I have many game ideas that I would like to work towards.

Before I commit serious time and effort towards one of these projects I am very curious to know whether or not a comporable game has already been made.

I have searched the internet extensively for such games and I'm becoming more confident in the belief that these ideas of mine may be genuinely original and maybe even good.

My Question:

Are there any threads on this website or elsewhere where someone can point me towards pre-exsisting games that resemble my ideas?

in other words:

Is there anywhere where I can ask the question "Has this game, or something similar, already been made?"

Why don't you just ask here? There is no great list of games-yet-unmade.

There is a very well known website, called the Google search engine. I am not sure you have heard of it. You can ask it questions. It's not quite sentient but it will do a good job with most requests. In particular, you can try giving it keywords that define your game, and it will try its best to come up with relevant websites, possibly containing video games that feature similar mechanics to yours.

Sarcasm aside, no, there is no place in the world exclusively dedicated to checking if game ideas have already been created by someone. But you can always ask in the Lounge or wherever if anyone has seen similar games, etc... or you could just go ahead and make your game. It's unlikely you will come up with the exact same idea as someone else, and besides, we all know ideas are worthless unless implemented. In short, I don't see why a similar game to yours existing is a problem, unless you are specifically going for a clone.

Thanks for the reply,

I'd be happy to. Honestly I was just conerned I might piss someone off by posting in the wrong place or something.

Is this an acceptable place?

For sure, if could have found it on google I wouldn't have come here.

Ok so I guess It's reasonable to start such a thread? Or do you guys just want me to get to it already?

I came here after reading the thread's title expeting to find a game description, do it here, why would you want another thread?

You don't have to ask for permission to create a thread, if it's not against the rules and you already did some research and couldn't find anything, just go directly to the real question. If something is out of place it just get's moved by a moderator, you won't piss anyone off.

If you're worried about giving a bad impression, it's a lot worse to ask a really repeated question ("I don't know where to start! Help?!") or giving no useful information to help you, so avoide those things.

Fair enough, thanks for providing context.

you guys tell me if this is a clone and forgive me for my lack of programing knoledge:

The Idea could be summerized as "procedurally generated GTA"

You could achive the city generation with mechanisims similar to those found in games like sim city.

Then you populate the maps with methods simlar to GTA3

This may result in "bad" or "stupid" maps. So you also want to incorporate a mechanism that allows players to modify cities and terrian.

All these things combined would allow players to personally create and custumize game maps using a set of prefabricated and/or custom desiged buildings, ramps, terrian objects, cars, or whatever else makes sense to incorporate into the game

The scope of the project could range very widely depending on how sophisticated each of the mechanisims would be implemented.

I understand it's a really big project but I'm learning programing with this, among other ideals in mind.

Am I right to belive something like this is feasible?

Has anyone seen anything like it?

Just start programming allready. The time your halfway through learing and creating this game, the probability is that someone some where has allready finnished it.

Even for ideas you thought where you own.(like star craft 2 some of there things look like mine How, I had mine done before theres).

Or wear a foil hat at all times.

Thanks, I suppose you're right. Unfortunately in my case I'm gonna have to learn a ton before I could seriously begin developing something so big (even in it's most simplified iteration).

This idea has seemed like a no-brainer to me for a while. I'm surprised it hasn't been made already. Is there a good reason why it hasn't?

Looks like it's time for me to start climbing this mountian

In the meantime anyone has my express consent to steal steal steal.

not as if that really means anything.

I'd still love to hear about anything comparable if it's out there.

thanks guys

I wouldn't worry a whole lot if it's been made already or not. Chances are, something fairly similar does already exist. From what I can see, most of the time, a game's success has a lot less to do with its pure originality, and way more to do with how well it's made, how fun the game mechanics are, etc, etc. A lot of the iconic and successful games out there weren't necessarily the first or most original, they just did it best. By all means, do your research and such, I'm not suggesting otherwise. But, I wouldn't stress about it too much. Just make a game you think will be fun

To your question, if it hasn't been made, offhand I would wonder if procedural generation would add all that much for a game like GTA. Generally games of that genre are rather large to begin with, and much of the gameplay is based on taking over parts of the city, doing quests, and such. Generally, I see (and use) procedural generation for games that are either quick, or let's say, repetitive, such as a strategy map (where you'll be playing repeatedly, and it avoids having to perfectly balance a map). Also, I think it's often used by small developers who don't have the time and resources to generate large amounts of content. I don't think procedural generation would take much away from your game, by any means, but I would also question how much benefit it would offer. I would worry a bit about it falling into the trying-to-do-too-many-things camp, where it wouldn't be as engaging and deep sim-city, nor as fun as gta. Though, that would be just a concern, I'm certain it's possible to pull it off.

To your other question, I don't personally know of any gta like games with procedural generation used for the game world. I'd just suggest browsing steam, itch.io, desura, etc and see what pops up.