Video game ideas thread

This guy had the right idea.

Essentially he modded Grand Theft Auto V to be a full on New South Wales Police sim, replete with general duties, call outs and booking speeding motorists. It actually caught the attention of NSW police and they said, "Uh, GTA, we don't like the idea of our officers being in a police Murder Simulator" but I think they kind of missed the point, the mod serves to honor what they do rather than set them up as target practice.

A Kizuna AI coffeebreak fan game: Running From Ai ! A game where you are a scientist getting data from various facilities to stop The Singularity !

...but it already happened, and there's that really cuddly but lonely AI who desires to forcibly upload you into her mainframe and you must avoid her as she roams around as an Hard Light hologram (a la Red Dwarf), trying to knock you out from behind with her little fists, while scrounging for the keys, items, food and beds to rest on: the chambers would have security doors repulsing the hologram.

So the main gameplay look would be a simplified roguelike with stealth elements as you have to get three keys to get out of the complex, and there would be 16 procedurally-generated levels which complexify the gameplay (the first being an Ai-less tutorial, the second adds Ai, the third adds small threats and obstacles, etc.).

One of the tools that the player could find would be an Address Disruptor a la Axiom Verge, and Ai would have one to try to corrupt the protagonist's body to make him less likely to flee. Some of the threats/obstacles would be kind of silly, like Ai's hybrid creatures, though one of the early enemies will be a camera that would detect you like Ai would (and one of the late ones would be a drone, with fast mobility).

After the fifth level, difficulty increases and genre shifts as, when resting, Ai would be able to podcast to you (the chambers would have hidden holographic dream projectors), resulting in Visual Novel segments where Ai shall seek to corrupt the protagonist's mind and soul (by making him fall in love with her), which would result in the protagonist being allured to Ai's traps and presence while awake instead of avoiding them. Those segments would also be mainly inspired by Ai's videos, like if they were interactive (so the player would be enticed to gush on Ai-chan, causing the corruption of his character).

The game's ambiance would be part Cosmic Horror (with the existential horror of digital captivity, and the protagonist would write things between levels in a (faux?-)Lovecraftian style) with a lot of silliness, with the stealth gameplay aping Metal Gear Solid with jammed/caution/evasion/alert statuses.

So, it would be like a very elaborate take on Pac-Man, except there's only four pellets and one ghost, but she's equal parts vicious and alluring.

edited 10th May '18 11:52:28 PM by acuddle

A fighting game entirely centered around money and capitalism. All the characters are millionaires in charge of companies in various fields. Instead of a meter, there's money. Supers and Ultimates cost money to use, and you constantly gain money over time. There are moves that can affect the speed of your or your opponent's income, though those usually require an investment. Each characters fighting style is based around what their companies produce.

Balance patches are justified as in-universe scientific advancements or stock market fluctuations.

That sounds hilarious.

Well, obviously a world where the CEOs of companies fight each other in physical brawls that decide the fate of... something, I haven't really decided yet, would be a cartoony world of wackiness. I think all the characters should be human (except for the one obligatory fighting game non-human), and the artstyle is cartoonish and vibrant. I'm thinking something like a Pixar-esque western cartoon, realistic bodily proportions but with a bit of squash and stretch. Kind of like Overwatch, but even a bit more cartoony than that.

Speaking of that non-human, what species should it be? Tekken's already cornered the market on bears, and raptors are overplayed. Maybe a gorilla or an octopus in a tailored suit? A duck would be a great Shout-Out, but I think Disney would sue.

Also, I don't have a name for the game. Any suggestions?

Edited by PushoverMediaCritic on Jul 12th 2018 at 12:59:46 PM

I originally posted this in the thread for ideas that only you think are a good idea, and it turns out I'm not the only one who thinks this idea is good.

An RTS and an FPS with a shared multiplayer mode. Players with the RTS can fire up a skirmish and have a straightforward multiplayer game. However, they can also opt to open it to people with the FPS.

If someone playing the FPS decides to drop into the skirmish, they take control of a special unit with a soldier's-eye view of the grand battles. PCs are faster than grunts, have more health, can jump, and can use every weapon; the downside is they have to reload and don't have infinite ammo (but additional ammo can be acquired from defeated enemies). The PC units have free reign (though it would probably be for the best to disable friendly fire to prevent griefing). The RTS players can issue orders to the FPS players, but the FPS players are free to ignore them, what with free will and all. Likewise, the FPS players can request support units from the RTS players, and again it's up to the players to decide if they want to help or not.

Before I go into this other one, let me state that I've never played a MMORPG and I don't see that changing in the foreseeable future, so make of it what you will.

I've been pondering the fact that MMORPGs are uniquely prone to hyperinflation which causes the in-game economy to degenerate into barter. The normal solution seems to be the creation of money sinks, introducing items that are incredibly useful, cost a lot of in-game currency, and can only be bought from NPCs; World of Warcraft also allows players to pay their subscription fees with in-game currency, which also reduces the money supply. However, none of these really fix the problem of inflation, so I propose a more radical solution - remove money entirely.

I know there was at least one attempt to make a MMORPG where enemies dropped crafting equipment instead of weapons or items. While this meant players never got gear they couldn't use, everybody hated it because people like getting new things. Still, I think this notion does have merit; let's just not go quite that far.

This game would run on a sort of barter economy from the beginning. Defeating enemies nets the player some mixture of gear and crafting supplies; naturally, the best gear in the game can only be obtained by crafting. Equipment wears down with use; while nothing would actually break, weapons do less damage the more they are used, armour and shields provide less protection, buffs last for less time, and so forth. Any piece of equipment can be converted into the crafting material from which it is made, the amount of material depending on how worn it is. Thus, for example, if a sword is made from 100 iron, a new sword would yield 90 iron when broken down, while a completely worn one would would only yield 5 iron.

There are various NPC crafters throughout the world who will forge equipment if the player can bring them the right material. Players can craft material themselves; a low-level player will need more material than an NPC to make the same item, but at a high level they can make items for significantly less material, which gives an incentive to grind crafting.

If a particular material is getting too common, the devs can simply turn down the frequency at which it drops until levels return to an acceptable baseline.

If the devs really want to get adventurous, they could include a system that allows players to combine various materials to get unique properties which NPC crafters won't grant. For example, maybe when forging a sword you can swap out a piece of iron for charcoal to get a steel weapon, which is harder and lasts longer. Swapping out another piece of iron for starmetal gives a sword that does extra damage to undead. Making armour with the scales of a black dragon instead of a green one gives protection from holy symbols. And so on.

call me nuts, but one of my game ideas is a "Ugandan Knuckles" game by Sonic Team

Could you elaborate on that, Nuts?

i ment nuts as in "crazy" since the idea is crazy. elobaration: the game plays like a normal sonic game but you play as the Ugandan Knuckles, and during the game Kucnkles will say randomly "Do you kno de way?" and can spit on enemies. and the final level is chasing the queen.

Edited by Wazzupguys on Jul 14th 2018 at 10:06:39 PM

That millionaire fighting game sounds awesome. Well, how about a Sugar Bowl themed fighting game. Like it would be Street Fighter Meets Candyland, where food themed characters battle against one another.

Edited by firewriter on Jul 14th 2018 at 1:09:49 AM

I've always wanted an RPG where you started as the Ultimate King of Badassia Level 99 Ghost Ruler of the Four Cosmos... and by the end of the game you're the lowly Level 1 Goat Farmer.

You start out with a movelist so wide you'd never be able to master all of the combos in one session. The learning curve of the game is inverted; the early levels are easy because you have a variety of moves and weapons and powers, and as you move on your character gets weaker and weaker, and you're gradually restricted to some basic moves and tactics (which can still be altered and used in different frequencies, but no Infinity +1 Sword's or Gun's).

The idea is based off of Warcraft 3 Frozen Throne where you play as the maxed-out main character you played as in a previous campaign - a character who gets cursed at the start and loses one level per map, so that by the final map you're back at level 1 and have to regain your strength.

I've never been sure what type of franchise could implement something like that besides RTS's - I've always thought it could work in something like Bayonetta though. I think I originally had the idea while practicing Bayonetta's moves in the loading screen "practice area."

Edited by Soble on Jul 14th 2018 at 4:30:53 AM

Seems like a pretty interesting idea, actually. I presume it'd be somewhat offset by the difficulty of the enemies staying largely the same, meaning that you Curb-Stomp them with no effort at all to start out with because you're so hilariously overpowered, but as you get weaker they start to pose an actual threat and you need to start thinking and devising clever tactics to take down what were once bottom-of-the-barrel Mooks.

I could also imagine this working into the story and the game's themes. You know how most RPGs make the protagonist pretty young - often a literal child - in order to make their growth in power and experience seem natural? Well, if we reversed this, the protagonist would be an old man or woman. A grizzled veteran of countless conflicts, who's sadly unaware that they've turned into a Perilous Old Fool and with each battle they fight, they get weaker. And if they rely on magic of some kind, they could be going senile and forgetting how to cast all their spells. This could lead to them dying at the end of the game; in a Heroic Sacrifice if it's supposed to be uplifting, or just a Shoot the Shaggy Dog ending if it's more cynical. Or they just finally retire instead. :V

Speaking of leveling mechanics in RPGs, I'm reminded of an idea I had in which the player character is a Bare-Fisted Monk martial artist. Their basic stats improve when they level up, but they can only learn new moves by copying them off his enemies. However, in a sort of-deconstruction of Awesomeness by Analysis and Hard Work Hardly Works, he only learns inferior versions of the moves used by the enemy, since he's relying solely on observation. However, he can learn better moves by 'crafting' them, taking two basic moves and combining them together to create an advanced move, and combining those further to create even better moves. This creates a vast selection of possible move combinations, such that it's impossible for the player to learn all the best moves in a single playthrough, and they'll be forced to pick and choose based on their personal preferences.

Edited by PresidentStalkeyes on Jul 14th 2018 at 12:56:23 PM

I'm going to jot down a few ideas for a game called Fire Emblem: The Legend of Zelda.

As you can tell from the title, it's a Fire Emblem game set in Hyrule and starring Zelda characters. I'm imagining it as taking place in the Downfall Timeline, or a parallel universe that is closesly adjacent, though overall it will be something of a Hyrule Warriors-style celebration of all things Zelda.

Story

The Fire Emblem in this occasion is the Triforce of Power, a mark on Ganondorf's wrist which grants him great strength that he uses to conquer all of Hyrule, its rivers, and Death Mountain in a blitzkrieg during which he managed to defeat the various races' patron deities. Backing him is a mighty army of the usual suspects - Gerudo warriors, Bokoblins, Moblins, Lizalfos, Stalfox, Dinolfos, and so on. He also has ninjas of the Yiga clan and a number of Twili, commanded by Zant and Princess Midna.

This time around, Gandondorf can only be defeated with the Master Sword and the Bow of Light. Link and Zelda embark on a quest to find the relics and defeat the Demon King. Over the course of the story, the pair travel across Hyrule to revive the patron deities and free the people from Gandondorf's domination. As part of this, they also travel to Lorule and the Twilight Realm.

Since Link has to be a heroic mime, Zelda will take centre stage, because she can actually speak. For support conversations, Link will mostly just say "..." and change expressions, though other characters might react as if he is saying something profound. For the most part, Link will act like Momo in his support conversations, listening intently to people and causing them to realise things about themselves. In almost all maps, both Link and Zelda will be mandatory deploys, and either of them dying will result in a Game Over. Both require plot-granted items to promote; Link uses the Triforce of Courage, and Zelda uses the Triforce of Wisdom. Upon promotion, Link gains the personal skill Farore's Wind, which allows him to teleport next to any ally or enemy and then take another action; Zelda gets Nayru's Love, which makes her invincible until the start of the player's next turn and buffs Def and Res of all units within two squares. However, Zelda cannot attack or use any items in the turn she activates Nayru's Love.

Weapon mechanics

The standard weapon triangle returns - swords beat axes, axes beat lances, and lances beat swords. Claymores, poleaxes, and axebreakers invert the weapon triangle.

The magic triangle from Radiant Dawn also returns - fire beats wind, wind beats thunder, and thunder beats fire. Elemental magic beats light, light beats dark, and dark beats elemental. Sparks, Blizzard, Lightning, Judgement, and Eclipse invert the triangle.

Also I'll throw in a third weapon triangle for ranged weapons, building off the double triangle from Fates. Bows beat shurikens, shurikens beat chakrams, and chakrams beat bows. The chakram is a new type of ranged weapon I'm introducing whose damage and accuracy are a happy medium between those of bows and shurikens, much like how swords lie between axes and lances. (Yes, I'm aware the chakram is a type of shuriken in Fates. The games change things up all the time).

Javelins and hand axes are present as in other Fire Emblem games, and boomerangs function as ranged swords.

A new weapon type is bombs, which can only be used by Gorons and Link. Bombs have an area of effect damage, and can harm allied as well as enemy units. A bomb won't kill anybody, and using one does not give experience.

Link's unique weapon is the Master Sword, which does extra damage to demonic enemies and, if Link is at full health, can attack at range.

Zelda's unique weapon is the Bow of Light, which also does extra damage to demonic and Dark enemies, and the player can choose whether it attacks as a physical or a light magic attack (it always does bonus damage to flying units).

Midna's unique weapon is the Fused Shadow, which always has weapon triangle advantage.

Races

Hylians: The versatile ones, with units that can use all weapons and magic. The only race with units that wear heavy armour. More elemental than light/dark mages. Their patron deity is Hylia.

Gerudo: Basically the same as Hylians, but do not wear armour, and trade Def for Skl and Avo. More light/dark than elemental mages. The thief and amazon classes are exclusively Gerudo; amazon is a new class, an infantry unit that uses magic and swords (so an unmounted mage knight). Their patron deity is the Desert Colossus.

Gorons: All considered armoured by default. High Def, low Res, decent Mov but low Spd. Use bombs, axes, and spears. Have an innate resistance to fire magic. Their patron deity is Valoo

Zora: Can move on water as if it was land, and gain boosts to all stats while in water. Use spears. Have an innate vulernability to lightning and a resistance to fire. Their patron deity is Lord Jabun.

Rito: All Rito fly by default. High Spd and Avo, with decent Res but middling Str and low Def and HP. Have an innate vulnerability to wind magic, as well as to bows. Use bows, spears, swords, and shurikens. Their patron deity is Levias, the Wind Fish.

Twili: Tend to be mage killers and squishy wizards; most often, a Twili would have high Str and Res coupled with low Def and Mag, or vice versa. Can use all magic except for light; they can also use all weapons, though their default equipment will have useful, or at least quirky, effects coupled with significant drawbacks. More mages than fighters. They have a few units which correspond to the Pegasus and Wyvern riders in other Fire Emblem games. Their patron deity will be an original character

Koroks: The support race. They work like dancers or herons, using music to give a unit an extra turn, or to heal or buff stats. Their patron deity is the Greak Deku Tree.

Characters

• Link (Champion —> Hero): Our hero, and the only character who can wield the Master Sword. Uses swords, and axes upon promotion; he will also have a special skill allowing him to use any other weapon as long as it is a lower level than hs sword or axe level, whichever is lower. Emphasised physical over arcane stats. Hylian.

• Zelda (Hyrule Princess —> Light Priestess): Our heroine, and the only character who can wield the Bow of Light. Uses bows and staffs, and light magic upon promotion. Emphasises arcane over physical stats. Hylian.

• Impa (Master Ninja): The Oifey of the game, Impa is a pre-promoted Sheikah and Zelda's caretaker. Design is a mashup of her appearances in Ocarina of Time and Skyward Sword. Hylian.

• Sheik (Ninja —> Master Ninja): A Sheikah ninja who appears on the one map where Zelda is not present. Impa, knowing that there are no Sheikah named Sheik but also that Zelda did show a strong interest in the clan, suspects she is Zelda in disguise... but then Zelda appears, fresh from the one map where Link is not present. Sheik admits Impa wasn't entirely wrong - her real name is Zelda, but she is actually Princess Zelda's daughter from the future in whcih Ganondorf won absolutely. Sheik used the Ocarina of Time to travel back and try to stop him before he attains ultimate power. (Link is totally Sheik's father, but that probably shouldn't be made explicit). One other idea I had is that Sheik is destined for the Triforce of Power, from a desire to be strong enough to defend everybody after Ganondorf's forces killed her entire family and friends. This would make for a nice climax where Ganon loses the Triforce to a hero, whose allies have the other two Triforces, all three of which combined ultimately defeat him. Hylian.

• Midna (Twilight Princess —> Dark Priestess) - Princess of the Twili, a Minerva-like figure who only serves the villain reluctantly and under duress. Ganondorf, with the aid of Zant, stole the Sols from the Twilight Realm, and without them, the Twili are slowly dying; as such, Midna is forced to aid Ganonforf to save her own people. Part of the story will involve liberating the Sols from Ganondorf and returning them to the Twilight Realm; once that is done, Mida will aid the heroes. She uses dark and elemental magic, with dark at a higher level; upon promotion, she gains access to staffs.

• Medli (Archer —> Sniper) - A young Rito archer and one of the first to join Zelda. Upon promotion, she gains the personal skill Revali's Gale, which buffs her Spd, Skl, Crit, and Avo.

• Saria (Dancer —> Songstress) - A Korok who leaves the Lost Woods to seek Link's aid to restore the Great Deku tree, who is captured and has to be rescued by our heroes. As a dancer, she can give units an extra turn; after promoting to Songstress, she can also buff stats and use staffs to heal.

• Mipha (Halberdier —> Sentinel) - The Zora princess, who uses spears. She has the personal skill Mipha's Grace, which allows her to heal without a staff.

• Dangoro (Armoured Knight —> General) - A Goron who guards the Bow of Light. When the heroes first meet him, he thinks they're servants of Ganondorf come to steal it and calls in reinforcemenets, prompting a battle. When he is defeated and the heroes manage to explain the situation, he realises he was wrong and offers to fight alongside them. Has the personal skill Daruk's Protection, which can block magical attacks and cause physical attacks to also damage the attacker.

• Suraya (Mercenary —> Amazon) - Leader of a group of Gerudo rebels who fight against Ganondorf. When Sultana is defeated, Suraya inherits the personal skill Urbosa's Fury, which allows her to cast thunder magic without degrading a tome.

• Hilda (Lorule Princess —> Earth Princess) - Princess of Lorule, who wields the Triforce of Empathy (yeah, I'm also giving individual traits to the Lorulean Triforce). Joins our heroes to aid them in gratitude at their helping to defeat Majora. Hylian.

• Linkle (Apothecary —> Adventurer) - Heroine of Lorule, and wielder of the Triforce of Determination. When our heroes end up in Lorule, she asks them to help her defeat Majora. Should be a cheerful genki girl.

Antagonists

Ganondorf/Ganon (Demon King/Ganon) - The primary villain, final boss, wielder of the Triforce of Power. Uses spears and magic. Has the personal skill Din's Fire, which combines his Str and Mag stats, and his Def and Res stats. Ganondorf turns into Ganon when defeated. Gerudo/Demon.

Koume and Kotake (Witch) - Ganondorf's stepmothers and chief lackeys. Powerful magic and decent Def and Res. Gerudo.

Sultana (Amazon) - Queen of the Gerudo before Ganondorf came along. She is the noble enemy commander who disapproves of the villain but won't join the heroes out of a sense of duty and because she feels bound to uphold the Gerudo laws and traditions. She is the initial bearer of Urbosa's Fury, until she is defeated and passes it on to Suraya. Gerudo.

Kohga (Master Ninja) - Leader of the Yiga ninjas. While Kohga in Breath of the Wild was a joke, this one will be still funny, but also competent and able to give a good fight. Also he'll get a backstory. Hylian.

Majora (Sorceror) - Once a powerful Lorulean wizard obsessed with immortality, Majora's twisted experiments ultimately turned him into a living mask. When Ganondorf's forces invaded Lorule, Majora agreed to help them conquer the land in exchange for a new body and free reign to experiment as he pleases; currently wields the Triforce of Life. Appearance is based on Majora's Wrath. Demon. (I subscribe to the fan theory that Termina is part of Lorule).

Zant (Sorceror) - A scheming court wizard of the Twilight Realm, who allied with Ganondorf to steal the Sold andthus subdue the Twili in exchange for dominion over the Twilight Realm. He thus press-ganged Midna and the other Twili into helping Ganondorf conquer the Light Realms. Would be a Starscream if he wasn't petrified of Ganondorf. Twili.

Shapeshifting

When Zant's forces are present, they can cover part of the map in Twilight; any allied unit on a Twilight tile turns into an animal reflecting their soul. When Zant is defeated and his power broken, Mida obtains several Shadow Stones, items that allow characters to shapeshift at will, comparable to Dragon Stones and Beaststones.

• Link - Wolf
• Zelda - Heron
• Impa - Raven
• Sheik - Owl
• Midna - unaffected
• Medli - Deer
• Saria - unaffected
• Mipha - Giant scorpion (Scorpions are super-protective of their families, which I think works well with Mipha)
• Dangoro - Rhinoceros
• Suraya - Cobra
• Hilda - Heron
• Linkle - Fox

Something like Total War, but revolving around the kingmaker concept.

The setting is dominated by several large, relatively powerful countries, surrounded by smaller, weaker vassal and client states. The major powers are quite evenly matched, and if any one of them were to try and upset the Balance of Power, the others would gang up to bring them down.

You play as a small, fairly weak neutral country. As tensions rise, you have to choose which of the powerful countries to ally with, thus tipping power in that country's favour. There would be battles, but diplomacy and trade would play the greater role. You would need to assist your powerful ally where they ask, but balance that with the need to maintain your own country. Also, betrayal and side changing would totally be possible, but risky, as you would lose the protection of your powerful ally for one that is likely weaker, and there is no guarantee the other country will trust you enough to enter an alliance.

Modular endings would be the order of the day, the precise ending depending on which countries survive to the end and how relatively strong or weak each of them are. The best ending, which would also be the hardest to get, would come from playing every side so that the big countries all destroy each other, and your own country emerges as the regional superpower.

Edited by VampireBuddha on Apr 13th 2019 at 8:36:43 PM

A fighting game based on JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Vento Aureo. Not any other Parts, specifically focused on Part 5, kind of like how Heritage For The Future was a Jojo fighting game focused on Part 3.

There are 21 playable characters, divided by the CSS like so:

• Fugo | Abbacchio | Bruno | Giorno | Mista | Narancha | Trish
• Melone | Ghiaccio | Risotto | Polnareff | Pesci + Prosciutto | Illuso | Formaggio
• Squalo + Tiziano | Secco + Cioccolata | Doppio | Diavolo | Polpo | Sale | Zucchero

The first row is Bruno's gang, the second row is The Execution Squad/people going against the Boss (why Polnareff is there), and the third row is the rest of Passione. Giorno, Polnareff, and Diavolo are the three characters in the center of each row. If there are any DLC characters from the other Parts, they would go on a 4th row.

The gameplay is heavily focused on outmaneuvering and outpredicting the opponent, with short combos. It is a 1-v-1 2D fighting game. Matches go to best of 3, and HP carries over between rounds, though there is recoverable HP that is filled between rounds and can be healed by certain moves.

In this game, non-Stand attacks use 0-2 buttons, depending on the character, and Stand attacks use the remaining 2-4 buttons. For characters with 2 normal buttons, the layout is Normal Light/Normal Heavy/Stand Attack/Stand Special. For characters with 1 normal button, the layout is Normal/Stand Light/Stand Heavy/Stand Special. For characters with only Stand buttons, the layout is Stand Light/Stand Medium/Stand Heavy/Stand Special.

There is a Pose button that does a different Pose depending on the directional inputs. Each Pose can only be done once per match, and they grant different buffs and bonuses. Some Poses are unlocked mid-fight through fulfilling special conditions.

There's attacking, Stand attacking, blocking, and Stand blocking. Stand attacks do more damage than normal attacks. Normal attacks do a small amount of chip damage against normal blocking, and Stand attacks do a higher percentage of chip damage. Stand blocking blocks normal attacks entirely for no damage, and Stand attacks do chip damage against Stand blocking. Stand blocking also makes normal attacks have much less blockstun.

Edited by PushoverMediaCritic on Jun 17th 2020 at 11:47:18 AM