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Well, considering that that post is on the first page of this very thread, I'm sure a lot of people could stumble upon it.

A twist on the idea would be to have the walkthru only tell you how to solve puzzles you've already completed (the rest of the pages are torn out or something).

Well I wanted to vote for myself, but I really couldn't, with all these great entries trumping mine (plus I have no chance of winning now, anyway  ).

Idea: ProgZmax.  Come on, it's animated and everything!

Execution: Nacho. I could really imagine playing this one.

Interface: Dervish.  The only interface that looked fresh and stylish. (Can't wait for the game!)

A videocasette of a MacGuyver episode that explains how to use the tape from a videocasette as a rope (or as part of a complicated device the player would never think of without watching the tape first).

Thought I'd whip something up- this contest looked so lonely.

@Zor: As fun as it is to post ideas for our own amusement, yes, this thread is intended to either help inspire others or give them a full idea to start on. (By the way, which idea were you planning on developing? If it was one of mine, you can have it.)

Another quick one from the archives:

A sort of Double Dragon clone/remake, with the premise being a schoolgirl trying to get her backpack back from a street thug, and by the end of the game she ends up bringing down the whole crime organization. I envision a look/feel of a Hong Kong kung-fu movie and heavy inspiration by the Kill Bill movies.  (by EagerMind)

Okay, not really an adventure game... but then again, wouldn't it be an interesting challenge to remake Double Dragon as an adventure game?  With a little schoolgirl as the protagonist?  Well, I thought so.

Another of mine:

A game set in an insane asylum with Cubism-inspired backgrounds and sprites.  You're a schizophrenic trying to solve a murder committed at the asylum.  The problem is, all three witnesses give different descriptions of the killer, and all three feel differently about the victim (one feels sorry for him, one thinks he deserved it, etc.)  You have to figure out who the real killer is by piecing together the three accounts of the murder.
I was also thinking about using different kinds of dialogue puzzles for the game.  Most dialogue puzzles are either "pick the right topic or lose" or "click everything."  Not really puzzles at all.  So I thought, what if deciphering the dialogue itself was the puzzle?  One character would speak only about the past and future, never the present (so she would answer questions you hadn't asked yet, and then answer things you asked at the start of the conversation).  Another character would alternate between telling the truth and telling lies, so you could never really be sure whether to trust the information or not.  And one character could even speak in code, or in a type of slang that you would have to translate yourself.

Your turn, interweb.

Yet another one.  I don't like it as much as the others, though.  I'll keep the second as my official entry.



By the way, that game looks really sharp, Dervish.  Good luck with it.

lo_res_man- I remember reading that idea while digging through the forums, but I think I prefer another idea of yours:

"Villainy Inc: Zombie Labour Stinks" A hero stalks your castle, attempting to free the princess in your basement. But how are you supposed to deal with that, when your zombie hoard goes on strike?

And how about another short but intriguing idea, while I'm at it:

Jack the Policeman's shift has ended, 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...
(by jannar85)

For my own idea, I think there aren't enough satirical games, so:

You are the front-runner for the Republican nomination for President.  Unfortunately, the night before the convention where you would be nominated, some Godless heathen liberal tells the press that your son is a homosexual.  Obviously, this throws a monkey wrench into your 'family values' campaign.  The only way you could win the nomination now is if your son publicly announces that he has found Jesus and renounced his gayosity.  Unfortunately (for you and your campaign), he doesn't think being gay is a problem, and has no intention of lying for you.  Your mission is clear: you have less than 24 hours to degayify your son.  So, break out the football, the Playboys, and that Bible you always carry with you but never bother to read, because it's going to be a long night!

(Of course at the end, nothing works, and your son suggests that maybe you could still win the nomination if you show that you are compassionate and accepting of his differences.  At this point, you legally disown him, thus securing the Republican nomination for President.  Don't you love happy endings?)

Off to a good start!  Actually, the response is better than I thought it would be (so far)

Another classic from teh forumz:

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. (idea courtesy of Migs)

And another of my own:

A typical cliche adventure game plot where you have to save your kidnapped significant other.  The twist is, you can select your gender at the beginning of the game, and the characters in the game will respond to you differently based on your gender (i.e. the jocks will try to beat you up if you're a guy, but they'll drool all over themselves and help you if you're a girl).  This would also affect all the puzzles in the game, so even though the locations and obstacles are the same, the puzzle solutions are different.  There are also places that only a character of a certain gender can enter (really basic example- women's rest room).  The places that are "off-limits" to characters of the other gender would contain unique items that would help keep the puzzle solutions different.
Basically, it would investigate the issues of gender identity in an interesting and hopefully fun way that wouldn't bore everyone to tears.

Tag, you're it!

Welcome to the Game Idea Thread.

I started this thread to provide a place for spare game ideas so that people could get inspiration from them.  The ideas come from two sources:
1.Old threads.  I'm now searching through the forum archives for interesting/novel/bizarre game ideas.  When I find one, I'll take the basic concept, paraphrase it, remove all the extraneous bits, and put it in this thread.  Having all the old ideas arranged neatly in this thread will save others the trouble of searching through the forum and reading all the way through countless threads to get to the good stuff.
2.Me and you.  You (yes, you) are encouraged to post any game idea that floats into your head here.
I'd encourage you to give a brief, but detailed overview of the concept that makes the game unique.  I'd also recommend you stay away from suggesting game versions of existing stories/animes/movies, etc.  Of course it's up to you.  This thread won't be of much use if people don't participate.

You should also feel free to comment on any of the ideas posted, but I don't think it's too much to ask that you throw in a quick (maybe one sentence) game idea with your comment, to keep the thread on track.


Now, let's kick things off in style with a trio of ideas from Eggie:

You play a hideous monster from a swamp. The GUI starts off with two commands 'Eat' and 'Don't Eat.' There are two ways to complete it: A) Eat EVERYONE B) Try not eating things and watch as your social interaction skills grow.

You play a dead native american, and this obnoxious family are living on top of your buriel ground. You can control the house and make it do crazy things.

You play a teenage girl who's got home a little later than her mother considers acceptable. Through the magic of Dialogue options which appear at crucial points of the game, spin a yarn and play it at the same time.


And a more detailed concept from Alliance:

A boy gets in an accident of some sort, and ends up in a coma. Trapped inside his own mind, the boy must make his way through his dreams if he wants to recover. He has to go through everything from the most beautiful dreams to the most horrific nightmares. If he fails in the dream world, his heart rate flatlines in the real one, and he dies.
Later in the story, he meets a girl in his dreams, and falls in love with her. However, he has to face the possibility that she's not real.
However, she is. In the end of the story, the boy wakes up. He was in the accident at age 15, and he always pictured himself at that age. He is now 25. He stumbles into another room in the hostpital, and finds the girl. She's in a coma, just like him. He has to find a way to wake her up, so he gets back in bed, and aids her in her dreams.


And one of my own ideas:

A detective story that spans 4 decades, from the 1960s to the 1990s.  An artist/civil rights activist is murdered in each decade, and the detective (who works all the cases) becomes convinced that the murders are related.  However, each murder goes unsolved until the fourth and final case is resolved.  The gimmick is that each decade of the game is presented in a style that suits the decade (bright colors & op art for the 60s, bright neon for the 80s, etc). Also the detective starts as a naive rookie in the first case, but by the last case, he is very weathered and cynical.

Your turn.  Let's have some fun.

@Indie Boy and Mr. Santahat: Thanks for the input, guys.  Nice to know some people are still interested in the idea.
But I think just talking about it isn't enough.  The only way we'll see if it'll work is if I just go ahead and get the ball rolling myself.

I'll ask permission first, though.  Any moderators object to me starting a game ideas thread with ideas from the forum archives (and some ideas of my own)?  I'll try not to doublepost too much, and if the thread dies, it dies.  Sound good?

EDIT:
Alright, I'll take your silence as a sign that you think it's a good idea. I'll get on it right away.

@Tuomas: I'm sure some people will take advantage of it that way, but that shouldn't discourage others from posting useful ideas. Take the "Inventory Items That Haven't Been Used" thread: sure, some people would rather suggest 'poop' or the disembodied heads of ex-Presidents, but I like to use that thread as a challenge, to come up with new and innovative items that haven't been mentioned before.  I think creativity is something that is improved with use, like exercising a muscle.  A game ideas thread would give people a place for that, and people who are having a creative block can see the results of other people's brainstorms and hopefully get inspired too.

And if you're worried about content, I'd be willing to search through the forum archives and post some of the more interesting ideas, to get the ball rolling.  (My personal favorite: Eggie's suggestion where you play as a swamp monster, and the only options open to the player are "Eat" and "Don't Eat."

Every once in awhile, someone posts a thread suggesting that there should be a list of game ideas that people can contribute to- ideas they don't have the time or inclination to make into games themselves, but good ideas nonetheless.

Everyone is excited or a little while, and some ideas get posted.  Then, an older member usually pops in to point out that threads like this have happened before (like here or here), people start to get distracted by ancillary topics (or shiny objects) and the thread fades away until someone else stumbles upon the same idea.  Meanwhile, people continue to make posts in Adventure Chat or Critique's Lounge to the effect of: "Me have grate idea for game! Ninja robots leed chipmunk army to meaningful but sad conclusion!"

I think having a stickied thread, possibly in the Popular Threads section, would help provide a place for these posts where they wouldn't clutter up the main forums. In addition, it would stop people from reviving the topic over and over again.  But most of all, it would perform the function that all the previous posters wanted: provide a permanent place where people can vent their ideas and/or look for inspiration when creatively blocked.

What do you think?

Couldn't help myself- I made another. I guess this one will be my "official" entry:



First-person again, and I made the interface text-based this time because... well, because I'm lazy.

A record that has a musician's soul trapped in it- his ghost is released when the song is played, and gets sucked back when the song ends or is interrupted.
An "Out of Order" or "Do Not Enter" sign (seems like this could've been used before- anyone know?)
The player's soul- can be sold for rare items.
The heel off of a stilletto shoe.
A muse (Greek spirit of inspiration)

It's more of a sketch than a polished entry, but I couldn't resist making something:



It's first-person, and the inventory is accessed by pressing a keyboard button (so is the HUD).

(Reference used- some random image off of google. obviously.)

Leisure Suit Larry should be up there somewhere, if only on the lower end of the scale.  The 6th and 7th games are generally considered the best of the series- either one is worth a mention.

I prefer the second.  I think the lone figure gets across a feeling of isolation very well.  I don't get any emotional response from the first design.  It's very clean and 'indie' feeling, but the second one has all sorts of mystery, and looks more professional overall.

1984 by George Orwell.  Great read; of course, it's pretty depressing being an American and watching your government use tactics right out of it.  It's a cautionary tale, not a how-to book, guys.

But let's not drag this thread down with politics:

Watchmen by Alan Moore.  If there's any comic book that actually deserves that pretentious "Graphic Novel" designation, it's this one.

I'd also like to second the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy recommendation, especially if anyone here has only seen the movie version.  Read all five books of the trilogy- you won't regret it.

Well, it looks like the discussion has run its course.

I didn't get many of the suggestions I wanted, but the debate was interesting, and more importantly, I actually got an idea for a new game.  Of course, I can't be sure this thread was the cause of my inspiration, since I got the idea while waking up from a bizarre dream, but I definitely used some of the points raised here to help me craft the plot outline and puzzle structure, so thanks, guys!
I just started this thread to have a little chat- I never expected it to be productive or anything. It was a nice surprise.

Now I'm off to play some of those games Rui and Auriond suggested.

The discussion seems to be going along nicely, but where are the suggestions for new game ideas? (Besides Candall's lovely stained glass suggestion-thanks Candall!)

The back-and-forth technical discussion is great, but how about a round of good old "wouldn't it be great if they based a game around..."

Onedollar: I like your definition of game, but games also usually have a beginning and an end (even if the end is death, like most early arcade games) so unfortunately, MS Paint wouldn't qualify- much as I love it.

Lo_res_man: I agree that games can be their own art form, but if you were making games specifically as art, I don't think you should use a genre as old-fashioned and rooted in tradition as point and click adventure games as a starting-off point.  In other words, you should use something besides AGS if you intend to make an art game.  But as I've said, I'm not interested in art games, just using art as an influence when making adventure games.  And not as a gimmick, but as a way of approaching the game experience from a new angle, to get fresh ideas.

LUniqueDan: I was just going to talk about how a successful Dada game would have to play like a normal game, and simply include aspects of the Dada movement (multiculturalism, antiwar sentiment, laws of chance), rather than taking gamepay cues from the aspects of the art itself, but you explain it much better (and funnier!).  A game that tried to recreate the Dada experience would have to intentionally annoy the player.  It would be much better ('more fun = better' in game design) to style a traditional adventure game around Dada politics and aesthetics than to faithfully create an 'artistic' game about nonsense and confusion.