If you were a game designer

[Sis]

A recent discussion in another thread led me to innovation in the video game industry. Games like ICO and Katamari Damacy are usually trotted out whenever the innovation topic comes out and then we debate what it means for something to be innovative.

But I figured: instead of discussing what already exists, it would be fun to brainstorm interesting and/or innovative gaming concepts ourselves. I'll start with two ideas of my own, both dealing with gaming structure:

1) The Recap. Kind of like a customized "Last Week on ..." where you get a recap of the events that happened in the game. I'm sick of games that assume I play them every day until I beat them. Often, I'm lucky if I get any time during the week. And sometimes I just don't want to play the same game several days in a row.

So I thought it'd be cool if they had this simple, "Last Time You Played..." and a recap of pertinent information--basically just trimmed down cutscenes.

2) The Single Difficulty game. This one may have been done before. But the idea is that the main game is actually played on easy, but side quests offer very challenge diversions. In order to get a 100% complete, you'd have to play even the most difficult side quests.


Some others want to chime in with thoughts of their own? A new type of game, maybe? A plot that's never been done, a character that's never been created?


(To the Mods: if this belongs in the gaming section, please move it. I felt it was about console gaming in general though so I put it here.)

 

[see colon]

recap is a great idea, and i haven't really seen it in a while. the NA release of magic knight rayearth for saturn had a "diary" feature that basicly does what you're describing.

if i were making a game right now i'd try to make a game with a good co-op experience. maybe something in the zombie/survival genre, with classes and experience. and open ended.

 

[seismologist]

Recap thing has been done before but it's usually in the form of a text journal like in Metal Gear Solid. At least I think that's what your getting at.


One idea for a game I've been tossing around is sit-com videogames. Since they're going out and licensing everything under the sun how about digging up some old sit-coms like Happy Days and make it play out like the sims only with recognizeable characters.

 

[Sis]

recap is a great idea, and i haven't really seen it in a while. the NA release of magic knight rayearth for saturn had a "diary" feature that basicly does what you're describing.

if i were making a game right now i'd try to make a game with a good co-op experience. maybe something in the zombie/survival genre, with classes and experience. and open ended.

Perfect Dark Zero actually had some decent coop concepts. I think coop itself could see a lot of innovation, especially as online gaming becomes more popular.

Some coop ideas off the top of my head:

*A fighter game where two people control a single character, requiring intense teamwork but since you have two controllers, the fighter can have fine-grained control
*A racing game where the vehicle is a giant robot and each player controls one of the feet.
(It's brainstorming, so grant me some latitude )

 

[NavNucST3]

Perfect Dark Zero actually had some decent coop concepts. I think coop itself could see a lot of innovation, especially as online gaming becomes more popular.

Some coop ideas off the top of my head:

*A fighter game where two people control a single character, requiring intense teamwork but since you have two controllers, the fighter can have fine-grained control
*A racing game where the vehicle is a giant robot and each player controls one of the feet.
(It's brainstorming, so grant me some latitude )

Except the dual controlled aspect can be found in Robotron: 2084 on XBL, one person does the movement the other does the firing. My four-year old and I found this out last night, took me awhile to figure out why I couldnt shoot.

Innovation is such a hard thing to define, I have been one to say that I haven't found many things innovative in games for a long time. They have evolved but, madden follows the same rules and guidelines that TV Sports football did back on my 286. FPS have evolved but what has been innovative in them. Even as much as I love Condemned because of the concept, I would consider that an evolution as well.

I think we would need to define innovation, define evolution, and then define the differences between them.

Also, Sissy, I'm catching up to you on GW (finally hit 500K+)

 

[wireframe]

Good topic, good ideas

The recap idea is great and make a lot of sense as games become more and more cinematic. Not only is it great to simply remind you of the story so far, in case you forgot, but it would also help set the mood back to where it needs to be to enjoy the current chapter. Sometimes I come back to a game and start at the last point I saved or left the machine idling at, but now feel very detached from the drama because the cutscene leading up to the current action sequence is only remembered in some clinical form of events rather than feelings.

 

[Sis]

Except the dual controlled aspect can be found in Robotron: 2084 on XBL, one person does the movement the other does the firing. My four-year old and I found this out last night, took me awhile to figure out why I couldnt shoot.

Very interesting--I didn't know that.

I think we would need to define innovation, define evolution, and then define the differences between them.

For the sake of brainstorming, I think it's safe to just call it "fresh and new". I won't even put the requirement that it need be "good" since often times two bad ideas can actually spawn a good one.

Also, Sissy, I'm catching up to you on GW (finally hit 500K+)

I got so frustrated with seemingly going backwards on GW that I walked away from it for a few weeks. Maybe i'll put it back on today

 

[Sis]

Something simple for a casual game (such as on Xbox Arcade):

How about a game where you design falling domino setups? You know, were you sit a series of dominoes on end, you push one and they all tumble down. This would allow you to set up very complex courses, with multiple tracks, ladders, and other objects thrown in there. Think of some of those million piece courses and imagine laying that out in a program and then watching them all fall. Maybe even saving your course online such that others could view your domino sequence.

 

[rounin]

I agree with the difficulty being set to easy by default. Dammit games are too hard nowadays. I lost count of all the games I never finished due to too high difficulty + lack of time to try things over and over again.

 

[Sis]

I agree with the difficulty being set to easy by default. Dammit games are too hard nowadays. I lost count of all the games I never finished due to too high difficulty + lack of time to try things over and over again.

Yeah, exactly. I want to finish the game but I'd also like challenges. And if I could control those challenges by either opting to wait until later, or not doing them at all, I get to experience the full game and still have parts to look forward to later.

 

[NavNucST3]

I agree with the difficulty being set to easy by default. Dammit games are too hard nowadays. I lost count of all the games I never finished due to too high difficulty + lack of time to try things over and over again.

Every 360 game review I read is about how the games are too short. Once I hear that a game is 8-10 hours (like Kameo and Condemned) I know it will take me about twice to three times as long as that, which is great for me. While I may like the visuals of Oblivion, there is no game in existence that I would want to spend hundreds of hours on. I mean I have probably devoted hundreds of hours to Galaga, but over the games entire lifetime.

Ripping through games in their bare minimum time is akin to ordering a great meal and just inhaling it, why not try and experience the game. This is what has lead me to replay Kameo and finish-finish the game. This is where I give MSFT huge kudos (no pun intended), the gamer achievements are a simple way of saying "Hey, you only THINK you're done" and the psychology behind actually wanting to get a higher gamer score, well, its partially addicting. I can't wait to hear the little chime or ding or whatever the notification sound is, it just makes me play harder.

 

[Danalys]

i liked metal gear solid for that reason you could go through the game in 6 hours. and i just liked replaying it at different difficulties.

if you have games that don't play the same way twice they can be nice and short aswell. i'd really like different routes to the same objective. make each play through different sides of the same story. that has sort of been done to some extent in true crime.

i'd like to see some 2d games use bump map textures for the sprites. or use vector graphics with bezier curves.

i'd like a fighting game that uses my idea for a controller. it allows four analog controls with z-axis movement for each aswell. with that you could control the position of a charaters feet and hands individually in 3d space. the character would then use inverse kinematics to position itself. this set up could lead to a fighting game where you control how your character fights. no more animation strings. could be used in 3rd person action adventures aswell using the same controls. the AI for oponents would be hellish to achieve tho.

 

[Guden Oden]

I'm not sure such a free-form method of control would work in reality, and especially not in a fighting game. First of all, it breaks the age-old differentiation between different characters. We pick Ryu because we like his down, down-forward, forward + punch hadokens and forward, down, down-forward + punch shoryukens. That sets him (and Ken ) apart from the other fighters.

And how would the game differentiate between the player moving to block an incoming strike and moving to swing an attack?

 

[Danalys]

i guess you differentiate them by speed and power and flexibility and balence they could tend toward different stances aswell which would make different styles of play work better for each character. special moves could be done with achieving a prepart of the special movement. in street fighter for an example you could charge a hadoken by putting the hands in the right place. or complete one spinning motion which would then be continued for you for a spining bird kick.

the blocks or punch thing is harder to solve. it comes down to elbow position within the constaints and open palm or closed fist. open palm closed fist could be user controlled, also alowing grabs. and perhaps that variable could modify the elbow postion. but yeah it would need researching to see how well it could work. i've thought about it alot and haven't dismissed it yet tho.

 

[Danalys]

my brother had an idea for a caligraphy based fighting game. you just draw different shapes for different moves. could be a good idea for a DS game.

 

[Guden Oden]

i guess you differentiate them by speed and power and flexibility and balence

I suppose there'd be room for misinterpretation on behalf of the game there, considering such things as OCR software for example is hardly foolproof, and the characters don't even do the computer the disservice of jumping around all over the place!

or complete one spinning motion which would then be continued for you for a spining bird kick.

Does the player have to turn upside down first before spinning?

the blocks or punch thing is harder to solve. it comes down to elbow position within the constaints and open palm or closed fist. open palm closed fist could be user controlled, also alowing grabs. and perhaps that variable could modify the elbow postion.

It sounds very interesting of course, but unfortunately unrealistic it would seem to me, seeing as tracking closed or open hands, elbow positions etc would require a full motion capture camera setup. I don't think many people would like to have to wear 40-ish pingpong balls on their bodies and position 4 expensive cameras in their room before they can start playing...

 

[Martin Eddy]

The recap idea is great and make a lot of sense as games become more and more cinematic. Not only is it great to simply remind you of the story so far, in case you forgot, but it would also help set the mood back to where it needs to be to enjoy the current chapter. Sometimes I come back to a game and start at the last point I saved or left the machine idling at, but now feel very detached from the drama because the cutscene leading up to the current action sequence is only remembered in some clinical form of events rather than feelings.

The original Tomb Raider on the PS1 had "The story so far" that would allow you to watch all of the cutscenes that had been shown so far. It was great if you hadn't played the game for a couple of weeks, it would help you get back in to the story again.

 

[Danalys]

since i haven't explained the controller it would use i think your thinking based on some misconceptions.

in the case of the spinning bird kick yes you would control the character into putting it's hands on the ground and feet in the air first.

this is nothing like motion capture. the game would only know 4 3d positions and a trigger would control the openess of a hand. every other body part of the character would be determined by inverse kinematics and AI based on that input. the AI could have unique variables for each character. giving them different effectiveness in each situation. agility would constain a characters ability to follow the players input. it would produce the nearest possible movement instead. not kicking as high as you wanted it to for example.

 

[Danalys]

The original Tomb Raider on the PS1 had "The story so far" that would allow you to watch all of the cutscenes that had been shown so far. It was great if you hadn't played the game for a couple of weeks, it would help you get back in to the story again.

i think i heard they were doing it for the 24 game aswell. so it's still in some developers thinking.

 

[Guden Oden]

since i haven't explained the controller it would use i think your thinking based on some misconceptions.

Well, you haven't explained it, and from what you explain here, it couldn't possibly do what you want it to do. You can't do (accurate) body movement by tracking just 4 positions, no matter how much inverse kinematics you throw into the equation. If it was, the 40 pingpong balls wouldn't have existed in the first place.

in the case of the spinning bird kick yes you would control the character into putting it's hands on the ground and feet in the air first.

Then this alone disqualifies your proposed input scheme from ever becoming possible, because most human beings can't even balance on their hands, much less spin around on them a full turn (or anything even resembling one) without falling into the nearest coffee table/flower pot/hifi equipment rack.

agility would constain a characters ability to follow the players input. it would produce the nearest possible movement instead. not kicking as high as you wanted it to for example.

I think that in reality you'll find most humans won't be able to kick very high at all...particulary not without hurting themselves. If a computer player had even lesser ability, the game we would be playing would be called Karate Geriatrics or something along those lines.