Hi. I need some help with coming up with an original idea for a game. I want an idea that hasn't already been made. That includes Byond games, and anything in real life.
I hope i get some good replys out of this.
ID:151631
 Nov 28 2009, 2:08 am
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Nov 28 2009, 2:38 am
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Lundex
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I'm going to tell you this, sometimes being a game designer can be tough. Though I am far from a expert, but asking for someone to give you an "original idea" is bad in my opinion. I mean honestly, from what I've seen you need more work on your programming before you really sit down and focus on making a long-term game. Once again I mention this is all my opinion, if you think you can take on the problems and headaches of creating a game, go ahead. Maybe you'll come out with someone unique and original.
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Gamemakingdude wrote:
Hi. I need some help with coming up with an original idea for a game. I want an idea that hasn't already been made. That includes Byond games, and anything in real life. GMD, based on your reply to my blog post, I'll assume you made this post due to it. I'll tell you what I have experienced. In the past I frequently asked my brother, friends, and people within this community for game ideas. Rarely was a good one given. If I were to get an idea and started work on it, the problem of mine still existed, this was not my dream game, it was someone else's. After thinking about it, I would rather sit down for hours and program a game I truly would love to play. I can also see myself programming this game for years to come. My game, Infected Cell did not last long. As I stated in my blog, the game took form after watching the Left 4 Dead trailer along with watching Resident Evil 4. My brother also urged me to create a game similar to those. This was his dream, an online zombie game created by his brother. Yet, my dream was not remotely close to this game. You should just sit down one day, grab a notebook, turn off the TV and mp3 player, and start writing down the design of a game you have always wanted to play. You must notice, you will not come up with a full game idea in just one day. Read some of the sites interviewing Tarn, of Dwarf Fortress. If I recall, work started on the game/game idea back in 1993, when it was known as DragSlay. Remember, ignore any game that is fairly similar, if the idea is truly something you have always wanted to do, and if it is not based on a popular game in which you hope to gain notice from, go for it. | |
Hmm.. I often sit in my room with nothing on. So maybe i should be using that time from now on to make an original idea.
Thanks Calus. | |
Don't obsess over being original. It's nigh-impossible and not particularly possible. Instead, find a concept you like and figure out how to improve on it. If you can make enough improvements, then be sure to give it a new theme and call it good.
Of course, if you have an original idea, feel free to pursue it. But originality is not the most important feature of a game. | |
Here's some ideas that have been rarely used/become popular in BYOND:
Sports games. Rarely approached on BYOND except for racing or tag. There are plenty of sports fans on BYOND, so there's a good audience for it. Tycoon games. OmegaMall, WarGames, and a bunch of Harvest Moon games are the only tycoon games I've seen on BYOND, and this genre could use a lot of improvement. Pseudo-3D or 3D. This is very hard to do with BYOND, but has been done. (Look up Vengeance 56) These games have poor graphics and poor multiplayer capability, yet have rarely ever been attempted. Word games, board games, card games, puzzle games, casual games. These games have been done hundreds of times, but have never been popular. I don't know how you could get a game like this have any more than 10 players at a time, unless you make a chat room or an icon game. Now a popular BYOND game is rarely original. There are many factors that make popular BYOND games popular, such as: Customization. In any of the anime games with 100+ players, or Icon Ultima, which gets around 60+ players on weekends, there is a large amount of customization. In Icon Ultima, both the player and everything the player creates is customizable, from buildings to doors to teleports and vehicles. Anime games usually have a lot of player customization, such as DBZ: HU's 40+ avatars. A key to making a popular game is good customization. Freedom. If the player can go everywhere, they're happier. In Icon Ultima, there's 1000+ tiles of freedom for building, racing, and roleplaying. It's the same thing with DBZ: HU, with abilities that let the player fly over land and water, allowing them to go anywhere. Roleplaying. Capture BYOND's fantastical populous and let their imagination soar. A key aspect of popular anime games and Icon Ultima is freedom for roleplaying. See any gave with an RP prefix/suffix. They get at least 10 players if done right. Familiarity. The key reason anime games get so many players is because the players are familiar with the characters, attacks, world, and vocabulary. They've either watched 100 episodes of the anime or have played anime fangames outside of BYOND. Easy ability to feel greater than other players. After a player finds out how to macro the training verb and they get to level 100 in a day, they'll feel like they're better than other players and want to keep playing to boast about their SSJ1793. | |
Gakumerasara's Vengeance 56 actually has pretty good multiplayer, thanks to a custom networking system he wrote, though the graphics are a little lacking.
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RP games like DNU and Mitadake High always attract a lot of people whenever their up. Just try something from an anime you like, cuz just about everyone in byond likes anime :P
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That's because people like games where they don't have to learn any new characters or worlds or storyline. That's why sequels to blockbusters do so well even when their reviews are horrible.
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I had one a while ago I don't think I've seen done yet. It's based around the concept of Ghost Hunting.
You basically start off from home, having to work a part time job and doing ghost hunting on the side. It'd end up working a bit like the sims, having to micro manage your guy's life. As you solve more cases and prove or disprove more hauntings, you'd start making a little money on the side. With the extra income you can buy better equipment, or hire on extra people. Each individual is unique in how they act. Some are brave, some get scared rather easily. Some get sick for no reasons, others can sense spirits, that sort of thing. During missions these sorts of traits will pop up out of the blue. Each mission involves things such as investigating the area, the local history, EVP, photos, that sort of thing. You'd have a time limit to how long you can take. At the end of a mission you'd go over the evidence you collected and then have to make a decision if the place is haunted or not. Sometimes you will encounter unique hauntings that require additional help, such as a demonic haunting. At the end of the game (there is a yearly limit, like harvest moon), the game evaluates how much money you made, how much money you spent, and how accurately you managed to identify a haunting. The game would, for the most part, be in a isometric style over head view, but sometimes you will go into a first person view for stuff like taking pictures. | |