Hey guys, I’ve recently been trying to think up some game ideas following some lectures I’ve had on games design. Obviously I cant develop a Fallout 4 or Skyrim nor some Mortal Kombat clone, but I struggle to think up original small scale fun games I can develop in c#, something like FNAF, Flappy Birds, Pacman or some something along those lines developers can develop within a reasonable time, without super big budgets or large teams.
Any ideas for comming up with ideas, mechanics, gameplay within scale?
Obviously, this task becomes more difficult over time, as there are only so many ways to slice a bagel. However, that doesn’t mean you cant be creative and original. You don’t necessarily have to come up with something 100% new. You could, for instance, take a game idea that’s been done and give it a unique spin. Maybe see what happens when that 2D game goes 3D.
The great thing about Unity’s setup is how quickly you can throw a prototype together. That means you can go wild with your ideas. You’ll probably go through a couple dozen “sounds good on paper but sucks when playing” ideas, but eventually you might find something that’s different and fun enough to share, and if that happens, I hope you do.
In today’s world of Minecraft rip-offs, slender clones and flappy-bird remakes, it’s always nice to see someone who’s willing to put in the effort to bring something new to the table. Bravo, sir.
95% of the time, it’s not about ideas. Hell, even that 5% is still overlooking that the idea was ripped off from somewhere else. Don’t worry about originality, because what’s more important is quality. If you don’t at least deliver quality, then you haven’t delivered anything of worth.
Watch this & think about how they turn a standard looking game into something that looks new & original.
Then think of some constraints to work within. As a student I’m in a similar position to you so I have self imposed ones to try & stop me getting onto the “and then they can…, and then they can…, and then they can…” Never ending scope creep. Mine currently are:
only 1 core mechanic with no more than 2 small supporting mechanics
about 3mins per game
no more than 4 keys for controls (total) & no need to use 2 or more keys at the same time to do one thing.
get a prototype of the core mechanic up within a day & test to see if it is fun or can be made fun easily without adding extra features.
Constraints will help provide you with focus as everything must be weighed against those constraints. If they are outside the constraint, no matter how close, they are out. Don’t even stretch the scope once or you will be on a slippery slope as things that were a fair way out of scope are now a bit closer & maybe you can now justify stretching it a but further to include those etc.
Thanks for the reply guys, i prototyped up a few simple games using arrow keys for controls and boxes to represent the different elements, but was concerned the game was too simple, but i think ill focus on developing some quality over originality, but try and change some core aspects of the games and see how that goes, also thanks for the vid, really helped with some problems i had with presentation!
Coming up with simple ideas that haven’t been tried and are easy to develop is one of the traits of the master developers. You don’t get there without making games that fail first.
Check out Friday feedback in the game design forum. Next one is in about 2 weeks (it’s 2 weeks on & 2 weeks off) & people will play it & give constructive feedback
I suggest you take a look at the game jam submissions. Things like Ludum Dare for example. Due to the time constraints people have to keep the scope small and use creativity to pack as much fun as they can into the little they have to work with.
Working with short time-frames is quite invigorating and I think makes you a better developer and designer. I just completed a Halloween game tonight. In total I spent two weeks on it starting on the 17th. Of course, it has only one fairly short stage but I think it turned out good for the little time I had to work on it. Tomorrow I may do an enhancement to the stage size.
Anyway, check out the game jams. There are lots of them out there. Seeing what other people are making in a weekend or a week or a month or less may give you some great ideas of how to approach the design of the kind of smaller projects you are interested in.
LOL i hate looking at game jams,
cause then i see all these cool ideas and iam like… OH THATS AWESOME I WANNA MAKE THAT!!
and then iam like … aww man i dont wanna be a rip off
lols iam crazy about wanting to be original
i HATE seeing my ideas already done, that sucks big time
