"He did a fine job, but most of his ideas, novel though they may seem, have indeed been done before,"

That is very true, the great multitude of ideas in cosmos have a tendcy to manifest themselves in similir ways. Even thugh they might be developed at diffrent times and by diffrent people.

For instance many years ago back before back when then there where only 3 star wars movies the original ones not the special edition ones. I came up with the idea for a starwars rts game that had heros in it. The heros could be brought from mission to mission and improved over time. Then a few years later they made rts games with heros. Well thats my little rant over.

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Writer, Programer, Cook, I''m a Jack of all Trades
Current Design project
Chaos Factor Design Document

How about a game in the mind? Somehow you get trapped in someone''s subconscience or their dream world.

Oooo Ooo. hmmm.... turn the movie "the cell" into a game. I''ve also seen a batman cartoon episode where the sleeper (a villian) puts batman to sleep but he doesn''t know until later that he''s dreaming everything. You''d be able to manipulate the world somehow, weird things could happen. YOu could switch settings with little warning. LOTs of freedom. THe goal could be to figure out what''s controling this person''s thinking. Or what is really bothering you (if it''s yourself).

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Original post by Iron Chef Carnage
Xiuhcoatl, Microsurgeon. Awesome. I lost the instruction book, though, so I never knew which weapon to use on which type of affliction, so I shot everything I saw full of whatever those little white dots were.

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Egad - Microsurgeon... Ha! That''s right (warm fuzzy ensues..). I bought that game on a whim in Santa Maria at the Town Center Mall - Outside of skiing, football and auto racing I think that was my favorite on the Intellivision.


Tron3K ->

Sorry, wasn''t aware I was off topic - Settings are a little difficult in that something that is too clever becomes too abstract and hard to identify with. I guess I usually stick with familiar settings and novel game play.

I had the design for a game, which was basically a slam on the CEO, President, and CFO for Network Associates (F&## crooks...). I had put together ideas like your score being your stock portfolio or company stock price, having to screw other companies, lie to investors, BS the SEC and IRS, fabricate Marketecture, convince workers to do overtime, etc. I was never able to smooth out a game type - it went from side-scroller, to iso-metric action, to RTS, and then died. I thought about using the famous moniker "Drive fast, take chances" as the title but the creep would probably sue me. In the end it was more of a catharsis for losing $600,000 because of those losers and I just decided to move on. Still - if done with humor and wit I think it would be original.

Say the world has evolved into a giant collection of carefully created suburb neighborhoods (an experiment that is currently underway in the Bay Area). Your job is to create civil unrest and general mayhem. The more chaos you create the more oppressive the environment gets, etc. Sort of a matrix-free your mind-oh God, look who just moved in next door- idea.

Actually, I like the idea of a game where the purpose is to be a slacker. You could even add Role-playing concepts to it - blame delegation, HR protection, ignorance blast, mooch boost, yawn aura, etc... Every level puts you into some productive environment where you need to slack - but not get thrown out or fired. You get bonuses for making it past the minimum time limit and recruiting other slackers. Paulie Shore could provide the voice-overs I am sure.

How about taking the "Osmosis Jones" and "Everything you wanted to know about sex but was afraid to ask" (I know - that''s an old reference) ideas and convert that into a game. You ARE the brain or the subconscious element for somebody and you have to use chemical stimulus, gas production, hormonal production, hot flashes, etc. to influence the host to perform some task or survive an ordeal. Every level you get some new person/situation you have to deal with. Level design could be hilarious: On lvl 4 you take control of Bob who is married and at a bachelor party - he MUST remain unspoiled. Somehow he guest slipped a Viagra, you counter with halitosis, uncontrolled gas and a skin rash.


(sigh) - oh well, I''m tapped. I have to get back to work - but if I come up with any decent settings ideas I''ll let you know..

#dth-0

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How about taking the "Osmosis Jones" and "Everything you wanted to know about sex but was afraid to ask" (I know - that''s an old reference) ideas and convert that into a game. You ARE the brain or the subconscious element for somebody and you have to use chemical stimulus, gas production, hormonal production, hot flashes, etc. to influence the host to perform some task or survive an ordeal. Every level you get some new person/situation you have to deal with. Level design could be hilarious: On lvl 4 you take control of Bob who is married and at a bachelor party - he MUST remain unspoiled. Somehow he guest slipped a Viagra, you counter with halitosis, uncontrolled gas and a skin rash

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EXCELLANT someone DO this game
could be a mix between raising and dating sims + the sims from an internal control (fps view, you did not control the view, it''s an indication on what the person focus on)


>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
be good
be evil
but do it WELL
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

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EXCELLANT someone DO this game

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heh - Thanks, I promise I will after I retire from having to earn a paycheck and pay bills.


#dth-0

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Original post by xiuhcoatl
I''d say the Sims were a pretty original idea.

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Ok, I''m gonna get a little deep here, so prepare...

Good games hit on what humans strive for and translate it into an imaginary situation

Many good games give you an opportunity to be "the best". This is something a majority of humans want--to be regarded "the best", or at least an important figure.

Now, about The Sims, that took the idea I put in bold, and erased the "translate it into an imaginary situation". They made things from real life so, even though you may be unsuccessful in your life in that area, you could pretend you were important for a little while.

That''s another reason why games can be addicting. In other words, an escape from reality.

Anyone agree?

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Original post by Tron3k
Is that all we got - past, present, and future?

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Uh, yes. There''s only three ways to slice time - past, present and future. In effect, this comment was completely out of place (and very funny, too!)

Games, like movies, use time and place as mere settings, but the core interaction and plot devices are confined to a given range. Why? Because the audience is emotionally and physiologically the same; there''s only so much that can be presented that has meaning. I''m sure you''ve read and heard descriptions of a movie/game as "Such-and-such, but in space" or "Such-and-such with guns." It''s a fact of our imaginative works that many of them will be derivative works.

In short, you''ve said nothing. You''ve suggested nothing. You''ve accomplished nothing.

Difference for the sake of difference is boring. You can retread familiar ground but execute it well and produce the game/film of the year in the process (Half-Life was a retreading of the well-worn FPS genre, for example).

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Original post by Oluseyi

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Original post by Tron3k
Is that all we got - past, present, and future?

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Uh, yes. There''s only three ways to slice time - past, present and future. In effect, this comment was completely out of place (and very funny, too!)

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that''s not true, we can have anachronie , uchronie, and many other funny things about time, and i bet everyone here is not use with concept of time different of linear, i caould agrue about circle time (easy) , exponentional time, helicoidal time, cubic time, fractal time, reversal time, relative time (which don''t flow at the same rate anywhere),parralel time, universal time for relative time , etc.... there is a lot to do i use as well, the difficulty is to convert it into a understable experiance (it would be funny to find a setting playable in reversal time)
i think time setting are largely under estimate

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
be good
be evil
but do it WELL
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

I am working on a pretty cool idea that deals with time...but I won''t release it...I think it is still too cool still!

All I can say is that it deals with time in a weird, out-of-the-box kind of way.

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Original post by Neoshaman
that''s not true, we can have anachronie , uchronie, and many other funny things about time, and i bet everyone here is not use with concept of time different of linear, i caould agrue about circle time (easy) , exponentional time, helicoidal time, cubic time, fractal time, reversal time, relative time (which don''t flow at the same rate anywhere),parralel time, universal time for relative time , etc.... there is a lot to do i use as well, the difficulty is to convert it into a understable experiance (it would be funny to find a setting playable in reversal time)

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Still wrong. Each of the things you mention deals with chronological relativity of objects or entities or events, but as far as environment is fundamentally concerned, it can only be placed in the past, the present or the future. Anachronism, for example, infers that an object is chronologically out of place relative to its environment, such as characters referring to inventions that don''t yet exist (usually for comedic purposes: a 16^th century knight remarking to his squire, "Shut up or you''ll be straightjacketed!" given that straightjackets did not exist at that point in time). The movie Memento was presented in reverse chronology, but each temporal segment still fell within the three fundamental classifications.

You''re talking about time flow, and I completely agree. Much more imaginative use of the flow of time could be made.