8 replies to this topic

[Slinky]

There are lots of ways to come up with game ideas, but I personally use this one when I need ideas:

Find a game you think you would enjoy. Watch some gameplay videos and trailers and maybe visit the website. Once you have that down make a game based on those mechanics. Once you get the engine down, make your own tweaks an add your own ideas along the way. Whatever you do, don't let playing the actual game influence the outcome of your game.

This is what I did with SquareCraft.

Does anyone have any thoughts on this? Does anybody use it?

[G-rant]

That's okay, but I like mixing games I think look cool or I think are fun as well as just makng my own ideas of course. I think it makes them more original.

[chance]

Does anyone have any thoughts on this? Does anybody use it?

Most of us do this unconsciously. The "creative process" doesn't exist in vacuum. It's fueled by our past experiences -- such as other games/books/movies, life events, daily observations, etc.

Sometimes it's a convergence of multiple ideas into a single idea (like G-rant said above). Other times, it's a divergence, where we morph an existing idea into a new idea. Usually, both processes are happening simultaneously.

[Yal]

I agree. I'd personally say that a good idea is to find games that have good ideas executed badly (on the verge of annoyance) and then you make a game that fixes all of those ideas. It's easier to point out a flaw than an advantage, so thus it's easier to fix ideas if someone else does them first and then fails. You could of course fail yourself first and then fix stuff in the sequel, but that's just a waste of time compared to letting someone else do it in your place.

Edited by Yal, 27 March 2012 - 11:01 AM.

[Spyro Conspiracy Theorist]

This is me just stealing Ken Levine's philosophy, but an interesting way to do it is to reinterpret ideas from OTHER mediums. For example, Bioshock uses lots of theater techniques, and obviously a story based in Ayn Rand, and art-deco 50s aesthetics. It all pulls together to be a very unique experience. This has the benefit of being something new to video-games, but not something that you'd have to work from the ground up.
Personally, though, I'll sometimes just try to draw a screencap of a game in my head. I generally have a basic idea in my head already, but beyond that I'll just doodle loosely to try and get some ideas for gameplay and how things will mesh together with a very loose picture in my head about how everything will come together onscreen.
Those are the two things I do that haven't been mentioned already. Yal's way is another great thing to do, and chance's divergence and convergence are always important to creating good, original ideas.

[Slinky]

Here's an example: You want to include a homicidal computer in your game.

Most of us probably think of HAL 9000 or GLaDOS, but when you think outside the box, it occurs to me at least that many things also include computers and you could combine them. For instance:

TRON takes place inside a computer.
Wargames obviously involves computers.
SHODAN.
Skynet.

These are the first things I think of. What I get is:

A computer that has trapped you inside a world of its own making filled with almost invincible killer robots, but can be defeated by its own arrogance.

Add my technical limitations:

Sucking at voice acting.

And you get:

A computer that has trapped you inside a world of its own making filled with almost invincible killer robots, but can be defeated by its own arrogance. It communicates with you via messages scrawled on the wall.

And what you get is something fairly original. I just thought this was interesting.

[thatshelby]

This is not a horrible design method... but it feels forced. I disagree with one point, and it almost seems is contradictory...

Why can't the game influence the outcome? It already has! You designed your game around it!!

Myself, I watch a lot of movies, read books, go outside and observe nature. I take a notebook with me where ever I go, not just to write down game ideas, but to also write down neat thoughts I have - these might not spring up a game idea right away, but maybe in the future. I find the game ideas come best when you think about these things in a removed sort of way, almost critical of it.

[Creativita]

... I take a notebook with me where ever I go, not just to write down game ideas, but to also write down neat thoughts I have - these might not spring up a game idea right away, but maybe in the future. I find the game ideas come best when you think about these things in a removed sort of way, almost critical of it.

I do exactly that whilst I am writing a novel. I have found it to be an incredibly useful method.

Edited by Creativita, 15 April 2012 - 09:30 AM.

[Slinky]

Sounds like a good strategy. And what I mean by not influencing is that you shouldn't try to remake every element of the game.
Anyway, continue discussion