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Game Design Theory / Share your strangest game ideas. :)

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Lonnehart
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Posted: 11th Mar 2010 00:06 Edited at: 11th Mar 2010 00:08
Here's one I consider strange. Maybe someone out there will want to make it.

You're an Angel of Death. Your job? To cause complete total extiction on the planet you're assigned to "cleanse". You do have limitations though... You're not allowed to trigger extraterrestrial phenomena to get the job done (though if it occurs naturally you job becomes easier). So basically you can use various disasters to exterminate all life on the planet. But it's not going to be easy.

The living beings can hide in places some of your powers can't reach. Others will learn to resist your attempts to exterminate them. So naturally this will turn out to be a puzzle since you may have to use combinations of disasters to do your job as well as time them right so the survivors won't have time or resources to prepare for the next disaster.

You could have random alien invasions, but that'll make your job harder as now you've got to exterminate the aliens AND the locals on the planet!

I bet a lot of you out there have weirder ideas than this.

In the beginning there was nothing. There'll be nothing in the end...
Bugsy
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Posted: 11th Mar 2010 04:58
my strangest Idea was that concentration camp FPS.


Libervurto
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Posted: 11th Mar 2010 06:13
I am just fleshing out an idea atm.

The game is set about two hundred years into the future. Electronics are so cheap that computers are cheaper to buy than books. Literacy drops as computers become better at speech recognition. Fuel supplies are running out and powerstations grind to a halt, one by one. In desperation, nations lash out in frenzied wars to obtain fleeting resources. Many die. The wars escalate and WMDs are used. The wars are ended.

The protagonist lives in a small town that has been shut off from the power-grid. The town is a ruin but the people are incapable of rebuilding it. The only knowledge they have is computer based.
You set off in search of a book depository that is rumoured to be in the next town. Once you've found the books your people can learn how to rebuild their lives and survive without power.

"With games, we create these elaborate worlds in our minds, and the computer is there to do the bookkeeping." - Will Wright
DarkJames
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Posted: 16th Mar 2010 04:26
my strangest idea...

easy..
some zombies ran to you and you start shooting them (original...) then you jump and its like you have a really strange jump (100 FT) and the zombies are like "duuuh....".. you go into a balcony and the adventure continues


"Feel free in a world of madness,be the bright spot"
-Bloody James
Oolite
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Posted: 16th Mar 2010 19:40
Quote: "some zombies ran to you and you start shooting them (original...) then you jump and its like you have a really strange jump (100 FT) and the zombies are like "duuuh....".. you go into a balcony and the adventure continues"

..What?

Neuro Fuzzy
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Posted: 17th Mar 2010 07:49
Quote: "..What?"

basically:

ZOMBIESOMG


Dared1111
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Posted: 18th Mar 2010 13:05
I think it was something about poisoning people in a hospital, while avoiding the guards who would taze you, nurses who would call for doctors and guards and doctors who would try to escort you back to your bed.

Next to that it was about shapeshifting into different animal forms, using "white water", which was meant to be drugs and the entire game delusions of a druggie.

Signature? There is no signature!
Mew151
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Posted: 11th Apr 2010 01:52
"School Dance Simulator"

'Nuff said.

Dark Dragon
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Posted: 11th Apr 2010 18:59
Quote: ""School Dance Simulator""


WTF>WTMFH??????????

Libervurto
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Posted: 11th Apr 2010 19:05
Absolute Ninja Space Hobos
I don't think I need to explain the premise.

DevilLiger
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Posted: 14th Apr 2010 23:30
hmmm i think this would be cool:

RTS style, but you play as zombies to attack humans in RTS style. you can have plenty of things to choose from like poisionous zombies, temp. invisible zombies., explosive zombies, etc. the resources would have to be feeding on the civilians which they roam around the cities and such. the humans can be playable but they have to put up with getting resources from oil mines, gold, etc. maybe a third side might be very good like aliens too.

Mew151
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Posted: 21st Apr 2010 16:43
The game I'm working on right now has a strange plot...

Actually I think it has a great plot, but because any giving away of the real plot would spoil all the surprise in the story, the only plot synopsis that I can give makes it sound weird:

Quote: "Asher loves the ladies, his games, and his life. Your average boy. He is the second top player in the MMO, Unbeatable Battles. Once his save file is deleted, however, he begins to think something suspicious is going on. Could there be more to the game than what meets the eye?"


Libervurto
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Posted: 25th Apr 2010 11:54
Quote: "Asher loves the ladies, his games, and his life. Your average boy. He is the second top player in the MMO, Unbeatable Battles. Once his save file is deleted, however, he begins to think something suspicious is going on. Could there be more to the game than what meets the eye?"

World of World of Warcraft?

Dia
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Posted: 25th Apr 2010 12:05
leasure suit larry y2k?

This is not the Sig you are looking for....
Festaddamms
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Posted: 15th May 2010 02:37
How about this.I hope this offends no one here. A game where you are a security guard at a psych hospital that also specializes in Down Syndrome and epilepsy. So the one way or another it goes out of control and you have to fight your way out through schizo's, PO'd epileptics and hordes of special olympians. you could call it " Down with the Syndrome"

Born to be Bipolar....
Hobgoblin Lord
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Posted: 16th May 2010 10:53
Interpretive Dance Dance Revolution where the arrows were just suggestions.

Inspire
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Posted: 18th May 2010 06:36
That's funny, Hobgoblin Lord.
This one isn't too weird but I keep thinking about this really abstract idea where it follows these two anime children. The one kid is in the Hospital, but when he goes to sleep he gets to see his girlfriend who died in the car accident he was injured in. And they go on adventures, which would be like the two of them running across a meadow or rafting in a river or something, but towards the end of the dream the world starts falling apart and she gets farther and farther away until he wakes up. Do this a couple times, and then have him released from the hospital, but when he goes to sleep at home, he can't dream anymore.

MandoAndy
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Posted: 20th May 2010 17:14
I had an idea a while ago that I thought was pretty strange and fun.

You play as a hero who is aware of the fact that he's in a really REALLY badly designed game.

Like, he knows that the enemies are rigged so you can't beat them. And he knows that all the health upgrades and secret cool weapons are out of reach in stupid places.

And little things that you're supposed to be able to do, you can't, because of bugs in the level, or scripting or whatever.

(You know the way Daffy Duck complains to the artist who's drawing him? Yeah. That sorta vibe!)

So what can this hero do in an unbeatable land that was designed to frustrate and kill him? He cheats.

The goal of the game would be to find glitches and cheats in the game -- stuff that would be impossible to do in the real world -- but totally plausible in a game world. You guide the hero around finding ways to "glitch" your way past problems and cheat death.

It's so much fun to hack games and do the things you're not supposed to do. Why can't that be the whole goal of a game?

thenerd
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Posted: 22nd May 2010 02:19
that would be epic!

Black Profductions
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Posted: 22nd May 2010 03:46
A Video Game Creation simulator, who can beat that um?

WWIV Studios
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Posted: 22nd May 2010 07:50
Sex Ed Class....
'Nuff said
medsouz
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Posted: 24th May 2010 00:52
Stop the bunny invasion...
The "bunnies" climb out of holes like the antlions on Half-Life 2 you have to defend your cardboard box from them, if they get too close they start gnawing on your box and you become homelss.




Switching from Lua scripting to BASIC Programming is a HUGE change..
Blue text is for n00bs
That Guy John
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Posted: 24th May 2010 22:17
lmao @ Medsouz

ThatGuyJohn.com (personal blog)
PCGameDrops.com Something for your PC to chew on!(Launched May 15th, 2010. Developers please have a look, will be updated aggressively)
medsouz
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Posted: 24th May 2010 22:45
Quote: "lmao @ Medsouz"


I wasnt feeling good that day.


Switching from Lua scripting to BASIC Programming is a HUGE change..
Hobgoblin Lord
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Posted: 26th May 2010 19:41
Xylophone Hero, gold box special edition you get the dual action mega mallet.

TechLord
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Posted: 8th Jun 2010 05:10 Edited at: 8th Jun 2010 05:11

BULLET DANCER


Bullet Dancer, a cyber tribute to the late Michael Jackson, a third person shooter that features the Smooth Criminal utilizing MJ's Trademark Dance Moves combined with Gun-Kata, and other special attacks. The highlight game mechanics are customizable dance move attacks and controls. The plot is cliche, the Smooth Criminal must take down a Powerful Drug Dealer that's pushing a drug that turns people into zombie-like dope fiends.

PW Productions
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Posted: 8th Jun 2010 06:44
A game about an average life. 6 days of work, 14 hrs a day. Get up, coffee, newspaper, toast... Drive to work in a crappy Civic... Get yelled at by your boss... Fall asleep during the meeting... Drive home in that same crappy Civic... stay up till 23:30... Go to sleep... Repeat.

Darth Kiwi
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Posted: 10th Jun 2010 03:58
Quote: "A game about an average life. 6 days of work, 14 hrs a day. Get up, coffee, newspaper, toast... Drive to work in a crappy Civic... Get yelled at by your boss... Fall asleep during the meeting... Drive home in that same crappy Civic... stay up till 23:30... Go to sleep... Repeat."


Play this:

http://www.molleindustria.org/everydaythesamedream/everydaythesamedream.html

Secretary of Unknowable Knowledge for the Rock/Dink administration '08
PW Productions
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Posted: 10th Jun 2010 06:28
Damn... Nevermind

Inspire
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Posted: 11th Jun 2010 04:07
Gah. I don't get the ending to that game.

PW Productions
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Posted: 11th Jun 2010 07:37
I never got to the ending The walking was too slow and boring. But I could tell it was going somewhere by the chart.

Lonnehart
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Posted: 16th Jun 2010 23:35
Monster Truck Fighter!

Two monster trucks, head to head in a Truck vs Truck fight to see which one is the best. They'll also have special moves such as the "Rollebar Suplex", "Monster Tire Crush", and the "Raging Truck Engine Smash". The first truck to become completely crushed and/or not able to fight is the winner!

TechLord
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Posted: 17th Jun 2010 01:04
Quote: "Monster Truck Fighter!

Two monster trucks, head to head in a Truck vs Truck fight to see which one is the best. They'll also have special moves such as the "Rollebar Suplex", "Monster Tire Crush", and the "Raging Truck Engine Smash". The first truck to become completely crushed and/or not able to fight is the winner!"


I had the very same idea back in the hay day of Mortal Combat.

haliop
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Posted: 18th Jul 2010 08:40
i would like to see a game where developers fight for credits. hehe
and you have to fight the main-menu , you just have to.
Thaddeus McGillicuddy
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Posted: 18th Jul 2010 20:37
I had one where it started out as a test game. The characters knew they were part of a game, but then hackers invade and attack the player; turning it into an actual game.
Die by something special
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Posted: 13th Aug 2010 16:58
ThereĀ“s some kind of tournament in abandoned city,
and many guys join it,but.
it is a tournament where is guns and Ā“bribesĀ“.
and by giving bribes to judges you can modify the track.
did i say itĀ“s a car race of some kind.
and of course thereĀ“s a list of racers which you must beat or make deals with,like help with the race,kill him.etc.
too ordinary i say...
crap

That hit me!
Phaelax
DBPro Master
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Posted: 18th Aug 2010 11:20
Quote: "The game is set about two hundred years into the future. Electronics are so cheap that computers are cheaper to buy than books. Literacy drops as computers become better at speech recognition. Fuel supplies are running out and powerstations grind to a halt, one by one. In desperation, nations lash out in frenzied wars to obtain fleeting resources. Many die. The wars escalate and WMDs are used."

Sounds more like 20 years in the future, not 200.


My idea was Bar Fight. You're just joe schmo in the bronx and owe money to a shark. You don't pay so they kidnap your hot latino gf. You search the city for info on her whereabouts and start going after the mob. Most of the game takes place in a 3rd person GTA-style, until you have to fight. Pick a fight with anyone and camera switches to tekken-style with a fully interactive world. Pickup that cue ball and hurl it at the other guy as you roundhouse his face, or bust that chair over his head. Beat him up enough and he'll talk, assuming he had anything to say. Not sure how original any of this sounds today, but I wrote the outline for the game in 1995, when Tekken was still a new game.


"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" ~ Arthur C. Clarke
Bizar Guy
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Posted: 20th Aug 2010 22:19
Your wife is death. How? NO idea. But it is murder. REVENGE!!!!!!!!!

Your signature has been erased by a mod because it's larger than 600x120
CocaCola
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Posted: 21st Aug 2010 05:39 Edited at: 21st Aug 2010 05:46
Quote: "Your wife is death. How? NO idea. But it is murder. REVENGE!!!!!!!!!"


Death race?


I want coke, not Pepsi!
Libervurto
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Posted: 25th Aug 2010 07:11
Quote: "Play this:

http://www.molleindustria.org/everydaythesamedream/everydaythesamedream.html
"

Thanks, that was brilliant.

I had a weird idea for a game, it was a board game actually. I never fully worked out how it would work but it was about fortune telling and fate.

I had another weird idea, it was a film idea but I guess it could be a game. Every day you wake up as a different person. Everything is different every day, except for one man who always appears. You have to find the man and work out what is going on.

How about a game that would build itself based on whatever music you gave it? So for example if it was loud and heavy metal you'd get lots of monsters, if it was soft classical you'd get grassy hills and bunny rabbits lol.

Argent Vortex
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Posted: 5th Nov 2010 06:49
You play monsters in an MMORPG setting. Typical character races such as Humans, Dwarfs, and Elves are all NPCs who randomly invade your homelands, kill your friends and family for "experience points," destroy your habitat, and take whatever resources they damn well please. Your mission is to defend your natural environment (especially your nest areas) and to strike back at the humanoids with an utter primal vengeance.

Your ultimate goal in the game world is to work together with other players to destroy humanoid settlements one by one, therefore slowly diminishing the number of places where the hostile NPCs can spawn from. You accomplish this by defeating the settlement's leaders (whether it be a few chiefs or a small army of nobles and a royal family.) Some of the humanoid settlements are almost impossible to destroy however such as giant citadels, enchanted castles, and other such epic fortresses. These are the greatest challenges of the game world. They would require a huge amount of high-level players, all very strategically organized.

Character races for players to choose could be anything from werewolves, to flans, to trolls, to giant insects, etc. The GMs would probably have some incredibly strong monsters like dragons.

Anyway, the humanoid NPCs would go out and hunt you in the same way that players would be expected to go out and hunt monsters in typical MMORPGs, so the game would involve a very proactive and unpredictable enemy which simply will not wait for you. Instead they actively wander into your territory and attack you for no reason. This makes the game world more chaotic and exciting.

Yes, there would be equipment for the monsters. Mostly made by monsters like goblins and ogres (You know, things with thumbs.) I've got a bijillion ideas for the different races, classes, skills, armor, and weapons for the monsters (for an example, just imagine a flan with like twenty bladed weapons gripped in its gelatinous body as it spins around wildly to make a sword-dance attack or a griffin with a magic spell that surrounds it with powerful gusts of wind that do damage to any enemy it flies directly over,) but this post is already too long.
Lonnehart
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Posted: 22nd Dec 2010 11:59 Edited at: 28th Jul 2011 11:42
oddly enough I have yet to hear of any MMO that uses that idea. Hmm...

underachiver
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Posted: 23rd Feb 2011 04:38
A deer, bear, ect. hunting game. BUT, you would move and shoot similar to Mass Effect(2)/Gears of War. Instead of an on-the-rails shooter, you would stalk through the forest, filling the limited space within the bed of your truck with corpses that you killed. Afterward, you could sell the bodies or make them into customizable trophies.
Master Man Of Justice
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Posted: 23rd Feb 2011 22:45
Quote: "A deer, bear, ect. hunting game. BUT, you would move and shoot similar to Mass Effect(2)/Gears of War. Instead of an on-the-rails shooter, you would stalk through the forest, filling the limited space within the bed of your truck with corpses that you killed. Afterward, you could sell the bodies or make them into customizable trophies"

This... But with humans

Wyldhunt
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Posted: 8th Mar 2011 10:44
Quote: "You play monsters in an MMORPG setting. Typical character races such as Humans, Dwarfs, and Elves are all NPCs who randomly invade your homelands, kill your friends and family for "experience points," destroy your habitat, and take whatever resources they damn well please. Your mission is to defend your natural environment (especially your nest areas) and to strike back at the humanoids with an utter primal vengeance."


That's actually very similar to our old NWN world that we made. Our players could choose to play one of the normal races such as humans or dwarves, or they could play goblins and trolls and monster types. In the end, we had about 60 races. Thing is, we had a dynamic faction system that could keep track of what you were and what you had done. So, a goblin would start out in a goblin cave. The goblin cave just happened to be a low level hunting ground for human player characters...
And, of course, our NPC's would wander around and go hunting in other areas too.
It worked very well. People loved it.
CapnBuzz
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Posted: 10th Mar 2011 02:28 Edited at: 10th Mar 2011 02:35
I don't know that this is the strangest idea I've ever had, but it is proving to be very odd (and maybe depressing?) for a shooter. Maybe I'm posting this to see if anyone else is thinking along the same lines?

Story:

"THE 1000 YARD STARE"

1967. Vietnam.

On a mission to relocate villagers from a jungle war zone, American troops are ambushed by VC. It is a bloody battle. Hidden among the bodies, the only survivors are a nameless Pvt. and a small Vietnamese boy. Far from the nearest firebase, the Pvt starts for "home" -- followed close behind by the boy. At first the Pvt. wants nothing to do with the tagalong, but as they encounter more-and-more obstacles overcoming them together, the two become like family. The Pvt. has wits and bullets, but the knowledge this little boy has of the jungles saves the two more than once. They are inseparable. As they make the firebase, a VC attack occurs. The Pvt has to fight as the boy runs back into the jungles...

After the battle, the Pvt. joins a recon team and finds the body of the boy. The Pvt. buries his "adopted son" -- the boy who saved his life.

THE END.

I see this as a 3PS, but it could possibly work as an FPS. It's based on puzzle-solving and story/character development as much -- if not more -- than a shooter. I see it as a small game in 5 levels.

My inspiration for this idea comes from Ueda and his Team Ico work. Brilliant storytelling. I'm very interested as gameplay and character animations -- within gameplay -- used to create emotion.

So, would anyone else play a game like this or am I "whistling dixie?" Seriously.
Lonnehart
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Posted: 10th Mar 2011 10:37 Edited at: 10th Mar 2011 10:38
That's a nice idea that would pull on a lot of heartstrings. The other casualties of war... the civilians... seem to be rarely covered. Then again I don't play a lot of shooters based on recent war history. As for strange... not sure... As a 3PS it could play a lot like Resident Evil 4 since in that game you also have to protect a tagalong that's also helpless.

SH4773R
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Posted: 14th Mar 2011 10:18
Hunting game like above where you can move around only your the bear, and your hungry.

__________________________________________

My software never has bugs. It just develops random features.
Godless Joe
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Posted: 15th Mar 2011 08:07
"Blah blah blah"

A game of colonial british ladiesĀ“ tea party.



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Lonnehart
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Posted: 27th Mar 2011 05:22 Edited at: 27th Mar 2011 05:24
How about a game about flinging... um... stuff... at a bunch of politicians, then trying to get away when their bodyguards start chasing you? And you score more points if you're able to point out and hit the ones who sit at their desks all day and do almost nothing that they had promised to do?

Of course you have to be accurate and take into account such as the parabolic arc of your shot, the quality of the projectile you plan on using, the wind, etc... And hitting one of the bodyguards instead of the target would result in you getting shot at... Might be fun...

Then again, a game like that might be a bit too... political... -_-

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