What is your dream game?

[J T]

Here's another of my videogame ideas...

This one is part Grand Theft Auto III, part Robot Alchemic Drive, and part Geist.

I never played Geist, but I like the idea of being able to possess enemies and have your way with them.
I never played Robot Alchemic Drive, but I like the idea of having to use a more powerful remote controlled character to fight and protect a less powerful human character.
I have played Grand Theft Auto III and I like the freedom these kind of sandbox games have.

My game would be set in an open world environment ala Grand Theft Auto. Your character, however, is weak except that he has one very cool special power: he can possess others and control their minds. He has no means of defending himself other than to possess others and use them for his bidding. In GTA you can steal anybody's car. In my game, you can steal anybody's mind. The controls would be something like RAD where you have to position your character where you can see things, then remote control the people you have possessed. You have to use others to protect yourself. Other people will have various attributes and items that will be useful to you. There will be some Portal-esque puzzles that require you possess people in the right sequence to get through certain missions. For example, you might get trapped in a prison where one person will have the key to your cell and the other will have a weapon. You will have to possess them in the proper order to unlock your door and then escape without getting caught. Or you may be in a chase scene, but it takes place in a retirement home where there are only slow old people for you to control in the chase, so you have to mind-jump from person to person at strategic points to manage to evade your enemies.

Well, I haven't really thought this one out as well, but I like the idea of having the ability of mind control as your only means of protecting yourself. It lends itself to having multiple unique control schemes which would be fun in an open-ended GTA sandbox style, plus it would allow for unique puzzles when you accept missions.

[J T]

Another idea I have is for a game like Guitar Hero where you play an actual MIDI keyboard instead of fake plastic guitars. I call it Keyboard Hero.

I like Guitar Hero because it makes you feel like a rock star and it uses really good principles of operant conditioning to quickly train you in the skill of playing the fake plastic guitar. It's so good at teaching you this non-musical instrument that people have developed insane levels of skill at this game. Just youtube "dragon force guitar hero" if you need evidence. I just wish it taught you an actual useable music skill. If it used a MIDI keyboard interface instead, a guitar-hero-style game could actually get you to be quite good at playing the piano. Add in the ability jam with others online and record, and people could really take off musically with their own creations after they learned how to play from the game.

[MrPopo]

I'm still convinced that now that Activision has teamed up with Blizzard we're going to see a sequel to Rock 'n' Roll Racing. The difference is that it will have the most innovative co-op ever. Player one has a controller and drives the car. Player two has a plastic guitar and his performance on the song determines your top speed. Deploying star power gives you a turbo boost.

[J T]

^that would be bad ass.

You could make it so you could race with friends in a 2X2 match. You could also have the "star power" activate Mario Kart-style weapons for battling (damn those red turtle shells!).

[MrPopo]

The original RnR had three items. There was a missile, an oil slick, and a jump. Your stock replenished each time you finished a lap. You got bonus money if you destroyed another car. All while rocking out to a chiptunes version of Highway Star.

[Gamerforlife]

I don't have a vision in my head of a very specific game I would make, but I have certain ideals and philosophies that I would expect to see in a "dream game"

TRUE immersion. No scores, health bars or any of that other crap on the screen. I would want the gameplay to reflect this as well. If someone shoots you or stabs you or whatever, you actually get hurt or you die. If you take an injury, you have to deal with it, at least until you can get to a part of the game where someone can fix you up. It's harsh, but that only would encourage players to take the gameplay more seriously and not play the game in a half-assed manner, which seems to be what most games today encourage. Too many games today just allow players to run around like idiots taking bullets, stab wounds, etc. like it's nothing. Hey, it's okay, your character is apparently a Terminator and bullets are just like mosquito bites. And hey, if you take too many hits, that's fine because there's like fifty million health items everywhere that just magically make you okay instantly just by touching them. It's magic! I'm tired of video games being like video games. It's time for some damn realism.

I want a game with advanced AI that encourages you to work with your friends in certain situations. Epic moments made more memorable because they involved more people than just you, the player. I want a game with allies that feel like living, breathing people. Not stupid, brainless AI companions like Sheva from Resident Evil 5. I think the best use of AI is have characters perform scripted actions based on the situation, kind of like Elika from Prince of Persia. Problems seem to arise when you try to incorporate an AI character into a game that has to make actual decisions or strategize. Much easier when a game only requires an AI to perform very specific functions in specific situations.

The point of all this AI talk is that I like when a game can create a sense of camaraderie in both its narrative and its gameplay. Games like Freedom Fighters, Ico, the Oddworld series, Peter Jackson's King Kong, Beyond Good and Evil and Sly Cooper 3 all managed to do this to some extent. I want a game that actually makes you genuinely care about the characters in the story. In fact, I would make a game with more emphasis on characters than plot. Games like Ico or Beyond Good and Evil or Psychonauts you remember more for how great the characters were than for whatever the main plot was. Also, no god damn cutscenes. In this day and age, there is no reason not to convey a story using the ingame engine. Cutscenes kill immersion.

Also, no mini-games. I want a game with focused gameplay that isn't interrupted with half-assed, pointless mini-games. Also, no stupid QTEs, we're talking skill based gaming here. You're not going to die because you blinked and didn't hit the stupid button that popped onto your screen or didn't wiggle the analog stick in the right way. I am sick and damn tired of all this God of War/Resident Evil 4 inspired mini-game and QTE shit in our games today. It was fresh and different when those two games did it, but than everybody jumped on the bandwagon and did it over and over until we've all gotten sick of it.

I want players to have choices. Different approaches to different situations. One thing that gets tiresome in many video games is having to do things exactly one way, jumping through the hoops the designers have set up for you. I already established that I want to make a game that punishes you harshly for screwing up, but I would also allow players some freedom in how they want to overcome a problem. This would probably be a game that could incorporate different styles of play based on your choices. A little stealth, a little beat'em up action, some gunplay, etc. All of which are incorporated into the game well enough that you could use either approach for the whole game if you choose.

Lastly, I like when games offer player some control over how they interact with the story and characters. I would want a game where certain events in the story could play out differently based on a player's decisions and where they could have more or less interaction with certain characters based on choices they make in the game.

Yeah, those are just some of the things that would be in my dream game.

[Erik_Twice]

Another idea I have is for a game like Guitar Hero where you play an actual MIDI keyboard instead of fake plastic guitars. I call it Keyboard Hero.

I like Guitar Hero because it makes you feel like a rock star and it uses really good principles of operant conditioning to quickly train you in the skill of playing the fake plastic guitar. It's so good at teaching you this non-musical instrument that people have developed insane levels of skill at this game. Just youtube "dragon force guitar hero" if you need evidence. I just wish it taught you an actual useable music skill. If it used a MIDI keyboard interface instead, a guitar-hero-style game could actually get you to be quite good at playing the piano. Add in the ability jam with others online and record, and people could really take off musically with their own creations after they learned how to play from the game.

Keyboardmania uses a real keyboard and there's a difficulty called "Real" where you play exactly what you hear. Also in Drummania you play on a Yamaha drumkit and it's keysounded so you play exactly what you hear.

[MrEco]

I've got three ideas for the perfect video game. All three I consider perfect because they are different genres and it would depend what mood I'm in as to which one I would want to play at any given time.

The first game is pretty simple to sum up. An RPG a lot like Diablo, Gauntlet, Baulders Gate or the Champions of Norrath games. Then fuse it with Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. A free-roaming, open-world RPG just like Oblivion but with the option to create a party of up to four total people(including you, of course) and put in a lot of dungeons. The dungeons wouldn't be randomly generated because randomly generated dungeons are annoying as hell. And although it would be a primarily single-player game with AI controlling your teammates, at any given moment a friend can pick up a controller and press the start button. The game will then pause and a screen will come up with the names of all the characters not currently being played as. Your friend selects a character and starts playing. Up to four total people can play at any given time with a max party size of four. And for the icing on the cake, although in plain single player the AI can control your teammates actions you have the option to pause the game and bring up a menu of specific orders to give any one of your teammates(Unless that teammate is being controlled by a second player of course).

For the second game idea I have, think Bioshock fused with Myst. A huge island. Scary, predatorial, almost zombie-like creatures. And a big emphasis on puzzle solving and exploration. It wouldn't be about shootin' and blowin' up shit. More about running away and trying to get the slip on the enemies. Although guns are an option ammo is very scarce so huddling up in a corner and firing at everything that moves is bound to get you killed. The enemies screech very loudly if they see you which attracts even more enemies. In fact, fighting off the strange creatures wouldn't be even close to what the game is about. It's 98% about exploring the gigantic island until you find something that reveals a clue to the mystery. As you travel a lot of puzzles will block your path. Solving the puzzles, exploring secret areas for clues and meeting survivors that hide on the island all slowly but surely reveal more info about the games story. Ultimately the enemies in the game are just a distraction. One second you're walking through a small clearing in the woods, the next you find out that the clearing was a trap set by the intelligent monstrosities. Of course you find this info out the hard way as you find yourself running for your life through the dense jungle trying to find somewhere to hide, or at least separate yourself from the monsters. As an added twist there is a single very large monster that travels the island. It doesn't make any more noise then you so you won't know it's there until it's just a few yards away. At that point it's probably too late unless you can hide/run-the-hell-away fast enough. The monster cannot be killed but you can weaken/knock it out long enough to get outta there.

My final ultimate video game idea is basically Assassins Creed with a slight fantasy twist. And you play an extremely hot female assassin. You go around an extremely big open world doing jobs for people. Assassinations, body guard work, prostitution and thievery are just the tip of the iceberg for the type of jobs you can get. You do jobs for people. Get money from them. Go to the black market. Buy better equipment for jobs(Lock-picks/weaponry/armour/more revealing clothing). Before you start a new game you can pick between softcore and hardcore modes. In softcore mode blood and violence are toned down and nudity isn't shown at all. Hardcore mode is the exact opposite with blood, violence and nudity in full. You can even get beast mounts that you can ride to move around the world faster(Dragons, horses and Wolves just to name a few). If you get a pet/mount you have to keep it happy or it will run away and/or attack you. You can do this by feeding the animal food. For the overtly perverted you can also switch positions and have your beastly mount ride you in order to keep your pets happiness up(Hardcore mode only).

Please give me some constructive criticism on my ideas. Enjoy.