Stuck for Ideas

[Bugalicious]

Hey there. I really wanna make something with AGS but for some reason I cant think of anything to start off with. I rekon that once I have an Idea for something that I'd probably be able to make it. So where do people get Ideas from?

[Creed Malay]

Movies, T.V, reaidng, watching people, just sitting on the bus and letting my mind wander, sitting in bars listineng to people talk, reading newspapers... Ideas be easy. It's putting in the startlingly huge amount of work it takes to finish a game that's the hard bit.

Davy

[Mats Berglinn]

You can also read books about history, myths and cultures of many different countries like Japan, Greece, Sweden, USA, anywhere. Maybe that will inspire you for a game idea.

[SSH]

1. Try entering MAGS
2. Base your game on a Photoshop Phriday pic, e.g:

[Layabout]

SSH, you are obsessed with the Lord of the Onion Rings aren't you!!!

Crazy man.

[GarageGothic]

I think this is problematic, people without ideas "wanting to make a game". It seems there's a new one every week.

Of course creativity works in many ways, but honestly, in my opinion this isn't one of them. Authors, filmmakers, musicians, they don't set out "to write a novel", "to make a movie", "to compose a tune". If they do, it's probably because they're hacks, paid to deliver on time.

To think of "game ideas" limits you immensely. Forget that you want to make a game. Instead, open your mind to new ideas, you can always adapt them to the media later on.
Inspiration is all around you. News. Fiction. History. If you're even the least bit creative, you should see dozens of ideas flying past you every day. You just need to catch them. Some of them will be good, some of them bad. Maybe they're not game ideas, maybe they are novels, plays, movies, operas. Write them down, all of them. Maybe some day you'll feel like writing an opera.

Just look at every idea and ask yourself: "Would this be fun to play? Would I want to be part of this world?" Eventually you'll find something that could be a game. Maybe it doesn't look like anything else you've ever played. But that's a good thing.

[AndersM]

Make a background. If it looks good, make a character. Suddenly you have a game...

[Nine Toes]

Well, I know some people around here don't like copycats... but me for example... I'm obsessed with zombies, and Resident Evil, etc.  So I'm working on a survival horror/adventure game right now.

Just take ideas from the things you like.

[Ytterbium]

Do this, and insert your own things between the parentheses:

A (character) who is (age) and is (species) wakes up in a (place) where (event) has happened. (Character) must (verb) to (acheive goal). Along the way, (character) discovers that (other character) is (verb)ing. (Character) also learns that everything is not what it seems, and that time is running out for (character) to (verb) (other character) from (verb)ing.

[Ginny]

Great MAD Lib
In fact I now have yet another idea for a game. Ideas are easy, I often get them spontaneously, and if I'm looking for one, it's a bit more difficult, so I just let things around me sink in. Or randomize, that's good too, for joke games. Make sure your ideas are surprising and interesting to the player, innovation and surprise are key
Over the past two years I have thought of more than 15 ideas, and detailed some quite a bit. Why haven't I made them? Well, that's err, a good question..
Baiscally what happens is I get TOO much vision and am not skilled enough to make what I want. Some games I have thought of as being 3d, some need the most amazing graphics I can imagine, and most of them are just too big and lengthy for me to handle right now.
This is a problem I'm working on right now, heh.