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[CMDR Coriander Salamander]

Wreckship has so much potential 
Just imagine a game where you are a droid, fired from a ship, that latches onto the outside of a huge ship like the Enterprise with loads of people and subsystems, and you gradually take them down and destroy the ship. You could do this by jamming the navigation to make them crash, hacking the reactor control or security systems, killing the crew, switching off life-support, etc.
Of course, the Enterprise would be a harder level. You would start with, say, the Millennium Falcon which is much smaller and with far less crew

I second this - I'd totally play that =D I wanted to make something sort of similar a while ago where you played the part of the AI who gave instructions to a squad that was trying to take down a ship/complex... the breaking into systems and breaking down barriers and cool hacky destruction that I was picturing felt pretty similar (imagine Halo but from Cortana's point of view, or your pick of games with an AI who tells you where to go ^^). I honestly kind of like yours better though... I never did end up working on that, had a bunch of other ideas that I liked more / seemed a little simpler for me to implement.

[TheCusp]

Conway's Game of WAR!!!!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conway%27s_Game_of_Life

I want to take Conway's Game of Life, which is a Zero Player game, and turn it into a 2 player TCG.  Only without the collecting.  Players can make their own cards.

No need to come up with different classes of cards, they all arise naturally the rules of the game of life.  Gliders, glider guns, space ships, eaters, deflectors, methuselas. 

Each player controls half of the game board and can play/place patterns anywhere on his side of the board every X generations.

More details here
http://hephaestusgames.wordpress.com/conways-game-of-war/

How could I not make this game?  It's going to be so simple to program, doesn't require artwork. 

[Noogai03]

how has no-one made this yet
don't make it too complex
i have NO idea how you would make this

[sam_suite]

This idea is more of a mechanic, and I've been thinking of it in the context of a multiplayer dogfighting game that's been brewing in my mind-cauldron for a while now. It would work for pretty much any pvp game, though.

Basically, as you lose health (from being shot, likely), you gain random powers. Things like speed or cluster bombs, you know, typical gamey powerups - but nothing that would directly affect weapon damage or health (that would probably break the system). I feel like this would do a few cool things:
  1) Add some balance. Rookie players will likely lose health more quickly, so when they gain powers, the game can continue to be fun. It would basically be a reversed handicap system. At the same time, experienced players would still have an upper hand, being more experienced with the powerups.
  a) Add some possibility for unconventional strategy. Players might go for a glass-cannon approach, damaging themselves to gain power before diving into a frantic guns-blazing ambush. There's a nice risk/reward balance here.
  α) The game gets more intense as it continues. Strategy develops as powerups affect the way players play. Essentially, shit gets cray.

So are there any inherent flaws in this idea? It's not all that complicated, has it been done before? If so, did it work?

[also, I'm new - this is my first post. how's it going, guys?]

[TheCusp]

I'm a little weary to add any features that don't arise naturally from the game of life rule set.  Although I was considering special pixel colors.  If player 1 is blue and player two is red pixels, then a special class of card with gold pixels that can be reused once all the gold pixels on screen die out.

As for strategy, it's going to be nuts.  You can familiarize yourself with the complete evolution cycle of a pattern, but that specific evolution only occurs with no outside interference from other patterns or stray cells.  There's going to be so many unexpected outcomes, which is what makes it great.

One thing I'm noticing in early testing is the screen sometimes gets cluttered
with "still lifes", dead patterns that have stopped evolving.  I'm considering the possibility of a win condition for who ever controls the most cells of their color.

Also maybe a separate rule set for when colored cells belonging to both players clash.

[sam_suite]

Oh, I was thinking of that as a separate idea, not related to the Game of Life thing. Although I can imagine that would get really interesting...

I'd totally love to see a Game of War, if you can pull it off. The rules of the the Game of life are so complicated (well, maybe that's not the right word. they're simple, but they have unpredictable consequences) that it sounds like the game would have a pretty steep learning curve, even with the ability to place entire patterns at once.
Totally make it, though. I want to see what it's like.

[Udderdude]

Basically, as you lose health (from being shot, likely), you gain random powers. Things like speed or cluster bombs, you know, typical gamey powerups - but nothing that would directly affect weapon damage or health (that would probably break the system). I feel like this would do a few cool things:
  1) Add some balance. Rookie players will likely lose health more quickly, so when they gain powers, the game can continue to be fun. It would basically be a reversed handicap system. At the same time, experienced players would still have an upper hand, being more experienced with the powerups.
  a) Add some possibility for unconventional strategy. Players might go for a glass-cannon approach, damaging themselves to gain power before diving into a frantic guns-blazing ambush. There's a nice risk/reward balance here.
  α) The game gets more intense as it continues. Strategy develops as powerups affect the way players play. Essentially, shit gets cray.

So are there any inherent flaws in this idea? It's not all that complicated, has it been done before? If so, did it work?

I'm pretty sure it would just lead to players ganging up on one other player, focus firing them to death so they don't have a chance to be at a 'low health state' for very long.

[sam_suite]

Huh, maybe. I feel like that would be really hard to pull off in a free-for-all game. In a team mode that might happen, but then all of the other players on the team of the person getting ganged up on can help out. If anything, it would just promote teams sticking together, which is something that I'd like to see more of in pvp in general.

It could happen if there's only one player left on one team (I think this would have to be elimination-style to work), but at that point the game is just about over anyway.

[Noogai03]

A roguelike game where you cannot change direction, like in SCP-087b (where you die horribly if you turn around)
No backtracking, every corner is a risk
Maybe you could have limited numbers of teleports to avoid dead ends...

[Sir Raptor]

A roguelike inside a giant, interdimensional, dungeon-style library. Weapons, skills and spells are all related to the books you pick out of the shelves.
Some general concepts:
- Different books are used as one-time-use spells?
- Weapons and equipment are drawn from books, swords for fantasy and lasers for sci-fi
- Alternatively, the books are the weapons and equipment
- Pulling a book from a shelf might trigger a secret passage?
- Reading books give you stat boosts based on their content
- BOOK FORT
- Medical dictionaries will either heal you or raise your max HP
- Different playable characters with affinities to certain literature, like a little boy who gets special boosts from comics

Knowledge is power. Build your strength, go deep into the library dungeon, and defeat the dangerous bookwyrm.

[Sir Raptor]

An open world style game, with adventure and stealth mechanics, about living in a totalitarian country-sized Chuck E. Cheese-like family fun center.

You are a young child, part of the second generation since Pizzaland© achieved government status. The story begins when your older brother is taken away for Pizzalty© Loyalty Testing, and branches off from there in any direction you please. You can become a master at the numerous Pizzaland© Funtertainment Consoles©, and challenge other kids in the championships. You can sneak into the black market at night and trade your tickets for forbidden fruit; apples, fish, foodstuffs not legally recognized in the Pizza Pyramid©. You can join the underground movement and take down the Pizza Prince© and his Funvernment© from the inside, or you can trade rebel names to the Pizzauthorities© and upgrade your living space from the Burnt Crust© to the Luxury Topping©. You can find your brother, experience the Remediation Station© firsthand, make friends, sell friends... maybe you can even breach the border and escape the iron fist you live under.

All that matters is that whatever you do, you have Fun©.

[surt]

Shoot'em Down
Traditional H or V scrolling shmup, except you are the dungeon master.

[diegzumillo]

Shoot'em Down
Traditional H or V scrolling shmup, except you are the dungeon master.

I had a similar idea once, except the player would focus on the boss battle. Defining the patterns. 

[Didi]

A realistic urban bike messenger / alleycat racing simulator.

[oodavid]

[Udderdude]

That helmet will really come in handy.

[ericmbernier]

2D top-down adventure/stealth? game where you play as a kid who sneaks into schools, completing jobs for clients. Jobs can range from various school related tasks such as hacking into a teacher's computer and changing your client's grades to A's, or defacing all of the science projects at the school science fair except your client's, ensuring them a first place ribbon. Once you become 'known' you can even take on jobs for teachers, such as one where you hack into the school payroll computer  and raise their salary.

I picture a game inspired by "Bully" and "Metal Gear Solid" but in a 2D perspective, and not completely reliant on stealth. Other inspirations include the movie "Home Alone" (put a pile of marbles in a janitors path so that he slips and falls in order to  knock him out for the level), and "Hitman: Blood Money". Dodge janitors, teachers, and principals, while fighting off bullies with teenage inspired gear such as water balloons, stink bombs, etc. The missions could start off in elementary schools, and conclude with the final mission being at the local university.

I should be prototyping something along these lines over the next few weeks, though I have no idea where I'll take it. Perhaps I'll start a devlog, even with my ugly programmer art 

[Udderdude]

You'd have to add some extra story detail about how all of the schools computer systems are not connected to the net, or it wouldn't make any sense.

Anyway, sounds pretty fun but I'd avoid adding stuff that would possibly injure someone like slipping on marbles and getting knocked out after hitting the floor.

[Noogai03]

You'd have to add some extra story detail about how all of the schools computer systems are not connected to the net, or it wouldn't make any sense.

Anyway, sounds pretty fun but I'd avoid adding stuff that would possibly injure someone like slipping on marbles and getting knocked out after hitting the floor.

the school, like all schools, has ridiculously bad I.T. guys who fail at computers and who have accidentally blown up the internet wire things

Reminds me of The Classroom, a flash game where you cheat in exams by walking around the exam room without being seen

[ericmbernier]

You'd have to add some extra story detail about how all of the schools computer systems are not connected to the net, or it wouldn't make any sense.

Yea, I haven't fleshed out any details yet. Perhaps the teacher is very old-fashioned, and keeps all of his/her grades in a paper grade book before submitting them for the quarter.

the school, like all schools, has ridiculously bad I.T. guys who fail at computers and who have accidentally blown up the internet wire things

Reminds me of The Classroom, a flash game where you cheat in exams by walking around the exam room without being seen

I haven't heard of The Classroom. I'll check it out later!