Random Game Ideas!

About a month or two ago I started throwing out random game ideas on twitter under a “Games I will never make” category. Since twitter is a very fluid and temporary thing I know that a bunch of these have never been seen. I wanted to put them all in one place so I would remember them.

I left the text “mostly” unedited from the original posts. Part of the charm is trying to fully express an idea with only 1 or 2 tweets. Here they are in order:

·         Robots on a Date: There are no movement options. All you can do is interact by talking! 2 Robots talking to each other in a coffee shop. (maybe text 2 speech or voice recognition) In game conversation systems should be given as much attention, detail and depth as combat systems in fighting games! C-C-C-Convo-Breaker!

·         Auto Scroller!: You control a boss on the right side of the screen dropping obstacles to prevent a hero from reaching u.

·         (QWOP and CLOP Remix Edition) GULP: try to swallow without gag/choke/puke! LOVE: Uncoordinatedly Making Out!

·         Sick Secrets: You play as a spy with a cold. You have to hide to avoid getting caught but you are constantly sneezing attracting attention! You can mash the button to keep from sneezing but it builds up in power.

·         Censored: You control censor blur and have to cover up sections of the screen where content needs to be covered. Fail and get fined.

·         Spread the Dead!: You play a zombie infection cell inside of a body. Gotta reach the brain! Then control infected to bite next level! It could start as something small and slow like a zombie mouse and work up to larger faster zombie creature hosts like a lion.

·         Snuggle Bug: Play a bug who loves to snuggle people! Build Snuggle Meter through contact. Avoid getting swat since people hate bugs!

·         Love Magnet: Main character "Married" cursed to cause anyone who sees him/her to fall in love and madly chase. Get home w/o cheating!

·         The Whale Whisperer: Whales call out to you and you have to mimic the callback to them through a microphone! If you fail, the whales tell you that you sound like an Idiot! (subtitled of course) If you succeed then your friends will tell you the same. Better with Kinect!

·         Breathless: play as a fish out of water with physics based movement flopping your way back into a water source. Levels could start with small fish getting back into a fish tank and eventually scale up to a whale trying to get back into the ocean.

·         Kinect Slap: Like fruit ninja + annoying characters talking trash instead of fruit! They lean into range POP! Fight Night Style Face Ripple!

·         Shia Labeouf's Kinect Adventure: Shia runs through levels and you have to shout "no no no No NO NOoo!"! to get him to avoid getting killed. Shia responds to voice commands only! How you say No gets him to either dodge, stop or run faster depending on quantity or volume of No's!

·         Home Wrecker: A physics based stealth action vandalism game. Realtors pay you to destroy rival realtors homes while they give you a tour. You have to destroy everything without being seen, while feigning interest in what the realtor tells you about the property. Cartoony Style!

·         Crow: A game in which you play as a Crow who lives near a restaurant. You have to steal uneaten food off of people’s plates before they get bussed. You can try and get bold and take food while people are eating but the waiters might get more violent when shooing you away or worse. More NPC crows show up as you play to increase pressure/difficulty. Or maybe it's competitive CvC against real players? Crow Vs Crow! You juggle multiple tables.

·         Last Breath: You control (2 buttons) inhale/exhale of a dying patient in hospital. You have to breathe to stay alive as family says goodbye. If you stop breathing you pass on. If your rhythm is bad you start coughing and have to recover. Breath too fast or too slow and it's over.

·         Terrordactyl : You fly over an endless prehistoric ocean. Have to flap wings manually (Birdman PilotWings64) Eat fish to survive. Use Dactyl Focus to spot the silhouette of fish under surface. Tuck wings in to dive. Avoid BIG SILHOUETTES! You can land on water to rest.

·         Barber Chop: Wish Halfbrick would make a barber shop game where you cut hair instead of fruit. Cut and Style! HairNinja - Could be so funny! TressFX :O

·         Alien Probe-lem: Play as a hotel owner that has to prevent guests from being taken away by aliens every night! Side view. You can see all of the rooms and when guests are being tractor-beamed out of windows. Difficulty escalates each night.

·         Gimme a Hand at the Office: First person on rails game where all you control is a hand. You can wave to coworkers, hit them, and steal things. Might play like Surgeon Simulator 2013. Your character moves around automatically but you can do what you want with the hand. Sit at your desk you can hammer on the keyboard to look like you are working. Try not to get fired and get others fired to get promoted!

·         This Little Piggy: You control toes that disconnect from a baby each night. You have to accomplish missions like going to the market. You have to get back onto the Babies foot before he/she wakes up and notices that his/her toes are gone.

·         Wiggle Worm: each button on your keyboard controls a segment of a worm. Plays like QWOP but trying to dig down instead of run. Side view!

·         Block Party: 8 player multiplayer - each player builds a house on a street with a 5 minute limit. At the end blocks show up to party! The blocks rotate to each of the houses and at the end return to the best house to party. Players also get to control blocks and vote.

·         The Perfect Storm: You generate currents on a globe to try and create mega storms. Timed. At the end it tallies damage to countries 4 points

·         Belly Buster: Ragdoll Sim - Side view - Knock a large ragdoll into a pool to try and get as much water out of the pool as possible!

·         Laugh Out Loud!: requires a cam and mic, maybe Kinect, Send pictures to your friends. If they actually lol you get a point. Laugh Roulette!

·         An Udder Disaster: Cows are Aliens and they've turned humanity into slaves through parasites in the milk. You are a Lactose Intolerant Hero!

BONUS – After Nintendo announced that the Zelda team was working on a new Zelda with a focus on multiplayer I put up two different ideas.

·         The Legend of Zelda: Triforce - 3 player co-op. Play as the Goddesses taking on Evil in the War of Legend. co dev by Platinum Please :)

·         The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Squad - 3 player co-op as Link, Impa and Groose! (Pray you don't get stuck playing as Groose)

 

On twitter Josh Watkins asked me” What do you come up with first for these random game ideas? Name, mechanics, rules, visuals? Or is it different every time?”

I responded saying that it's a design philosophy. Take a word or phrase and represent it completely with as few mechanics as possible. Get to the point! Try not to think about existing conventions unless it helps to describe more easily. Unlimited idea possibilities. Subtractive Design!

If I come up with another collection of these I may do this again. Thanks for checking this stuff out. I’ll never make any of these games but it’s just fun to pitch ideas. I think some of these actually have potential though. Maybe some other dev will be inspired by them.