I wonder, why it has so many dislikes (about 162).. It doesn't seems to be so bad, indeed a nice platformer.

I especially think the trailer's music is great...

Thanks for the feedback and contributions, esp. to Error014!

I don't think anyone should or would simply do a game directly based on one idea presented here, instead I think this thread could be seen as an inspiration for own game ideas.
A simple character or a style as inspiration 2) in my first post here can be enough to lead you to a great game, I think when you see such a thing the whole game can unfold in your mind in seconds. As I've stated in my OP I don't think a game needs or even should have a unique mechanic, that's why I encourage other users to post inspiring images as well.

Well ok - I thought this topic was meant to be more around actual game ideas (which at least are a little bit fleshed out in terms of the general vision of the game) and not just one big collection for inspirations...

Considering the "unique mechanic": I think while it isn't necessary to have one it helps. I think everyone enjoys a new gameplay mechanic if it's fun. It's nowhere a must have in order to produce a good game but I think people enjoy playing something new and fresh plus it makes your game stand out. I guess especially the latter is important when aiming for the mobile market where you nowadays have these huge appstore with literally thousands of games and applications. As I see it even great games tend to disappear in the great flood of new games and so I think it's extremely useful if your game has a little bit more to offer than "Everything you've already seen elsewhere just with very well done execution."...

What shouldn't be done in my opinion is to focus too much on this one unique feature / mechanic. Under this perspective I tend do agree, that you don't need this in order to create a good game so an extreme focus on that one thing probably will turn out counterproductive...

Exactly, but this is what almost all indie games do that implement such a unique feature and it simply gets boring quite quickly.
Your argument about mobile games is valid but I don't care at all about those, sorry.

The problem with fleshed out game ideas is that I don't want to share them, I have 4+ projects to choose from for my next game and I'm not sure which of them I will realize. This is why I don't make them public here but instead post those which I will not work on myself.

Hahah, I definitely know what you mean! I was debating posting about some ideas in here, but I'd rather not.
And it's not just an irrational "What-if-someone-steals-them"-fear. But after you've spend some time working on an idea, fleshed out scenario, story, characters and gameplay*, it's a) not easy to put in few sentences anymore, necessarily (at least not if you want to talk about it in more detail), and b) it's scary to do.
... Or maybe it's just me. But these things can easily become crazily personal. I'd much rather offer the idea for harsh criticism after I spend some time, well, "preparing" it. I know it may not make sense - you guys aren't exactly the type I'd expect it to flame it to death - but still. I don't know. Maybe I'm just not sure I could NOT take criticism of the pure idea personally. A prototype? No problem. But before that - that's always difficult for me.



That being said, I do agree though that, at least for me, "just" the character concept isn't really a game idea. Don't get me wrong, I think there's value in sharing that - as you've said, it's inspiring in a way, and a good starting point for discussion. But it's not quite there yet to be called a game idea. I don't mind you sharing it, though.


(Btw, Toast, I really enjoyed your long post, and I hope you haven't taken me only replying to one idea in detail personally or as a sign of criticism - it really isn't. I rather just, well, didn't feel like I could add much. I only add this because I only realized now that given the huge amount I've posted, and only a short bit about your ideas, it may have given the impression that I was avoiding some of the ideas - that's not the case. Just wanted to clear that up )


* - Umm... I wonder what the order of those things says about my idea

I feel the same way, Error014.

Sure, it's by far no game idea but you may have one immediately when you see the picture. When I see the cute little cardboard box guy I think of a small adventure that tells a heartwarming story, maybe about his (girl-)friend, his family or about more general aspects. If you have the look and the story this IMO already dictates the gameplay to a certain extent, just pick a perspective and make a decision about the combat or if there should not be any at all and you could already start prototyping.


Some time ago I've worked on/ prototyped a highscore based shoot'em up where you would fly a modern jet fighter in an endless/ repeating level (additional levels would be over land, in a cave and so on) and would try to upgrade your ship in multiple categories, depending on your preferences. Each session would start with only a few enemies and you having a slow aircraft then spawning more and more enemies with different and more difficult types:

Well I didn't mean "fleshed out" in a sense of a complete design document...
I just though pretty much anyone would have one of those very rough ideas he might want to share. The "Hackers" game I described is such an example. While I think I gave a description that in general describes the gameplay pretty well it of course lacks things. Actually it lacks a lot as I didn't really say a word about what those "minigames" would look like. I think I once wrote down some ideas of which puzzles might fit and how deep I want to go down the road of the "math excercises" the players have to solve. I also didn't give any detailed description of what elements would be on those "circuit maps" and what special effects the players can unlock. I still think though that what I wrote can be described as sort ouf "fleshed out" as you get the idea of what you'd be playing...


No sweat - that was perfectly fine...
As I said I just had expected more "ideas" one really can call like that instead of what should be described as "inspirations". I still think pretty much everyone here has some ideas that won't fill up an entire design document but are rather simplistic while still giving a general impression of the desired gameplay...

Some of you may remember the old PC game Giants: Citizen Kabuto:



In this third person shooter you'd play as one of three characters whereas each one of them had a different playstyle and different gameplay (one guy had weapons and a jetpack, then there was a women with spells and other powers and one giant monster). As far as I remember each level was at least one island that was completely free to explore and move on but of course you always had to fulfill one or more goals.
I think a game like this could be a nice project to work on, maybe even with a co-op campaign, if you can manage to come up with a nice story and/ or good characters.

EDIT: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giants:_Citizen_Kabuto

Great idea. It was fun. Reminds me on MDK. You know that one ? Its pretty similiar. Both games rocked ! It would be nice to mix such type of game with some bloody action like LOADED (aka Blood Factory).

btw, ugly terrain ^^ ...background looks like super mario is jumping around there.