next »

[LDuncan]

do slavic languages share similar vocabulary the way romantic languages do?

In my experience, yes. I once had a rather long conversation with an exasperated Bosnian who was trying to convince me that we weren't both speaking the same language.

[Theophilus]

My basic inspiration for making games is usually " wouldn't it be cool if a game like THIS existed?" or "I want to try and make a game in THIS style!"
I start out with a basic premise and work out the details as I go along. I never post in the "pitch your game" thread or most other threads about game ideas because I don't plan my games like that. It's one of the advantages of working solo.

The issue isn't so much getting ideas but getting ideas I'm enthusiastic about.

I do this a lot too.

[baconman]

Play 5 games today, and think about what makes them each fun. You don't have to stick with that, but it could be enough to give you a starting point.

My problem is in computerizing art (or developing computer art to begin with), and where to begin with programming. Do I start with the player character? Environmental objects? Menus and GUIs? How can I make a custom-keymapping screen, and THEN program a way to implement it? Once I get the ball rolling, wouldn't it just be better to grind my way through all the character art first, then worry about the program scripting later?

Well... I think my REAL problem is that I'm so happy and comfortable in "Design Mode," that I really have to push myself to do the rest. But I doubt I'm alone in that regard!

[rivon]

as i studied the russian revolution, i decided to make cards based on russian concepts (like samorost) or russian fairy tales (such as the firebird)

Samorost is not Russian. Its Czech...

sorry, was a typo, i meant sobornost (i always get those words confused)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sobornost

i think the words sound similar because both languages are slavic languages (do slavic languages share similar vocabulary the way romantic languages do?)

Yes, they share a lot of words but they are slightly different. The more distant the countries, the more different words...

[snowyowl]

I had a long off-topic tangent here, so I'll just post the TLDR:

"Good" game ideas are not as important as you think.

No entire game is held up by its core mechanic. I've not played all the games the OP mentioned, but VVVVVV and Braid are not just great games because of the gravity-flipping and time manipulation. They also both have a characteristic graphical style, catchy and appropriate music, a good storyline told in an interesting way, and a strong theme for the gameplay (twitchy but open platformer in one, puzzles that explore the entire design space in the other) which is often challenging but never unfair.

Ideas are ten-a-penny. You could make a game about possessing people to use their unique powers, about two similar worlds where certain events in one world affect objects in the other, about phasing through walls, about two characters who have to take turns at everything, about rewinding time and killing (or being killed by) your own past self, about 4 or 5-dimensional space, and you could combine any of those with gravity flipping, time stopping, shapeshifting, and anagrams. What counts is the game, not the idea.

[cynicalsandel]

Thanks for the input, everyone. I'm still struggling to come up with ideas, but I feel as though I have an idea of how to develop ideas now.

Destral, your post especially helped. I suppose I'm a tad narrow minded, so your post got me thinking a different way about games. My inexperience probably has something to do with my lack of ideas. I don't necessarily understand the game making process in general. I don't want to use that as an excuse though.

Anyways, thanks again everyone.

Also, how do you know when certain ideas are too difficult to add to a game? Is it trial and error? Do you just attempt programming it and if you fail, you get rid of it?

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

mostly experience

i'd actually recommend you not try to create original games as your first games; just do clones of classic games to get a feel for programming. once you're good enough at making games you won't wonder how easy or hard something will be to implement

[mirosurabu]

If you're a coder you can let your ideas emerge from whatever programming challenges you're doing, and then, you just have to wrap them up in a neat package.

Asking myself "what awesome thing I could make" has NEVER worked for me because that kind of approach to game design eventually turns out to be extremely boring.

[s0]

You need to get a grasp of programming before you can gauge how easy it is to implement something. Unless you have someone programming your game for you (doubtful at this stage), thinking of design and programming as interrelated helps too. When I think of new mechanics etc for a game I always think about how to implement them as well.

I'd also like to echo what I think snow owl and miro were hinting at in their posts: You don't need a "masterplan" or a "grand vision" to make a game, if that's not your thing. Don't force yourself to be "innovative" or w/e, just do what you like and let it come naturally to you. Chances are your game will not only be better but also more original.

[1982]

Best ideas come from thought of wanting to play something that does not exist, or is done badly / wrong.

There is so much to do, so little time...

[rivon]

A few days ago I just got this awesome game idea. I was looking a while at the stars before I slept. I had a few weird scifi dreams (though I don't remember anything from it now) and then when I was thinking about in the bed in the morning. And then it just struck me. A totally great idea (though I probably won't be able to make it as it is probably too big for one man).

I plan to post it to "Pitch your game topic" thread when I write the whole thing down.

[hopwep]

I often hear people talk about how game ideas are worthless, and that execution is everything. What if you don't even have ideas in the first place? That is the problem I have been struggling with. I can't even come up with concepts for a game. I can't even attempt developing a game because I have no idea what to make.

I've noticed a lot of indie games revolve around a specific gameplay mechanic. For example, VVVVVV has gravity flipping, Braid has time manipulation, Fez has world shifting/flipping, and And Yet it Moves has world rotation. My mind is most likely not creative enough to come up with any decent ideas.

I was hoping that y'all could talk about how your ideas originate. Is it just random inspiration? Is it from other games? Real life?

Im the opposite. I have a lot of ideas in any moment i want, some of they nice, at least for me. I have like 50 pages of 'general' anotations, in some or other games, etc, and i write and rewrite design documents of hunders of pages.

I like that part a lot.

Ideas come from things that you have stored in your memory and life. Do things, read about anything, etc, that help.

Sometimes you get the idea when doing a thing. For example, my last when reading a book of Atlantis, when i had a lot of ideas, and a lot extra reading later.

But most of the time the ideas you get seems random, but again they are based in your own life, so, i thing thats what feed more creativity.

Also i suppose that some things help. Some characters are more creative than others, for example...

[MattG]

im like hopwep. I have soooooo many games on the books I may never finish all the ones I have started

[gunswordfist]

Is it just random inspiration? Is it from other games? Real life?

All of the above. And more. My ideas mostly pop out of nowhere and the probably all the other times is when I'm thinking about how I'd fix/improve a feature in a game.

I'd suggest you think about how you would want to make games you love even better. That has spawned many ideas of mine.

Also, do many non-game things. Read a book. Watch a movie. Take a walk. Not that I'm saying you don't actually do any of these things, but you'd be surprised how much you can come up with when you're actively not actually trying to come up with game ideas. Broaden your horizons and try some new things too.

[rivon]

I think the best thing is to just look at the world around you. Especially at the sky.

[gunswordfist]

I have a kind of the same problem. I can come up with ideas. The problem is that a) they would require a lot of art/good art, which is bad for me, b) they're just too big for one person or c) they're very small/simple/basic and I can't think up any way to make them last longer (to be fun) than 5-10mins - just to make a full game from them. Or they are very similar to other existing games and I don't want to make a clone with one added/changed feature.

I think you should make the clone game anyway. Just make it a free game. I plan on doing that with one or two of the clone game ideas I have.

[rivon]

Like, I want to make some fan games - MGS, Septerra Core, Icewind Dale and some other games - one day. But I don't want to make clones of all the platformers like Super Meat Boy, SCB, Knytt Stories and I don't know what else.
I'm currently working on something with other people but somehow it isn't the thing I REALLY WANT to do.

[Virion]

I always talk crap and joke around with friends about anything and sometimes it just hit the jackpot. (everyone silents and looks at each other) "hey, why don't we make this into a game"

[xrabohrok]

-Never stop thinking. Just observe things, ask questions to yourself, count things, look at the colors, think about things as wide as the universe is and as microscopic as things can be, and think of everything in between. A lot of times you need a change of scenery to induce new thoughts, so

-Take a walk. Nobody wants to be cramped inside all day. Bonus points if you can do it while it's raining, snowing, or just weather you don't see often. Be sure to think while doing this. Think of the actions things do, the rules they must follow, and what it would be like to not follow these rules. Think of the consequences. This of games you could play while walking - count the number of cars you see or try to walk to the rhythm of a song. If you get tired of walking, you could

This.

Walking around gets the neurons moving, and the blood pumping, and I know I at least think better when I'm on the move. 

The corollary to this is to keep some sort of notebook or something close to write down these ideas as they come.  I rarely can come up with an idea on the spot, I usually come armed to design meetings with these things figured out beforehand. 

[chrisjan]

About VVVVVV and Braid, that the OP mentioned, I think it's worth pointing out that they didn't start as you see them today.

I remember seeing some presentation where Jonathan Blow explained where Braid comes from.  He didn't just get inspired one day and decide "let's make a game with this time manipulation mechanic", but the thing evolved through iterative experimentation.  The first iteration was going to be a billiards/pool game.  He told he doesn't know much about playing pool, but he thought that expert pool players have the ability to preview in their heads where the final positions of the balls will be after the shot.  He wanted to make pool more accessible to people who don't have this skill, and because a pool simulation is relatively easy to implement with a simple physics engine, he made a prototype where you would be able to preview the final positions of the balls when choosing direction and strength of a shot.

The thing didn't work.  It was very confusing because it wasn't easy to mentally map before/after positions, and not that fun to play at all.  But the "prediction" feature was interesting.  So he asked himself "what if I use this feature, not on a pool simulator, but in a Mario-bros-like platformer?".  And that was better.  And then, after several iterations, putting and removing stuff, Braid emerged. 

Long story short, he didn't start with a "platformer with a time-reversing mechanic", but that's what emerged from a not-so-sexy-sounding idea of "a billiards game for non-pro-players".

With VVVVVV, similar story.  Terry Cavanagh didn't just magically come up with the final idea (or that's what I recall reading in some interview).  It was on a Klik Of The Month competition, I think, where he made a prototype called "Sine wave ninja" or something like that.  I infer that he just experimented with that gimmick, a game where the jumps are sinusoidal instead of parabolic as usual.  And I guess it was fun enough to be worth working more on that idea, and over the time the sine waves became the gravity flipping mechanic from VVVVVV.

Don't try to force yourself to start with the final design of your game in your head.  Just try things, something simple and maybe not too innovative at first sight, and if it's interesting enough you can go iterating and expanding from that.  You may end up with something original at the end.