Your Original Gaming Idea.

[Ramthundar]

A number of complaints i hear from gamers is that games now-adays are not original enough. That they're sequels, redoes, or the same game with a new paint job.
Well, i have the pestimistic theory that all the good ideas for games (or any other media, for that matter) has been done and done.
So, let's see if i can be proven wrong. I'm looking for two types of people;

1) People with original game ideas. That means no direct copying of styles or ideas, no Generic brand game with a new paint job, no fusions of games, no copying at all. Something completely, utterley, original. Maybe a new Genre if you can make it sound possible and fun.

2) gamers that have played/reviewed/seen/hear of a whole cr@p load of games. These guys can then tell us if the ideas given in this thread are truly original or not.

So, hopefully we can truly find a good game idea. Or at least an original one.

P.S. i'll add my own ideas once this thread get's going.

 

[Fenring]

I'm just gonna say what I said in the 'FPS games = Unoriginality, but why?' thread, "An FPS where you shoot lasers out of you eyes would be cool, the screen would turn completely red for a second. You would have to try and be sneaky, you would be blinded after every kill. You could wear different glasses to make special lasers, and binoculars would be like a sniper rifle. It would also be cool if you could fire one eye at a time"

 

[Ursus Astrorum]

Now, what if we take a well-known saying and turn it into a game? Would that be considered a copy? After all, what I'm planning is rather bizarre and imaginative, but it's based heavily off of a quote.

Alright, I might as well... First idea:

Plot synopsis: You are the famous purple-stufed worm of flap-jaw space. With only your trusty tuning fork, a pair of scissors, and the number 61, you must accomplish a raw blink over the mystical hara-kiri rock.


---------------

A Star Fox MMO would be rather neat. Design your own character and ship. Join a team, get a command ship, and do missions across the galaxy, perhaps having the option of both ground and air travel. Have the controls set up in a sort of fighter sim fashion, perhaps even allowing for joystick compatibility.

Character-wise, there would probably be the most common races available (Dogs, cats, foxes, wolves, birds, throw in humans for the hell of it), but on top of that you would have a homeworld or territory alignment (Cornerian, Katinan, Saurian, etc.). I would also stick Cerenians in there, though the backstory on them would need to be expanded (seeing as they only get a brief mention in the Adventures manual). PvP would possibly depend on faction, though dueling would be a prominent feature.

While there wouldn't be any classes, you could pick a focus in either ground or air-based combat (giving you a bonus to one set of skills and a penalty to the other), or a jack-of-all-trades (with no bonus or penalty to skills). There would be a renown system (pretty much a level system) that would allow you to add on to your abilities with each rank or so. There would probably be sub-jobs as well (mining, hunting, delivery, ruin exploration).

Fighter ships would probably abide by a set of three tiers: Fast, balanced, and heavy, with specific parts for each variety. There might also be specific manufacturers, each with their own company-specific and unique weapon. There would also be upgrades for each ship (fast ships go faster, heavy ships get more armor, balanced ships can get lesser versions of both) as well as its systems (targeting, radar, power and repair modules, etc.)

Buying things would depend on renown, money, and ship class (ie. An average player with a decent amount of money and a fast fighter couldn't buy an elite expensive uber-cannon designed for heavy ships.). The same would apply to guns for ground missions.

Missions would most likely be centered around basic militarily-hired mercenary jobs: Go to such-and-such place, investigate this, kill this guy, fetch this item, escort this random twat. War would occasionally be declared between factions, though after a certain set of circumstances were met, such as a timeframe, current PvP ratios, and so on.

 

[Ramthundar]

Now, what if we take a well-known saying and turn it into a game? Would that be considered a copy? After all, what I'm planning is rather bizarre and imaginative, but it's based heavily off of a quote.

No, i just meant copying other games.
If you want to make a game out of a real-life event, historic event, quote, saying, fairy-tale, myth, book, movie, ect, that's okay. Just as long as your not copying another game's idea.

I'm just gonna say what I said in the 'FPS games = Unoriginality, but why?' thread, "An FPS where you shoot lasers out of you eyes would be cool, the screen would turn completely red for a second. You would have to try and be sneaky, you would be blinded after every kill. You could wear different glasses to make special lasers, and binoculars would be like a sniper rifle. It would also be cool if you could fire one eye at a time"

Dude, first one on and you already debunked my theory. Nice job. And yeah, that sounds like an awsome game!

 

[The Leftist]

It isn't possible to create in a vaccuum. Great ideas are extensions of things that came before, whether someone realizes it or not. For example, did you know that the first FPS, Wolfenstein 3D, actually took its name and concept from a little known stealth-action series from the early '80s? It was originally going to include a body-dragging feature for stealth gameplay.

Or did you know that The Sims was actually inspired by an '85 game called Little Computer People? This was admitted by Will Wright himself.

What you ask for doesn't exist, and didn't exist even for the people who came up with ideas you claim were at some point "totally new." Even Miyamoto is influenced by things, although it's often his life and not previous games.

 

[Ursus Astrorum]

It isn't possible to create in a vaccuum. Great ideas are extensions of things that came before, whether someone realizes it or not. For example, did you know that the first FPS, Wolfenstein 3D, actually took its name and concept from a little known stealth-action series from the early '80s? It was originally going to include a body-dragging feature for stealth gameplay.

Or did you know that The Sims was actually inspired by an '85 game called Little Computer People? This was admitted by Will Wright himself.

What you ask for doesn't exist, and didn't exist even for the people who came up with ideas you claim were at some point "totally new." Even Miyamoto is influenced by things, although it's often his life and not previous games.

What he said.

To quote Picasso:

"Good artists copy. Great artists steal."

 

[Phyroxis]

Fable 2, except more Fable-ey.

 

[minoes]

The only game I can think of not having a precedent is "Katamari Damacy".
But I´m probably wrong.

 

[Knight Templar]

P.S. i'll add my own ideas once this thread get's going.

Why?

 

[Fearzone]

Game Idea:

Class: MMORPG

Style: Top down gaming, turn based strategy (i.e. kings bounty, heroes of Might and Magic).

Setting: Ancient Greek/biblical times, around the time of the Seven wonders of the world and library of Alexandria.

Premise: The Library of Alexandria has been destroyed, and it's documents have been scattered about the various monasteries in the known world. Each document hold a power that allows you can summon and control as a unit with a special unique ability.

Combat: Upon engaging an enemy, a hexogonal grid forms around you in the gaming world. In a turn-based way you summon your units and fight. You have a time limit of 10-15 seconds for commanding a unit to move or use an ability, or the computer will do it for you. You win by out-strategizing your opponent and forcing him in to submission.

Goal: To empower your character by gaining a broad range of summonable, commandable units and gearing your character to dominate other players and the most powerful pve monsters.

General Info:

So, it's an MMO-"RPG"-turn based strategy, except without levels. You empower your character by traveling the land and taking the ancient parchments that let you summon particular kinds of units from the various monasteries where they are hidden. It will have a heavy puzzle solving emphasis with hints dropped by enemy combatants. You solve puzzles to enter the monastery and then fight a boss to get the power. Each powers gives you an ability you can summon, manifesting as a unit.

The game starts with a human side. With expansions there can be an orc side as well that summons various kinds of pixies and goblins to battle, which are gotten similarly, or dwarves with mechanical devices.

"End-game," once you have sufficiently developed and geared your character, will be cooperative raids, arena fights, and battlegrounds, done by summoning and controlling units in a semi-turn-based way, where you have a limited time to command each unit but for practicality it would be like an RTS with different players commanding their "turn-based" units simultaneously.

Characters can have only one occupation, either gathering or crafting, not both. And all the best highest level, most powerful gear would be crafted and sold. All crafted items will require a broad range of gathered elements. The hope would be to get a rich, deep, interdependent economy in play.

So that's it, for starters. If any developer wants it I'd love to explain further, and love even more to play it.

 

[LOOY]

A puzzle/strategy game where you control zombies to infect a city.

 

[Galletea]

I'm not telling you. You'll steal it. It's my idea and I want to make money out of it...I can dream can't I.

 

[Vinculi]

I think i a steampunk MMO would go down nicely.

 

[Copter400]

I think i steampunk MMO go down nicely.

Actually, a while back I was orchestrating a CGI trailer for a Steampunk MMO in my head. It was cool. I am lonely.

 

[Lord Beautiful]

I'm not telling you. You'll steal it. It's my idea and I want to make money out of it...I can dream can't I.

I feel like a dork carrying this same sentiment.

 

[Flarvii]

Originality? In the gaming industry? This is fictitious nonsense. But as Yahtzee pointed out original ideas is about a guy with a mustache.

 

[Vinculi]

Hey i've got it, an fat italian plumber who goes around eating magic mushrooms and jumping on people's heads to cause fatal injury...

no, wait...

 

[Mushroom 118i]

This really is the whole Marxism vs Postmodernism debate all over again.

Marxists say that genre is unoriginal, and that it stifles creativity, and people should always be looking to make something truly new.

However, I personally sit with the Postmodernists on this one. They say that nothing is original, everything is copies of copies of copies. But why worry about it when that's what we like? The way to success is to make something the same, but different. Even the great idea about the laser-eyes FPS is still playing with the conventions of an FPS. But why should that have to worry us? It's still a cool idea, and the element of recogniseability in there just makes the difference all the more pronounced.


That being said, I did come up with a concept for a new type of Management Sim game, "Band Manager"! I'll go into detail if people want.

 

[Billybarbara]

You play as a man who gets hit by lightnig and sent back in time, he finds an alien race and has to take them over with chocalate and you must eat candy floss (cotton candy to americans) to restore health and the aiens are made of playdoh then in the second half you take over the world in an rts style where you can take control of any soldger and it goes to fps during combat,so your required to THINK.

 

[Credge]

However, I personally sit with the Postmodernists on this one. They say that nothing is original, everything is copies of copies of copies. But why worry about it when that's what we like?

I'd have to say that there isn't a single popular element found in any genre that I like from todays games. There is not one single element that I find fun in any of it. Period.

Oddly, the typical the game is, the more I like it. I prefer it when genres become crossed (and, actually, hate that term because when I think FPS, I think boring... compare this to 4-5 years ago and the thought never would have crossed my head).

I do think that genres tend to ruin things for us by making people say "Hey, this is how things are supposed to be in this genre" and then have everybody make games in that genre just alike. This is very similar to the Action-RPG, MMO, and RTS problems that Blizzard has created. Yeah, they make some pretty decent games themselves, but they've never pushed the envelope... they've ALWAYS played it safe. They just make games that are average slightly better than average, which everyone else seems to aspire for in said genre.

This is absolute bullshit, in my opinion, and I've recently decided to stop buying games from developers that aren't trying to do something unique with a genre. Specifically in the Action-RPG, MMO, and RTS genres. Luckily, there are games coming out, or games that have come out from all three genres that are vastly different than the typical crap we've had lately.

Mainly, I seem to find games that are cross-genre to be better. If there were no genres, I feel that things like this would happen more and gaming for me would be overall better than it is today.