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[rogerlevy]

I've started several games in the past but never got off the ground with any of them.  So I've built myself some tools that hopefully will help me by making it a lot faster to make a game the way I want it.  I've posted about it before - my game dev library.  But I need a nice juicy project to help refine and complete it.  The primary things are built up enough now, so I wanted to get started on something this weekend.

Please vote for the game that I'll start making.

I narrowed down my ideas to these three options that I can't really decide between on my own.  Either of them could be worked on.  I just don't want to be attracted to anything else while I'm doing one of them, so I want to use the results of this poll to force myself to focus on one game.

Your help is appreciated.  

[Curseman]

Option 2 sounds good, and option 3 may be good, though there isn't really a lot of information there to judge it by.  Option 1 sounds like Metroid, except not as good as the existing Metroid.

[rogerlevy]

Yeah...

I didn't know if it was going to be too much or too little info actually!  For some reason I'm paranoid of people stealing my ideas.  But sure I can give a little more info on 1.  The idea is to take the "idea" of Metroid (bounty hunter hunting Metroids in the underground world of Zebes), and re-tell it like I was the designer at Nintendo given the task of designing the game.  What would make it better?  Well, *I* think, that the game could be much less linear, something less like a quest you go through and more like a giant puzzle to solve; but the way you solve it can be different each time.

On 3 ... OK, I'll flesh it out a little more. The castle is kind of like Dracula's castle, and you WORK for the Count.  That's all I'll say.

[rogerlevy]

I'm gonna lock voting at ~1PM EST.  

I'm starting to put down my boilerplate and then I'll choose from either the most popular or least popular option, depending on the flip of a coin.   screw that...

If anyone's got any questions before they vote now's the time!

[LemonScented]

Robots are always good. Robots + Vampires + Castles sound even better.

Incidentally, you know that nobody is going to steal your game ideas, right?

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/95066-Newbie-Game-Designers-Are-Paranoid-for-Nothing

Everyone who is into making games has a head full of their own ideas, and they'd rather make those than put time and effort into making your idea.

[rogerlevy]

Well that's good.

Looks like 2 is gaining on 3!!

[Pishtaco]

Voted the last one as the least self-consciously retro.

[s0]

Incidentally, you know that nobody is going to steal your game ideas, right?

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/95066-Newbie-Game-Designers-Are-Paranoid-for-Nothing

Everyone who is into making games has a head full of their own ideas, and they'd rather make those than put time and effort into making your idea.

Yup. Idea "theft" doesn't happen nearly as much as people think it does.

On a related note, I think ideas in general are overrated. I mean, every single one of my gamer friends, most of who have no real interest in game development, have had an "awesome" idea for a game at one point. I guess most newbie game designers that go into developing their first game hell bent on implementing some idea they had falter when it comes to designing the core gameplay, which is a lot more difficult than most of them (us?) realize.
Even if you're taking the easy way out and make some sort of puzzle platformer that consists exclusively of your idea, if the basic platforming in that sucks, the whole game sucks.

[dbb]

Incidentally, you know that nobody is going to steal your game ideas, right?

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/95066-Newbie-Game-Designers-Are-Paranoid-for-Nothing

Everyone who is into making games has a head full of their own ideas, and they'd rather make those than put time and effort into making your idea.

That's an excellent article. Thanks for posting that!

[Soulliard]

From your vague descriptions, all your ideas could turn out to be good games. The third option is the one I would most likely play, though.

[moi]

option 3 is the only one that isn't boring

[rogerlevy]

option 3 is the only one that isn't boring

ouch!  haha.  well, CLEARLY, you don't see what i see in my head. 

well,  voting's now locked.  looks like 3 came out the clear winner.  i'm pretty psyched!  i'll start playing around with graphics while watching a movie with the family tonight.

thanks so much to all the voters and feedback givers!!

[rogerlevy]

From your vague descriptions, all your ideas could turn out to be good games. The third option is the one I would most likely play, though.

And that's the whole point.

On a related note, I think ideas in general are overrated.

Totally agree.  Ideas are cheap.  But important.  I gotta start with a vision or I'm not motivated. 

[X3N]

The original Metroid was damn non-linear.. I don't know what you mean by make it "less linear". There was no direction, no map, doors you could open in any order, fucking secret passageways you had to bomb / shoot walls to find, beat the 2 bosses in either order, get powerups in different orders, not to mention the door/jump glitch that helped you get around too
Are you saying you want to make it more "puzzle" like ala Metroid Prime (switches, levers kind of puzzle?) That would be cool.

[rogerlevy]

True, but I think there are plenty of ways that it can be made even less linear. 
At the same time I'd want to throw out and re-do lots of things that some or most people might consider "Metroid.  For example, I could make it possible to get into Tourian through more than one way instead of just the Kraid/Ridley gate.  Maybe the others would be secret or more challenging, or randomly generated.  I don't know!

In retrospect, I really believe that the robot-in-castle idea is the best one to do, so Metroid has been thrown into the scrap chest for a while.

[PANPOMMA]

The robot idea is only good if it is a "research bot" and the castle is full of interesting things to look at. Perhaps you have to learn why the castle is empty of life within the game, the game itself being without narrative or talking characters. No castlevania knocking off! Strange sentence formations!