVER get to use it again, home made devices don't come with warranties...). Maybe some day I'll get to make this game...
hmm...
It would include Jetpacks, spaceships, parkour (mirror's edge style) and anything else I can think of that made me go, 'whoa'. It would would be about infiltrating massive corporate headquarters and destroying their computer infrastructure (through hacking, and you go into a kind of cyberspace) to take the companies offline and prevent them from committing further atrocities. (haven't really thought through the plot). You then have to escape and there will be multiple methods of escape. However with each successive attack the security and police forces remember and adapt to your previous entrance and escape routes and the route they think you're most likely to take this time. You would be unarmed, but have a few one-use gadgets to help out in tight situations. (When I say one-use I literally mean one use. You NEVER get to use it again, home made devices don't come with warranties...). Maybe some day I'll get to make this game...
approaching the thing from a technological standpoint i would like a game where every gameplay aspect is handled b an extremely powerful physics engine, so if somebody shoots a gun it's not just: push button->bullet hits target but the whole process of firing is simulated, as well as the path the bullet would travel. this would of course require slight adjustments to make the game actually gamy but still.
Well, it would be a FPSRPG type of game. Set in a Victorian-punk world, you have basically two differing mentalities; Science and Majek (just a styled way of saying and spelling magic). Science features large amounts of technology advancements, while Majek is more about the Arcane and Natural (and can be thought of as Christianity from the dark ages.) As I just mentioned, the game takes placing during a crossroads of the world, likened to the Renisanse (forgive spelling), where Science is overtaking Majek, which was a dominating force for many centruies. You play a female character who is basically a young girl of about 18, and is working as a engineer for this small town. One day though, she discovers she can use Majek...
Okay, thats about as far as I got story wise, as I didnt want to go the route of village is attacked and that old shit. Anyways...
I said earlier its a Victorian-punk world, by this, its largely based of of Victorian age, but with even more advanced technology (think something like Resistance in terms of technology leap, Assault Rifles and gas/alternate fuel vehicles exist). Gameplay wise, the best I can say is Deus Ex:HR like. You character can use both guns and majek. I plan on a EXP system where you just get EXP. This EXP is treated like currancy, and can be used to "buy" skills, abilities, and spells. Also, kills give no EXP unless you have an ability you can buy. Weapons will be just like Deus Ex, you get a large number of weapons availible, and there are various mods that can be used on them. For your invintory, you get a bag of holding, which allows you to hold large objects with ease, and to increase its size, you simply have a Majek tailor make it bigger (with a considerable price, of course).
One thing I really would have, is that each gun has an experience bar, that the more you use that particuler weapon, the more effect you become with it. So to be really good with one kind of weapon would reqiure you to only use that weapon.
Okay, thats about as far as I got story wise, as I didnt want to go the route of village is attacked and that old shit. Anyways...
I said earlier its a Victorian-punk world, by this, its largely based of of Victorian age, but with even more advanced technology (think something like Resistance in terms of technology leap, Assault Rifles and gas/alternate fuel vehicles exist). Gameplay wise, the best I can say is Deus Ex:HR like. You character can use both guns and majek. I plan on a EXP system where you just get EXP. This EXP is treated like currancy, and can be used to "buy" skills, abilities, and spells. Also, kills give no EXP unless you have an ability you can buy. Weapons will be just like Deus Ex, you get a large number of weapons availible, and there are various mods that can be used on them. For your invintory, you get a bag of holding, which allows you to hold large objects with ease, and to increase its size, you simply have a Majek tailor make it bigger (with a considerable price, of course).
One thing I really would have, is that each gun has an experience bar, that the more you use that particuler weapon, the more effect you become with it. So to be really good with one kind of weapon would reqiure you to only use that weapon.
An RPG/FPS, (More RPG though)
I want a game where you are a survivor of an Zombie apocolypse (Mutents, not zombies), You wake up in the hospital in a very private room with hi-tech machines surrounding you, you create your character, add skills, perks and etc, you walk out of your room and into the hosital, you see references of an virus outbreak as you cruise down the corridor, but bloody bodys litter it, you reach the entrance and it turns into a FP cinimatic, your guy walks out of the hospital and sees the open sky , you shield your eyes and then you see a man, he turns around and charges you, you get pinned, but you pick up a brick and smack it into his head, he lies on the ground, dead, you walks back to your hospital room and inspect it (Still cinimatic), you find a note on the table near the bed, it says that you are the cure, the cure lies in your blood, please go to and meet me Sgt., and you then enter the playing mode again and you can explore the hostpital or run out and explore, but before that you look down on the note and say "Who the hell am I!" (Yes your character has a voice, and you select it in the character screen), you character looks onto his arms and sees a tag, it says "Dark Horizon", then you play and do whatever.
Dark Horizon.
Description: You play as a survivor of a virus outbreak, you find out your the cure, you exit to find who you are and what you are, while trying to surivive the virus outbreak, mutants, crazy survivors, car battles, customisable home bases, moral choices, factions, diffirent endings, will you end the virus or will you make it worse.
Genre:RPG/FPS
and you can do more stuff but this is a brief talk about it.
I want a game where you are a survivor of an Zombie apocolypse (Mutents, not zombies), You wake up in the hospital in a very private room with hi-tech machines surrounding you, you create your character, add skills, perks and etc, you walk out of your room and into the hosital, you see references of an virus outbreak as you cruise down the corridor, but bloody bodys litter it, you reach the entrance and it turns into a FP cinimatic, your guy walks out of the hospital and sees the open sky , you shield your eyes and then you see a man, he turns around and charges you, you get pinned, but you pick up a brick and smack it into his head, he lies on the ground, dead, you walks back to your hospital room and inspect it (Still cinimatic), you find a note on the table near the bed, it says that you are the cure, the cure lies in your blood, please go to and meet me Sgt., and you then enter the playing mode again and you can explore the hostpital or run out and explore, but before that you look down on the note and say "Who the hell am I!" (Yes your character has a voice, and you select it in the character screen), you character looks onto his arms and sees a tag, it says "Dark Horizon", then you play and do whatever.
Dark Horizon.
Description: You play as a survivor of a virus outbreak, you find out your the cure, you exit to find who you are and what you are, while trying to surivive the virus outbreak, mutants, crazy survivors, car battles, customisable home bases, moral choices, factions, diffirent endings, will you end the virus or will you make it worse.
Genre:RPG/FPS
and you can do more stuff but this is a brief talk about it.
Hard telling. Maybe a proper first-person survival game. Or a space privateer. I've been on a space kick recently, and open-world privateer games seem to be exceedingly rare nowadays.
Okay, so technically Spore Space stage. But I want something with depth and variety.
Okay, so technically Spore Space stage. But I want something with depth and variety.
Grand Theft Auto style open world gameplay where the objective is only as difficult as you want to make it.
Cinematic back story:
A normal sort of guy (lets call him Dave) who after a one night stand becomes father to a son (9 months later obviously). The mother has a breakdown and commits suicide leaving Dave as a single father. He tries his best in his new role to be the best father he can possibly be and grows to love his son.
Fast forward a few years and Dave is with his son in a diner when 3 armed gang members rob the place. Everyone is cooperating but a diner patron plays hero and opens fire with their own gun. In the ensuing gunfight 2 of the gang members are killed, the hero diner, 2 other patrons and Dave's son. The remaining gang member (lets say... Bob) flees.
With no one else left in his life, Dave decides to take revenge on Bob, despite not knowing who he is or how to get revenge.
Plot:
There are 2 opposing gangs in town, so you can join either one. On one side, you may fight alongside Bob, gaining his trust and respect for maximum back stab satisfaction, or you can join the other gang and war with him to kill him.
Either way, there are mission trees designed to progress your gameplay within the gangs by completing missions involving theft, vandalism, recruiting, hit jobs etc. to progress in the gang and earn higher status.
In Bob's gang you progress with him and eventually wind up as his second in command, providing an opportunity to kill him and either take command or dissolve the gang into a leaderless mob.
In the opposing gang you progress to the leader status in opposition to Bob (who also progresses) and have opportunities to assassinate Bob, engage him in gang warfare or even diplomatically attempt to take over his gang, leaving him with nothing.
The kicker however is that at any time you can end it by killing Bob (if you can manage it).
You can sneak into his house and shoot him in his bed. You can run him down in the street. You can stab him to death behind closed doors. You can detonate explosives planted in his car. You can tie him up and beat him to death.
Or, if you're so inclined, you can forgive him.
You see, Bob is constantly haunted by the memory of what he did. He's a normal guy too, just like Dave. He isn't a gun crazy maniac. He didn't even want to get involved in the gang situation, but was pressured into it by his circle. The diner robbery was his initiation ritual and the shitstorm that ensued is something that he hasn't been able to get out of his head ever since. He never left the gang because once he was in, he had no way out and nowhere else to go. It was a shitty life but it was the only one he had.
Moral choice hmm? Yes, but the game isn't addressing it as a moral dilemma. The moral dilemma is entirely up to the player to decide. If the player doesn't see anything wrong with the blood for blood approach or forgiving him, there's no dilemma. If the player is unsure about which outcome provides appropriate justice there is suddenly a moral dilemma that can reveal to the player a little bit about themselves if they choose to think about things that way.
---
Handled correctly, I think the game can have genuine emotional depth and an actual reason for the events to occur. It also provides opportunity for the player to dictate the story and allow the emotional pitch to be played out in a way that is most pleasing to them (forgiving or vengeful etc). It also provides a huge number of ways the game can be played making the "runtime" of the game impossible to determine i.e. run him down in a car in 10 minutes or play out the missions in 40 hours or anything in between.
As for the mechanics of the game, just look at Grand Theft Auto. You can steal things, shoot things, smash things if you'd like to waste time, or you can progress with the game mission at your own pace. The innovative step involves the open endedness of the gameplay that allows you to play the game multiple times while possibly experiencing a vastly different story and game progression each time.
Anyway... Long post...
That is a rough treaty of what my vision of a game is like. It wouldn't be easy, or cheap, but I think if handled correctly, it could be a truly great game.
First time I've ever posted my thoughts on the design of a game before. The other idea I had for a game involved a time travelling FPS where you can visit scenarios throughout history and cause intervention in appropriate areas i.e. mow down waves of mongol invaders with an AK-47 or assassinate pirate kings with knives or musket pistols. Then Darkest of Days came along and in part realised my vision and I thought about the concept a lot less. Still... DoD would be great with some more ancient time periods and an occasional sneak + assassination focus.
Cinematic back story:
A normal sort of guy (lets call him Dave) who after a one night stand becomes father to a son (9 months later obviously). The mother has a breakdown and commits suicide leaving Dave as a single father. He tries his best in his new role to be the best father he can possibly be and grows to love his son.
Fast forward a few years and Dave is with his son in a diner when 3 armed gang members rob the place. Everyone is cooperating but a diner patron plays hero and opens fire with their own gun. In the ensuing gunfight 2 of the gang members are killed, the hero diner, 2 other patrons and Dave's son. The remaining gang member (lets say... Bob) flees.
With no one else left in his life, Dave decides to take revenge on Bob, despite not knowing who he is or how to get revenge.
Plot:
There are 2 opposing gangs in town, so you can join either one. On one side, you may fight alongside Bob, gaining his trust and respect for maximum back stab satisfaction, or you can join the other gang and war with him to kill him.
Either way, there are mission trees designed to progress your gameplay within the gangs by completing missions involving theft, vandalism, recruiting, hit jobs etc. to progress in the gang and earn higher status.
In Bob's gang you progress with him and eventually wind up as his second in command, providing an opportunity to kill him and either take command or dissolve the gang into a leaderless mob.
In the opposing gang you progress to the leader status in opposition to Bob (who also progresses) and have opportunities to assassinate Bob, engage him in gang warfare or even diplomatically attempt to take over his gang, leaving him with nothing.
The kicker however is that at any time you can end it by killing Bob (if you can manage it).
You can sneak into his house and shoot him in his bed. You can run him down in the street. You can stab him to death behind closed doors. You can detonate explosives planted in his car. You can tie him up and beat him to death.
Or, if you're so inclined, you can forgive him.
You see, Bob is constantly haunted by the memory of what he did. He's a normal guy too, just like Dave. He isn't a gun crazy maniac. He didn't even want to get involved in the gang situation, but was pressured into it by his circle. The diner robbery was his initiation ritual and the shitstorm that ensued is something that he hasn't been able to get out of his head ever since. He never left the gang because once he was in, he had no way out and nowhere else to go. It was a shitty life but it was the only one he had.
Moral choice hmm? Yes, but the game isn't addressing it as a moral dilemma. The moral dilemma is entirely up to the player to decide. If the player doesn't see anything wrong with the blood for blood approach or forgiving him, there's no dilemma. If the player is unsure about which outcome provides appropriate justice there is suddenly a moral dilemma that can reveal to the player a little bit about themselves if they choose to think about things that way.
---
Handled correctly, I think the game can have genuine emotional depth and an actual reason for the events to occur. It also provides opportunity for the player to dictate the story and allow the emotional pitch to be played out in a way that is most pleasing to them (forgiving or vengeful etc). It also provides a huge number of ways the game can be played making the "runtime" of the game impossible to determine i.e. run him down in a car in 10 minutes or play out the missions in 40 hours or anything in between.
As for the mechanics of the game, just look at Grand Theft Auto. You can steal things, shoot things, smash things if you'd like to waste time, or you can progress with the game mission at your own pace. The innovative step involves the open endedness of the gameplay that allows you to play the game multiple times while possibly experiencing a vastly different story and game progression each time.
Anyway... Long post...
That is a rough treaty of what my vision of a game is like. It wouldn't be easy, or cheap, but I think if handled correctly, it could be a truly great game.
First time I've ever posted my thoughts on the design of a game before. The other idea I had for a game involved a time travelling FPS where you can visit scenarios throughout history and cause intervention in appropriate areas i.e. mow down waves of mongol invaders with an AK-47 or assassinate pirate kings with knives or musket pistols. Then Darkest of Days came along and in part realised my vision and I thought about the concept a lot less. Still... DoD would be great with some more ancient time periods and an occasional sneak + assassination focus.
A game with no minor annoyances. I've always been a person with the mentality of storyline first gameplay second. If I'm invested in the storyline I can almost ignore the gameplay entirely. Almost. Games have always had one or two very minor flaws in the gameplay that kept the game from being perfect. I know a lot of people found recourse collecting to be tedious in both mass effects. But for me, it was the dungeon crawling in .hack GU, its my favorite game, but they would make you slave to get to the next scene by going through 40 levels of the same copy pasted dungeon. I realize now it was so you would level up, but come on.