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[c--b]

I'd like to hear about some game ideas that you have that you would never actually get around to making.

I'll start us off, I have two.

The first is a game that you only get to play once, after you die once that's it, no more. You're barred from ever playing it again. It wouldn't be like most games where you need to draw from skills learned in previous games you've played, but would instead draw from analytical skills, your ability to asses danger in a foreign environment. You wouldn't learn by death like every other game ever made, instead you would learn from what you decide to be mistakes (Like real life). I think it would go hand in hand with roguelike style games where every death is memorable in some way.

The second is less of a game, and more a Machiavellian virus. Basically it would infect your system (Your actual computer), and you would play a game to save it. Maybe every time you die a random folder gets permanently deleted or something. Don't get me wrong, this would be horrible thing. It appeals to me somehow though. 

Anyone else have any?

[peanutbuttershoes]

Both of these have been made into games already.

Does anyone else remember the names of them? I'm havin' a hard time here. 

[c--b]

Figures, nothing new under the sun after all. But really the topic is still here to post some other absurd ideas.

Edit: So wait, you're seriously saying that somebody made an honest to god virus that destroys your computer unless you play it and win?! How did I miss that one?!

[adam_smasher]

In case you're curious...

You Only Live Once

Lose/Lose

[Dragonmaw]

Edit: Goddamnit adam you took LITERALLY MY POST THE SECOND BEFORE I POSTED IT.

Haha

[mcc]

In case you're curious...

You Only Live Once

Lose/Lose

I think I like Free Will (by the You Only Live Once guy) a little better. The soundtrack!

I'm trying to remember, I thought I'd heard a story about a game in the 80s where like you were trying to rescue hostages, and if you did it wrong one of the hostages would get shot and it would actually erase something off the floppy and if you died five times you couldn't play anymore. I'm not sure if this was actually a thing that happened or something Kojima just said he wished he could do.

[c--b]

In case you're curious...

You Only Live Once

Lose/Lose

Haha, those were both pretty cool. Neither were quite what I had in mind though. Lose/Lose isn't actually a malicious virus, you choose to play it, and You Only Live Once was a cavestory mario ripoff used to convey a concept and not a unique fun game in it's own right. I think they both miss important aspects of what would have made the games absurd.

I didn't WANT to play You Only Live Once, it wasn't fun.

And I wasn't FORCED to play Lose/Lose.

[peanutbuttershoes]

Thanks Adam, those are them.

But yeah, what else then? Hmmm... What about a game that's connected to your real life bank account and wires money out of your account when buying in game goods? ... Oops. Second Life does that sorta.

"but second life isn't a game! It's like a whole virtual universe!" haaa...  

[mcc]

Thanks Adam, those are them.

But yeah, what else then? Hmmm... What about a game that's connected to your real life bank account and wires money out of your account when buying in game goods? ... Oops. Second Life does that sorta.

"but second life isn't a game! It's like a whole virtual universe!" haaa...  

Farmville?

[Perrin]

Haha, those were both pretty cool. Neither were quite what I had in mind though. Lose/Lose isn't actually a malicious virus, you choose to play it, and You Only Live Once was a cavestory mario ripoff used to convey a concept and not a unique fun game in it's own right. I think they both miss important aspects of what would have made the games absurd.

I didn't WANT to play You Only Live Once, it wasn't fun.

And I wasn't FORCED to play Lose/Lose.

Maybe you should try making those ideas how you envisage them. That's the thing about a game idea is that everyone will implement it into a different game.

[William Broom]

I'm trying to remember, I thought I'd heard a story about a game in the 80s where like you were trying to rescue hostages, and if you did it wrong one of the hostages would get shot and it would actually erase something off the floppy and if you died five times you couldn't play anymore. I'm not sure if this was actually a thing that happened or something Kojima just said he wished he could do.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wasteland_(video_game)
Apparently this was a game that saved directly to the floppy disk, because in those days they had more space on the floppy than on the hard drive (!!)

[Desert Dog]

Haha, I made a little game called You Only Live Once, so I was curious and played that one.

Funny as heck! 

[Movius]

Apparently this was a game that saved directly to the floppy disk, because in those days they had more space on the floppy than on the hard drive (!!)

That definitely wasn't true by 1988.

However hard drives were relatively rare, so a game needed to be able to be played straight from a floppy disc. I can remember running setup.exe to 'install' a game on a blank floppy(s)  from the original disc.

[SirNiko]

It wouldn't be like most games where you need to draw from skills learned in previous games you've played,

I'm concerned that this is simply impossible to create. No matter what game you design, the player can and will learn more from actually playing the game than from any real-world experience. The only difference would be that trial and error may be restricted in a scenario where you don't get a second chance.

This concept interests me, though. Perhaps you need to discuss it in more detail with specifics. Your initial analysis is pretty vague, so it's not entirely clear why You Only Live Once fails to meet this criteria, or how another game would be judged on its own effectiveness.

[c--b]

It wouldn't be like most games where you need to draw from skills learned in previous games you've played,

I'm concerned that this is simply impossible to create. No matter what game you design, the player can and will learn more from actually playing the game than from any real-world experience. The only difference would be that trial and error may be restricted in a scenario where you don't get a second chance.

This concept interests me, though. Perhaps you need to discuss it in more detail with specifics. Your initial analysis is pretty vague, so it's not entirely clear why You Only Live Once fails to meet this criteria, or how another game would be judged on its own effectiveness.

I'm also concerned that it may be impossible to create, but as somebody above said game design is mostly about execution (As poorly done ripoff games prove) so I may just try it.

My main qualm was that You Only Live Once's gameplay draws from your knowledge of the mario games nearly perfectly. It's not so much about learning as you go, failure not being an option as it is how accurately you can translate your skills at mario style games. It doesn't really push the concept as a game mechanic at all, it simply uses the mechanic to illustrate a philosophical point (though it did that quite well, it was a pretty neat game on its own).

What I'd like to do is have the overall gameplay support the base game mechanic, for example every death may be avoidable if you're clever enough to see it coming or prevent it through some sort of defense (Like closing the door every time you enter a room in nethack).

One example (And this really is just a quick example) might be avoiding locations where there are vicious looking animal tracks. In normal games what I personally would do is simply traipse around without fear, because I know I have a couple lives left and learning what happens to me when I do this is more important than that that one life is worth. This is true even in nethack, you might die simply to learn about an aspect of the game you've never seen before. Sometimes I find myself dieing just to figure out how far I can inch over a ledge for a difficult leap so that I can better play the game later on.

Really it would be about undoing the habits that games teach us, and it might even make the game more immersive and stressful and therefore memorable knowing you have one chance. You might even have the game record a replay of the entire play-through, making your untimely end even more hilarious or sad or cool or whatever. You could look back on it, show friends tell them your cool story etc.

Hope that's a bit clearer, ormaybe it's just muddier I dunno.