Unwanted Ideas...

[Ali]

Do any of you ever have ideas for games that for one reason or another you aren't interested in pursuing?

From time to time I'm hit by what I think is a good idea, but one that I know I wouldn't enjoy working on because It wouldn't suit my style.

If the same thing happens to other people, I thought it would be useful to collect unwanted ideas, so that they could be picked up by people who could make a better go of them.

This idea would not necessarily make for a terrifically original plot, but could make for very interesting gameplay. It could work with a realistic or fantastical storyline but for the sake of explaination, I'm setting it in the future:-

The main character begins in prison. Like his fellow prisoners, his memory has been erased. I know it sounds clichéd, but bear with me.

The player guides him in his escape and his search to discover his crime. He learns about four figures involved in his case:

1: A powerful businessman
2: His estranged son
3: A charismatic cult leader
4: An investigative journalist
(Any roles are possible, these are examples.)

The hero learns that he has committed murder (or some equally heinous crime), by rooting around the lives of these 4 people. Ultimately, the player discovers who the hero is.

Now here is the challenging-to-programme part: When the hero is faced with puzzles and interactions he is also faced with moral decisions. Here's an example.

When escaping from prison, the player must get another inmate to help him. He can do this by choosing persuasive dialogue options, or threatening ones, or by tricking the prisoner. During the break-out the player must choose whether or not to use the other prisoner as a decoy for the guards in order to escape himself.

Once the player has solved the logical or lateral part of the puzzle, either moral decision will work out for them. However, the player will without their knowing recieve a score for each decision they make against the following criteria:

A: Forcefulness
B: Violence
C: Lying
D: Kindness
(again, just examples)

So every time the player chooses to lie, or to be kind, they are given a point in that column.

The player is actually forging the character of the hero as they play. At the end of the game they discover which of the four characters they killed, and they discover which of the for characters they are. (The four characteristics corresponding with the four characters, of course).

It wouldn't be easy to make this game well, but if someone succeeded, I think could be very good.


Anyone else have any unwanted ideas? Maybe better ones than mine?

[Migs]

I would love to do a kind of game where the main character has no memory of what happened, but he finds, e.g., his family murdered and he is the prime suspect.  He is travelling backward in time, and each day he has to figure out more pieces to the puzzle and who really killed his family.  The game ends on the "last" day, when the murder actually occurs and he has to prevent it.

I think there was an X-Files episode similar to this.  It would make a great game, methinks.  Shooby doo wop wop.

[..]

I had an Idea that I posted in the critics lounge not so long ago but I decided not to make the game because I played Broken Sword 2 (and watched The Mummy) and realised how much it was like that.. And I didn't want to be labeled a copycat

The main characters father dies, his dyeing wish is that his son visits the place he spent most of his childhood. When there (after he breaks in) He finds a load of old junk and thinks nothing of it. When at home he is mysteriously fired from his Job in which he has never done anything wrong.

After visiting his only living relative she advises him to an old friend who lays out his quest.

Basically an old Egyptian Pharoah was imprisoned in the Sphinx but something went wrong, he's escpaed so now the hero must collect £ ancient hidden keys that will re imprison him for good.

These keys are scattered across the globe so he has to undecipher clues to their loacation and find them.

Basically a load of stuff happens.

If you are interested in the Game Idea just PM me and I'll tell you a bit more because I had a lot of Backstory and Plot Twists Fleshed out.

[SSH]

"Memento: the game", eh? Just make the main character a different ex-Neighbours guy to avoid copyright problems. How about Dr Gibbons?

[Esseb]

The player is actually forging the character of the hero as they play. At the end of the game they discover which of the four characters they killed, and they discover which of the for characters they are. (The four characteristics corresponding with the four characters, of course).

Ugh. Reminds me of those cheap choose your adventure time travel novels where every damn option you did had a different ending. Kill the dinosaur and it turns out the caveman who chased you was actually kind and gives you the artifact you were after. Don't kill the dinosaur and the caveman slays the dinosaur and then eats you up like the cannibal he turned out to be.

That said, I have had a vaguely similar idea where you must investigate the murder in a mansion. There are 5 endings total but they're fixed and you must play them one after another. Finish the game once and you can replay the game, but now the game has changed subtly and clues you saw last time around are now gone and the killer is a different person. Each time you finish the game a playing card is flipped around to display the portrait of the killer. Each subsequent play through would get weirder and weirder untill the last one when you find out you were the killer all along.

The ending scene shows you as an old man in a dark prison cell playing with cards. 5 cards lying in front of you. If people only bothered to play the game through once it would just be a standard whodunnit and that would be that, no harm done.

I began drawing a character and a background but eventually my laziness kicked in.

[Migs]

"Memento: the game", eh? Just make the main character a different ex-Neighbours guy to avoid copyright problems. How about Dr Gibbons?

In Memento, didn't the guy still travel forward in time rather than backward?  I don't know, it's been years since I've seen that movie.  If you ask me, characters with amnesia are terribly overused.  But people seem to like it...might as well do it.

EDIT: Oh wait, you're right, he did travel back in time.  You can't copyright the basic concept like that, so there isn't a problem.  Oh well.  There are reasons why it's an "unwanted idea."

[Moox]

A Jewish person trying to excape a nazi prison

A boy has a serious illness and his parents have to find a way to get the rare cure

Mutiny at sea between the crew of a ship starts a feud in which the captain dies. The passengers must find a way to sail to safety

Band of Brothers the game

[Davis]

"Memento: the game", eh? Just make the main character a different ex-Neighbours guy to avoid copyright problems. How about Dr Gibbons?

In Memento, didn't the guy still travel forward in time rather than backward?  I don't know, it's been years since I've seen that movie.  If you ask me, characters with amnesia are terribly overused.  But people seem to like it...might as well do it.

EDIT: Oh wait, you're right, he did travel back in time.  You can't copyright the basic concept like that, so there isn't a problem.  Oh well.  There are reasons why it's an "unwanted idea."

He didn't travel back in time, the movie just played backwards, showing the last scene first, and then the second to last scene next. Your idea sounded actually pretty cool, you'd have to puzzle through each day... I think it would be cool if it was something abstract, like, saying Day 8 and Day 7 and each morning you wake up with the chance to work through the day to go back one, not like, at the end of the day the main character says, "Well, time to get into my time machine and go back!" More like he's going crazy or something. I dunno. But I liked the idea.

[Ryukage]

Do any of you ever have ideas for games that for one reason or another you aren't interested in pursuing?

From time to time I'm hit by what I think is a good idea, but one that I know I wouldn't enjoy working on because It wouldn't suit my style.

If the same thing happens to other people, I thought it would be useful to collect unwanted ideas, so that they could be picked up by people who could make a better go of them.

Anyone else have any unwanted ideas? Maybe better ones than mine?

I once considered making a Scooby-Doo game with AGS, but decided it wasn't my style; I'd love to play one, however.  The games that have come out alongside the recent movies both look like the usual dumb cookie-cutter platformers, and I can't remember there ever being any other Scooby games; but it would make a fantastic adventure game.  Something like Maniac Mansion, where you change among the five members of Mystery, Inc. as they search for clues and set up Freddie's inane ghost traps.  Of course, as everyone knows, the classic Scooby is the best, none of this Scrappy Doo, celebrity guest stars, or real monsters crap.

[kaaZ]

I considered making a game based on a lovercraft story called...not sure what the english title is..."the tomb" or "the crypt" or something...It's about this gravedigger who gets trapped in a gravetomb...after he manages to escape the tomb a creepy plot is unraveled...I tried to write 2 different scripts for this but never got to the point where I was satisfied..even made some conceptart...never felt it was nearly as good as lovecrafts shortstory...It's damn hard to transform a tallented writers story into a gamescript....my script lost all the suspense....so I dropped it...

[Phemar]

Heh, i dropped an idea obce 'cos I thought it sucked...it did.

Identity

A man called Dave wakes up one morning and gets a phone call. An anonomous guy tells him a mob guy has mistaken him for his identical twin brother. [corny, eh?] Now you must change your name, etc...bla bla bla...Then in the end you meet the anonomous guy, turns out he had teh wrong number...corny cliche corny bla bla...Anyway I mafe teh demo and never finished: Here it is: http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/Identity.zip

You may use this idea, you MAY not use this demo...no matter how corny and bad it is...

[m0ds]

What silly thread. Not because of its content, but because I have about a million things to contribute and therefore will be sitting here typing for an hour.

The Max
Imran Max's parents work for NASA. One day they have to go to the moon. Once at the moon, reports arrive that hostile forces - which no-one knows if they are alien or human, have taken Imran's parents hostage.

It is up to you, Imran Max to travel around the world, picking up parts for a space rocket, talking to many people about what they know about the so called "Hogsilians" and make up a suitable team which you call the "MoonMeres". NASA have sent up a few teams to destroy the kidnappers but have all been killed. With your team, you must also get parts for your series of weapons, and when you are ready, you must travel to the moon and kill the Hogsilians, and their boss, Horcha Hide.

Information: This game was designed around 1997, and was originally going to be made as an action adventure game in QBasic. Several backgrounds and characters were drawn in QB. Game was cancelled because it was a crap storyline and the design was far too linear.

Hollywoodland
You play Mr Stepherson, a US park warden who has just returned home from the cinema. As night falls and Mr Stepherson goes to bed something odd happens, the letters that form "LAND" from "HOLLYWOODLAND" get stolen from atop the hill. The aim of the game is to find the stolen letters, L, A, N and D.

Original ideas are that a new American theme park called WONDERLAND have stolen the LAND. The start of the game is to find out who has stolen it and then the plot evolves and you manage to get the letters back, the bad guy Sacra mon Bleur catches onto you and pursues you to try and steal them back.

Information: Again originally designed for QBasic, I have the start of an introduction sequence programmed but again quit this project because it seemed too boring.

Tearaway Island
Jack Diamond, the owner of a well known chemical company is taking his newly bought boat from Italy back to England. En-route there is a storm and he is left shipwrecked on an un-charted island, his friends missing too. He must find help, help the diseased people of the island, defeat the bad guy, find his friends and get off the island.

Information: Older AGS users may remember a demo of this game (known for its maximum use of shake-screen). Using photos as backgrounds I gave up this game because... Erm.

Urban Eye
Roy Donavon, museum security takes a theft into his own hands. The Gem Of Inakrum (also an eye) is stolen days after a criminal has broken out of jail. Being Roy's first link he soon finds out this is only the start of the criminals wants. Linking a downtown explosion, it appears the city has a deeper mystery to it. The explosion reveals a dis-used underground subway which holds a buried artifact shaped as a head. A rival museum has the other eye piece. Roy needs to get a hold of the "head" before they do.

Information: This is actually the first draft of an idea, (I can't find the rest) so it's in pretty basic form. This was going to be a 3D adventure game in AGS, I had a working demo that allowed you to guide a character around city streets in a sort of Blade-Runner esque manner. I didn't make this game because I couldn't come up with a decent plot.

On The Ruin
Mac Mazinski is the lucky winner of a competition and after a six month wait he can finally go and claim his prize from a depot outside his home-town. After collecting it he realises it's a bomb! Running away from his house it explodes destroying his house and he is soon put in jail. Wanting to free his name he escapes and searches for answers as to why he was set up the bomb and who it was that sent it.

Information: OTR is a humourous game as the player discovers slowly why he won a bomb. It never passed design stage.  

Bridge Over Troubled Water
You play an architect who is taken to an island to build a bridge across the river Creed so that civilians can colonize on the other side of the river.

Information: Not much in the way of a design on this one, but funnily enough as RTS as it sounds, it was designed to be an adventure game.

In Too Deep
You play Nick Royce, an unemployed 27 year old regular guy in downtown London. It's a warm July evening when Nick comes home to his luxurious flat after trying to seek employment only to find it trashed and a mess.

Someone has trashed his flat but for no apparent reason. That is until Nick finds a rogue note explaining a certain book to be stolen - "In Too Deep, By C.A.G.". Seeing no connection at first, Nick starts to remember the novel - its about the successful steps to taking over countries.

But why steal HIS copy? Because the novel was never released. C.A.G. wrote the novel and kept no copies for himself in case the novel drove some crazy person to actually try and take on the world. C.A.G had thrown it out and Nick had come across it when he worked as a dustbin man. Nick must remember notes from the novel and see how they relate to current issues in the news and decipher who is trying to take on the world, how they're trying to do it and stop them.

Information: This was the first game I started making in AGS ever!111 I used Roger and ripped background art. I didn't continue it though because I started on Tearaway Island. And then a few months later a film called In Too Deep was released.

Kentucky Jones
Jones is an underpaid filer in a big accountancy company deep in a big city. For his hobby, and to earn a bit of extra cash, Jones runs his own bomb disposal business, the only one for miles around. On a normal summers day problems in the city start to arise, and first on the scene is Kentucky!

A bomb has been found in the building NEXT DOOR! Everyone next door is evacuated, yet the boss of the company Jones works for has ordered all employees to stay inside, the county Bomb Disposal unit arriving within the next hour. But Jones feels his business could get a kick start if HE saves the day. He's got to find a way out of the building and into the one next door, before the bomb explodes!

Information: Andrey Biglari drew several backgrounds for this and also the main character, Jones. I never got round to making this game. The game was set to star Pamela Anderson.

Most of my other designs are platformers, RPG's, sims etc so not really relevant here. If I remember any more I'll post them up I'd like to share my Lost In Paradise design documents with you sometime too, but there's far too much of it to type right now.

[Gravity]

Message deleted.

[AGA]

Yeah, it's bad enough hearing them on IRC, Grav

[Rave]

I get tons of ideas of games I wouldn't want to create (because of my lack of patience, talent and skil in making games) not to mention my constant paranoia of someone wanting to "steal" my ideas....(STOP READING MY MIND!)...also, I'm contantly forgetful, I think I suffer from short-term memory loss....so if I think of a good idea that I don't want to do, it shoots right back out of my head to make more room. Perhaps if I added more RAM to my brain.....wait, what was I talking about again? Why am I here, who are you?

[..]

About the going back in time idea..
Its a brilliant idea.. I wonder if there would be a way of having the puzzles going backwards : Like Use Key on door and then Pickup Key?
That could be an idea actually... you go to use the key on the door and the character says he doesn't have it and its gone from his inventory, U go to pick it up from a pile of rubbish and the pile dissapears. You knock over the trash can but that dissapears and then you go to the nesxt (previous) day...

[jannar85]

Geez.. Here goes..

In Space
Bob -the hero- is brought to a doctor within assembly where he's asked a lot of questions. When Bob finally talks about the purpose of his capture the doctor say that he will be the man that will spread the word that aliens are friendly. Thus he will be the link between alien and human culture. When Bob talked about what Alien1 said, the doctor seems embarrassed and says that this must be language problem and that he has misunderstood. Then he is told to follow a specific training in order to learn all the knowledge that composes the Alien cultures. The trainer is shown:  it's a big, strong and tall alien that talks with monosyllable.

Then Bob travels to a planet when he's supposed to train for understanding all the subtle way of alien torture (sic). During the trip, the ship is attacked (mini games I though) and then the ship is seriously hurt. In order survive; which seems to be very important to every people in the ship. Bob has to find a rescue navy and all the stuff that will make them work. When it's done, Bob is helped by a strange alien (which means very, very, very funny looking) to escape and he will bring him to a city where everybody says that he was captured so he could be trained to be a lethal weapon to human being. The Alien want to help but that's not that clear because if people are sincere the local mafia doesn't have such nice purpose:  they plan that if they keep away Bob from the other aliens, who are their worst enemies, earth won't be settled and so they could gather very angry people to beat his alien from the power.

Some of the native alien discovers that and create a small group (kind of political group that doesn't understand the catch phrase they say) that will help Bob, to save earth.

Murder
Just plain story... Never worked on a design document. Contact me if you want it... It might be a project in the nearest future though...


Hamster Quest
You're a happy little hamster on the run from a conglomerate of world secret services (Like KGB and the CIA). And they're all trying to kill you, who is only trying to deliver a secret message that can possibly save all humankind, and they don't know so they're trying to kill him!

Bah.


The Pretender
Never got any far with this.. Just wanted to base a project on a similar theme

Train Spotting (Not the movie)
Jack's shift has ended (he's a policeman), and he takes the train home as usual. What he doesn't know... is that the train will be high-jacked 15 minutes later. Without any weapons or whatsoever, he tries to figure something out.....

Mojo Island
Forgot what it was about
***

There! Still some projects I forgot to mention, but lost them a while ago when my hd crashed...