Are you stuck trying to figure out an idea for your next game?
Or maybe it’s your first game?
One of the most common questions we get is “How can I come up with good video game
ideas?”.
There’s nothing worse than being creatively stuck.
You could have your pen and paper in front of you, your canvas, or your dev environment
open and ready to code, but there’s nowhere to go if you don’t have that spark to inspire
you and an idea to work towards.
In this video, we’ll look at different ways that can help you find that spark.
We’ll look at different sources for inspiration, talk about some real-world examples, and also
share some tools and resources designed specifically for getting you your next game idea.
We are Ask Gamedev and these are 8 ways to come up with video game ideas.
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1.
Participate in a game jam
One of the best things you can do for your gamedev journey is to participate in game
jams.
Not only do they give you some great experience and content for your portfolio, but they are
also a breeding ground for generating innovative game ideas.
If you’ve never participated in a game jam before, basically they’re a timed event
where devs get together in-person or online, and build games around a certain theme or
set of constraints.
After the games are submitted, devs and players alike try out the titles, provide feedback,
and vote for their favorites.
One of our favourite jams is the GMTK Game Jam from GameMaker’s Toolkit.
The GMTK Jam is an online 48-hour yearly jam that is known for its clever themes.
Past jam themes include “Out of Control”, “Only One”, “GENRE, but you can’t
MECHANIC”, and “Downwell's Dual Purpose Design.
You can see how the themes alone can inspire really creative ideas.
In fact, there have even been devs that have continued to work on their titles after the
jam, and launch their games on other platforms.
That’s not uncommon though.
There are a number of popular games that were first inspired during game jams.
Some you may have heard of include:
* Baba is You, winner of the Nordic Game Jam 2017
* Titan Souls, winner of Ludum Dare 28
* And SUPERHOT, created for the 7-Day FPS Game Jam Challenge.
If you’re in need of some inspiration for your game, we definitely recommend starting
with game jams.
Check out this video for more game jam recommendations
2.
Scope your project
They say necessity is the mother of invention.
What kind of game can you realistically create?
Ask these questions to find out what constraints you might have:
* How big is your team?
Is this a solo project?
* What skills do you and your team have?
* Of the skills you’re missing, what can you reasonably learn or outsource?
* What devkit do you have access to?
* What software do you know how to use?
What are the constraints of the software?
For example, does your engine support 2D games?
3D games?
Publishing to mobile?
Publishing to console?
* How much time do you and your team members have to dedicate to this?
Knowing these constraints will help you form your idea.
3.
Go through the video game vault
Play through the classics!
Have an old video game collection?
Take a stroll through memory lane and play your favorite games from previous generations.
Don’t have a collection?
The good news is that today retro games are more accessible than ever.
Between all the new microconsoles, Steam, and the Nintendo eShop, exploring hits from
the past has never been more convenient.
When playing, ask yourself “What made these games great?”.
Are there any gems forgotten in time that you could borrow elements from or even modernize
with your own spin?
* Ask Gamedev Community Member game, Gravity Ace was inspired by games like Thrust and
Gravitar.
* Super Blood Hockey was inspired by the NES classic, Ice Hockey
* And some of Cuphead’s boss designs were inspired by action platformers of the Super
Nintendo and Sega Genesis eras.
4.
Reddit Game ideas
How about using someone else’s game idea?
There’s a subreddit made just for this.
They say ideas are a dime a dozen, but these ones are actually free.
The gameideas subreddit is 40,000 members strong and describes itself as “A place
to post ideas for games you'll never make yourself”.
There are some pretty neat and clever ideas here.
Some of the top posts from the last year include: * A game where the day restarts over and over
again (like Groundhog Day) but you play as a different character every time.
* A game where you are a ghost in a cemetery that can enter the graves of dead people and
change their past. * and A 2D fantasy game in which you cook
and invent new recipes for your town restaurant during the evening, but every morning you
forage and hunt for exciting new ingredients in the wildlands.
Head over to reddit.com/r/gameideas to check it out.
We’ll leave a link in the description.
5.
Find inspiration in activities and content outside of the video game bubble.
A lot of great game designers were inspired by things outside of the gaming world.
* The creator of Pokemon, Satoshi Tajiri, was inspired to create the game from his interest
in insect collecting as a child.
* After taking up gardening, Shigeru Miyamoto, one day spotted a line of ants marching through
his patio, and thus was inspired to create Pikmin
Try doing things outside of your normal routine: * Explore a new hobby
* Watch a movie or read a book that you would have never attempted before.
* Or visit somewhere completely new to you.
6.
Use a Generator
Don’t know where to begin?
Let a generator do it for you.
Did you know that the musical artist/actor Donald Glover used a Wu-Tang name generator
to come up with his stage name?
That’s right, he entered his name, it spit out Childish Gambino, and the rest is history
Doing a quick Google search for “game idea generator” gives us a bunch of results.
Let’s try some.
First up is the Game Idea Generator from BAFTA YGD.
The BAFTA generator will give you random elements from 5 different categories to form a game
concept: * Environment - the game’s setting
* Goal - the player’s objective * Genre - the game’s style
* Rules - obstacles to overcome * And Wildcard - a random feature to include
Let’s give it a spin and see what ideas it spits out:
For our first one we’ve got: * Cave, Remove All Enemies, Arcade, One Life
Only, Fairy Tale.
So it looks like it’s a rogue-like arcade game, potentially a beat-em up, that takes
place in a cave, and is set against a fairy tale story.
Not bad.
Let’s try one more:
* At Home, Use All Items, One Touch, Limited Inventory, Fruit.
Ok so this could be a one-touch mobile game, about collecting fruit and bringing it back
home.
It could also be a cooking sim.
It could even be a game like Fruit Ninja.
Next up on the search results is Random Game Idea Generator from indiegamedev.net.
This one generates a string that contains a combination of elements that could include
mechanics, a setting, a theme, and a genre.
According to its description, the generator boasts 55,000 different combinations.
Let’s try a few out.
We’ve got: * Horror Survival game set in the 1930s with
a theme based on Time * Detective Beat-em Up game set in the the
1970s with power-ups based on Jumping * And Dystopia Rhythm game set in a small
town/village with a theme based on Dodging
Not a bad trio of ideas!
Let’s try one more.
The 3rd results bring us to this charming, minimalist generator, simply titled video
game generator.
Let’s try a few:
* An action game where you motivate mascots and also you are a bird.
* A god game where you make peace with planets through commerce.
* and A tycoon game where you raise cats to score karma.
Also not a bad trio!
If you’re starting from zero, a generator with ideas like these can definitely get your
creative juices flowing.
We’ll leave links to each one in the description.
7.
Play a bad game
The game design book Level Up by Scott Rogers has a whole chapter dedicated to game ideas.
One tip that we found particularly interesting was “Play a game, preferably a bad one”.
In the book Scott mentions that he finds playing a bad game more educational than playing a
good game when it comes time to finding game ideas.
Playing bad games allows you to look at things that were done poorly, and inspires you to
think of ways to improve upon them.
8.
Discord Server!
This isn’t just a plug!
The server has a channel specifically for game ideas.
In this channel you can check out other members’ interesting game ideas, provide feedback,
and even share some of your own.
The Ask Gamedev Discord is an awesome community and a great environment for collaboration
and growing your ideas.
Check the description for an invite link.
Thanks for watching!
For more Ask Gamedev check out this video on how to name your game, or this video on
game production.
________________
Are you stuck trying to figure out an idea for your next game?
In this video, we’ll look at different ways that can help you find that spark.
We’ll look at different sources for inspiration, talk about some real-world examples, and also
share some tools and resources designed specifically for getting you your next game idea.
► WATCH: How to Name Your Indie Game► https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFZdatB2KOg
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► Game Ideas Generators & More ► ► https://indiegamedev.net/2020/02/23/random-game-idea-generator/
► https://orteil.dashnet.org/gamegen ► http://ygd.bafta.org/resources/game-idea-generator
► https://www.reddit.com/r/gameideas/ ► https://itch.io/jam/gmtk-2020
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