Just had to post in this thread.
Here''s a few quick ideas. I don''t know how original they are, but I can''t remember any games like this:

-Massively multiplayer online *racing* game. Every player has a career which starts as just a racer. You pay to race on tracks, win money, and eventually build up enough money to build your own tracks. Which you can then rent out to other players.

-How about a game where you run a space station. You have to cater the different needs of all the species that stop there. Maybe something like SimCity, but with much more freeform development.

-A FPS style game, except you don''t control a single character. Instead, you loosely control a whole group of zombie-like creatures. You can take control of another character and absorb them. When you do, you gain their abilities/weapons, such as a shotgun or a dog''s teeth (for close combat). Each creature in your control can be damaged and killed off like a normal character is in a fps.

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Original post by Lucidium
-A FPS style game, except you don''t control a single character. Instead, you loosely control a whole group of zombie-like creatures.

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That inspired a thought. How about a third-person sorta game, where you literally control a whole mob at once. They sorta act like one unit, sorta not. You then can run through streets, try to run into cars, and watch your mob end up flipping them over, run into houses, and start burning them down, etc. Then the riot police come out with rubber bullets and stun thingies, and you gotta do something or another before your mob dissolves or is arrested. Like get them all riled up again by finding a witch or something. ("We found a witch. May we burn her? ... She turned me into a newt! ...") Okay, maybe this idea sounds just completely wrong. Mob mentality isn''t exactly something I''d be proud of. But it''s what came to my mind. Might be able to be adapted into something somehow.

It sounds like Pikmin with a more violent theme.

quote:

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Original post by Lucidium
Just had to post in this thread.
Here''s a few quick ideas. I don''t know how original they are, but I can''t remember any games like this:

-Massively multiplayer online *racing* game. Every player has a career which starts as just a racer. You pay to race on tracks, win money, and eventually build up enough money to build your own tracks. Which you can then rent out to other players.

-How about a game where you run a space station. You have to cater the different needs of all the species that stop there. Maybe something like SimCity, but with much more freeform development.

-A FPS style game, except you don''t control a single character. Instead, you loosely control a whole group of zombie-like creatures. You can take control of another character and absorb them. When you do, you gain their abilities/weapons, such as a shotgun or a dog''s teeth (for close combat). Each creature in your control can be damaged and killed off like a normal character is in a fps.

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All of these have been done except maybe the last one. There are probably games like the last one, just not in FPS style. The first one is Motor City online, a failed MMO Racing game. The second could be Startopia (which sounds more like what you proposed) or Space Station manager, which is an indie game that takes a more realistic approach to space stations.

Since this thread has trolled numerous responses I might as well get in on the action.

A game based on research/developement:
Although having a game where writing papers, being published, and doing real research at the same time would be an interesting and luadable goal, that is not what I am proposing.

Here is what I am proposing: You start in a universe that has some very basic laws. In our universe that would be things such as conservation of energy. These laws would be randomly generated. Your job is to create useful items. (ie fire). These items will ensure your survival to play longer.

Deep down this is just a pattern reconition game with a twist. But.... Isn''t that what every game really is?

Now I realize that the alternate universe I described would not be for every one. But it is I think a new wrapper for an old idea.

Thermodynamics
Hot, moving stuff.

you mentioned pontifex 2 at the beginning of the thread. I had completed every bridge there It''s very hard, and the game is very original. It is designed on pontifex 1, which was designed on original "The bridge builder game" which was designed by my technology teacher at secondary school!

My claim to fame - although it remind me of SCO!!!

I have been reading the posts here for a while and I finally desided to post a comment. I have ideas for games, but nothing that will ever really come to light. I don''t know about anyone else, but for me, sitting down in front of my computer is an escape from reality for a while. I like all kinds of games. I personally play games depending on my mood. If I''m bored, I like playing Lemmings or just some little puzzle games. If its dark and raining out, I may play Thief. When I''m upset or angry, I may play Return to Castle Wolfenstein or even James Bond. I even still play my old games Blood and Hexen. All are great games and helps me threw my day sometimes. Yea, i know.. Sounds like I have no life, lol, but I do. Playing games about once or twice a week here. What I want to say to all the great game builders out there, Thank you! A job well done. On all of it. Fantastic!
How about this as a small idea.. How about a whole new Lemmings? Original Lemmings with new adventures and levels. How about they finally learn to do things on there own. (somewhat)How about accually being a lemming leader that gives the others jobs to do in order to escape the traps and stuff in each level. Just an idea. lol

Very funny Scottie, now beam down my clothes!

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Original post by Thermodynamics
Here is what I am proposing: You start in a universe that has some very basic laws. In our universe that would be things such as conservation of energy. These laws would be randomly generated.

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This has got me thinkin'' about a game''s basis. You''re God, or a god, or whatever. Twenty random laws are generated from a list of a hundred. You can pick anywhere from no laws to all twenty. You''re goal it to pick the laws that you think will make your creation, humans, last as long as possible, then inforce or change the laws as you see fit to keep them going.

Each human has their own "purity rating," where they can be a one hundred or a zero. When someone with a high purity rating is often around someone with a lower purty rating, the person with the higher rating loses some points. If it goes unpunished, everyone will have a low purity rating.

You have to keep them in check, either by blessing the pure of damning the unpure. Those who do good get good things, thus causing their purity rating to keep rising because they were rewarded. Those who do evil are cursed, thus causing their level to rise, or killed off completely.

The laws you set forth and inforce have a huge impact on how your civilization turns out, so you have to be selective. For instance, if you allow incest to go on, everyone will get hemophilia and die. If you allow theft to go on, everything will turn into anarchy. I can''t really think of more, but yeah.


Orion

"Absorb what is useful, discard what is not, add what is uniquely your own."
-BRUCE LEE

I had an idea about an fps game. You are living on a moon base alpha. Your goal is to prevent aliens from getting into the base and occupying it. Some aliens take over some sections of the base and you have to destroy them. I kind of flipped the usual fps where the player is the outsider trying to get in. You would get to know the base pretty well and could devise traps for the aliens to fall into. You would then kind of sit back and watch your creations go to work. This game would need lots of rooms and such as to make the gameplay challenging and interesting. I think the player would feel he owns the base and thus be emotionally attached to it. Maybe it''s a dumb idea.

when most people describe their games/ game ideas as "new," or "innovative," they suck royally. You can''t expect me to enjoy your half-effort project simply because its different.

I have seen many different examples of "different" games in this thread, and honestly I haven''t heard of any of them. I could be wrong, but I can almost automatically discount any game as dumb if I can find it on a 300+ games CD at Walmart.

How is someone supposed to enjoy a game they''ve never seen before, for that matter? I can get into a FPS or RPG because I know what to expect. If you throw a puzzle game or sim at me, if I can''t figure it out on 10 minutes then I throw it away..