I'd play Paint Drying Simulator and Slug Race. [smile]

Quote: Original post by ukdeveloper
"World of Warcraft"

This encapsulates two basic rules for what makes a bad game idea - does the idea require more content than you can deliver, and is the idea so similar to what's already out there that no-one will care about your game?

Even the most off-the-wall ideas can make interesting games. Heck, there was a contest here a couple of years that had a game that was basically about shaving armpits - and it was kinda fun! The danger is coming up with ideas that on the surface sound impressive, but basically boil down "It's just like <insert big name game here>, only worse."

How about something involving a pointless collecting mechanism? All you do is wander around and pick things up. There's no point to it whatsoever.

"So, what kind of game is it?"
"Well, you wander around and pick stuff up."
"And?"
"And what? That's what you do - you wander around and pick stuff up. You can only hold so much stuff."
"What do you do with the stuff?"
"Wander around, carrying it. Put it down, pick up other stuff."
"..."

A variation on Moe's collecting idea.

The Man Shelf game. This is a game of timed activities.

Stage One
The first stage is to run around a giant "Home Depot"-like superstore and gather the necessary items to put up your self.Typical obstables in this stage are non-existant shop staff to help you. Staff that seem to randomly send you to the wrong isle or give you complete bullcrap advice on what you need to complete the task, and customers who actually think you are staff because you are wearing your favourite orange pants. Additionally you only have $8.75 in your pocket.

Stage Two
Put up your shelf. Another timed activity. This is made easier if you did exceptionally well on the first stage and managed to find all the right items at the right price and managed to get a spirit level with your budget. Points are awarded for level-ness of the shelf and the number of screws used. Points are deducted for screws hitting a stud when you used an anchor, or hitting a water pipe or electrical cable (randomly distributed throughout the wall). A stud finder would be an ideal addition to your kit, but are cleverly hidden throughout the store in stage one, so great if you found that where it isn't supposed to be.

Final Stage
The final stage is the most difficult. Here you have to visit numerous locations to gather the recommeded items for your man shelf. A complex algorithm runs when you have placed 10 items you think suitable for the shelf, and points are awarded when the algorithm finds these items in a super database of all items that exist (yet to be built). If you get the high score from all the competing man-shelf building real men on the internet. You are the winnar!


Disclaimer1: Probably need an hour to explain this particular game due to the complexities involved.

Disclaimer2: Stage one is in no way a reflection on the real Home Depot, which I do not shop at but I believe has an excellent reputation for a being "the helpful place". Or is that Lowes?

Quote: Original post by irreversible

Quote: Original post by dorix
Solar System Explorer, where you choose some planets, moons, asteroids etc. to send probes to, calculate appropriate launch windows and trajectories, and then follow your probes in real time as they make their way across the solar system. Will your probes reach their destination? Will their instruments fail along the way? Will a Metric/Imperial mixup cause your probe to crash land on Europa? Find out in twelve years!

Dammit, this is brilliant. It's like Eve, but with tension.

Also,

">Mass Effect 2.

Whatever you come up with, add unnecessary randomness to it. My friends never appreciated it much when I did that in games.

Back in my QBASIC days I made a game called Tireball, where the idea was a tire was pitched at you, the batter (which was really just a line), and your timing determined how far and high it would go. It was a more powerful hit with the fewest number of frames of the swing that went by, so waiting until the last minute got you the most points. When my friends asked how many frames the swing was, I told them it was random... which until I said it out loud sounded perfectly reasonable to me. I used to be ALL about random numbers.

That said, I like Moe's pick stuff up idea.

I actually have a fairly long list of bad game ideas:
1, 2, 3, 4.

A huge MMORPG. Be creative with how huge and realistic it will all be - the huger and realisticer the worse the idea. But also you play a programmer guy that only can log in to the MMORPG to play if he can pay his rent and stuff and to do that he must have a job coding visual basic like interfaces to earn money - and special items and pets and stuff inside the MMORPG also cost money he earns outside the MMORPG in the "real life" part of the game.

Ravuya, you are best in life.

From Ravuya's bad game ideas IV:

Race Condition -- The only racing game that casts you as an operating system thread. Try to beat the other thread to the data without entering spinlock and destroying your user's computer.

Ok, this is positively awesome.

From Ravuya's list: "Global Thermonuclear War: Sometimes the only way to win is not to play. But nuts to that! This game allows you to glass many of the world's hottest political spots, with often hilarious results! Released in Germany originally as "Das Parking Lot Ein Glassen"."

That's basically DEFCON, no? :-)