GameIdeas.org

It took two days of intense thinking, but I did come up with an idea I like for a wine-based game. I had to read through a lot of documentation (Wikipedia has a surprising amount of info about wine). I thought about a bunch of weird ideas, from a wine trivia quiz to a tradeable […]

This week’s random theme is a woozy — the most challenging on my “list of random themes”. I hoped it’d come up later, but randomness being what it is, I got it this week.

Platform: Nintendo DS
Theme: Wine Tasting

This is about as inappropriate for video games as it come. Games are good with sight, sound and […]

In the comments, Thelo made me realize that controlling this game like I described could become quite complicated. To solve this problem I rethought the user-interface and decided to go with a more SimCity-esque control scheme rather using the RTS model.
Rather than ordering characters around, you’ll just have to decide what needs to be done […]

Yesterday was all about describing how to control the characters and the task they have to do, today is going to be about resources and construction. These survivors will need to build useful structures if they’re going to survive the long months stranded on that island.
But first, a change from the original concept.
Goodbye Sophisticated Player […]

Yesterday I talked about the high level concept behind this exploration game. It’s an ambitious and interesting concept, but it has to be supported by good low-level gameplay to be fun. That’s what I want to cover today: how the game is controlled, what differentiate one character from another, how technology development works, how the […]

Lost meets Civilization meets Spore. That’s the high concept for this week exploration-themed game.
What does that mean exactly?
Lost
The game starts has a small group of survivors from a shipwreck find themselves stranded on the beach of a mysterious island. Your first job is to handle their immediate survival by sending some of the survivors to […]

It’s the second week, so here’s the second challenge. As with the first time, both were selected randomly.

Platform: PC
Theme: Exploration

A theme that’s much more general this week — exploration could mean exploring a dungeon, a jungle or a whole new imaginary land. That theme may seem easier than last week’s, but that lack of specifics […]

Our story begins as Eva Mancini, a dark-haired beauty, enters the office of James Harris, our private eye hero. She has a tear-jerking story to tell: her husband has murdered a journalist who was about to reveal some business wrong-doings of his and he is framing her for the crime! She needs help from an […]

A good game needs memorable locations. Sneaking around in boring, everyday places would be yawn-inducing. Good locations add a lot of atmosphere to a game and keep players interested.
At the highest level, I’ll place the game in New York. Why? Because it’s a famous city with the urban feel I’m looking for and, perhaps more […]

The first thing to do when trying to come up with a good game design is to get some documentation: read some books, find appropriate websites, watch movies, etc. It sometimes feel like wasting time you could use more productively, but in the end it improves your work tremendously. Finding good documentation helps you get […]