STUPID GAME IDEAS

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One time in an issue of EGM, the magazine tried something new with a game designer. They gave the designer three things, and the designer had to make up an idea for a video game on the spot using those three things. Well, I was thinking, why not try it here?

Below are three things (in capital letters), and your goal is to use them to come up with an idea for a video game. It doesn't have to be an RPG, but it can be an RPG if you want it to be. The focus is on spontaneous thinking--quality and consistency are nonessential, but if you can think of a full-fledged working idea in seconds, well, that's good for you. Try timing yourself. Be creative!

I'm not sure if this will work, or even if this is in the right section of the forums, but it's worth a shot, even if this is terribly misguided. Ready...set...

PIRATE INTERNET PRETZEL

Go!
This seems fun, but is it in the right forum?

Oh well, I'll give it a try anyway.

The year is 2086. The world has advanced into a global cyber link, in which all people can walk about the real world and also access the highly advanced "internet" system that has spread to virtually all areas of the earth. (Think ghost in the shell.) But food shortages still remain in the off-world colonies. As a member of the EKA's esteemed military elite, (Earth Kingdoms Alliance) you are chosen to escort an emergency supply ship, (Filled with a special new-age food substance known as "Post-Revolutionary, Edible Terrazoid English Legumes", or pretzel for short.) These beans provide virtually all nutrition required for a healthy life, and are specialized to grow in the newly terraformed colonies. However, due to their versability, they are also the target of space pirates that stalk the regions between earth and the off-world colonies on mars and Venus. It's your job to get the rations safely distributed across the solar system, and out of the hands of the pirates! You'd be forced to use the advanced global network to quickly relay information regarding the pirates advancements back to home base. Or something.

Wow, that sounds like a horrible game. And I didn't even include the internet very well. Alas, I guess I was trying to be too serious.

Okay, I'll pick three words for the next person.

FRANCE ANTELOPE RELIGION
In an ancient cave in the northern reaches of France, Dr. Jacques LaPlante discovers a rare cave painting depicting antelope and other prehistoric animals - and the most disturbing and horrific scene of what the doctor could only describe as armageddon, surrounded by a strange set of symbols never before seen...

Unwittingly, Jacques had freed an ancient and terrible evil. He must race against time to solve The Riddle of the Antelope and save the world.

LODGE GIANT CARROT
Oh man, this is going to be horrible. ;D

Deep in the snowy mountains of Galacia lied a very large Lodge which was the home to anyone that wanted to stop by. Now a terrifying beast known as the "Giant" has come and is ready to kill anything that gets in his way.

Now it is up to Jake to save this Lodge from being destroyed by this beast. But can he do it considering that he eats nothing but Carrots all day?

Wow, i came up with that in a few seconds.

Plane Hero Evil
Planescape: Torment is a fantasy role playing game that uses the Advanced Dungeon and Dragons rules with the Planescape campaign setting. This setting turns most of the traditional fantasy elements on their pointy ears, and challenges you to solve the intricate riddle of the Nameless One. You awake from death on a cold Mortuary slab with no memory of your previous lives and no idea who you are. The rest of the game involves unraveling your past and seeking out clues to your identity and past sins. Torment uses Bioware's Infinity engine, which was put to good use in Baldur's Gate. Players control the action from a top down view, and the game generally adheres to the Dungeons and Dragons rules, which allows you to grow your character in terms of experience level and equipment.

Just kidding anyway:

In the year 1996 a secret underground organization has developed an aeroplane capable of sentient thought as well as sexual reproduction. They build two prototype models and have plans to try and market their idea. A number of years pass during the planning and bargaining processes. Unfortunately, the two airplanes, which become self-aware, have developed personalities and are unwilling to be considered as property and simply sold to the highest bidder. The two airplanes, who have named themselves Kit and K Rider, agree that they must fight for their freedom to protect themselves and the futures of their suddenly very sizeable family.

Kit believes that the humans are only willing to enslave what has become an entire race of sentient airplanes and thus sets out on a mission to destroy the entire human species. K Rider disagrees with Kit, with whome K Rider has become smitten and hopes to continue to copulate. K Rider believes that the sentient airplanes and the humans can work together to achieve a common goal. With the ingenuity of the humans and the powers of the sentient airplanes, both races could prosper forever. Kit, believing that K Rider has been duped by the humans, brands K Rider as a traitor. Their many children are split in half between the two senior airplanes and rival factions form. A war ensues. Kit and K Rider lead opposing armies of sentient airplanes who bitterly hate each other; Kit and K Rider, however, as the two leaders of these struggling forces, remain close friends and lovers during the conflict.

Humans, dually appalled by the heinous acts of Kit's forces as well as impressed by the benevolent acts of K Rider's desciples, are split evenly on the issue. The general belief of the conservative sector is that sentient airplanes are dangerous and need to be destroyed -- this conservative sector including the administration of the United States of America at the time (who of course control the military). The liberal sector, representing most foreign developed nations as well as much of the US population, believes that sentient airplanes are fundamentally good at heart and do their best to promote their cause. Riots, civil wars, and international military conflicts spring up surrounding the issue.

After that the plot is basically identical to that of the X-Men universe.




HAMMURABI PEAK OIL SWORDFISH
author=brandonabley link=topic=751.msg10069#msg10069 date=1204648288
HAMMURABI PEAK OIL SWORDFISH

Legend has it that the mysterious underwater Tomb of Hammurabi hides various treasures, including something called "black gold". Now it is the year 333BKC, and the United States of America has reached a state of peak oil and is threatened with obliteration. Rodger Hunt, an American archaeologist, believes the "black gold" mentioned in the myths may be vast oil reserves, and plans to use the money to become filthy stinking rich. However, Hammurabi's tombs are completely underwater, so Rodger Hunt must use forbidden rites to project his consciousness into the brain of a large swordfish, in which he will explore the ruins. As the story goes on Hunt gains the ability to project his mind into different types of fish, including trout (can "jump" in the water), sharks (have a personal army of remora) and various other underwater denizens that, for some reason, all exist in the Tomb of Hammurabi.



Stonehenge Malta trading card game
Hmm, since this hasn't gotten a reply lately....

An anthropologist is on a team of excavators for a site on Malta- but the Mediterranean paradise is interrupted by a meteoroid impact! As our heroes emerge from the bomb shelter, they discover what the collision unearthed- an architectural structure nearly identical to that of Stonehenge.

With the new information of the highly preserved site, they conclude that the actual reason for the Stonehenge circles could be only one thing;

An arena for an ancient children's card game! The only problem; the rules are so complex and redundant, and the game art so horrible, that nobody on the earth wants to play it. This has angered the card game gods, who will seek vengeance upon the earth in two months if the archaeologist team is unable to convince every person on the planet that Generic Children's Card Game is the best trading card game of all time!

I imagine it as a crappy low-budget platformer where persuading people would involve beating them up with archaeological tools. Sorry that I didn't do better.

HORTICULTURE PARALLEL UNIVERSES EATING UTENSILS
author=Komodo Gallant link=topic=751.msg10319#msg10319 date=1205020715
HORTICULTURE PARALLEL UNIVERSES EATING UTENSILS

We seem to be focusing on the premise more than the mechanics. This thread might be more fun if think of ways to apply the words to the mechanic rather than just coming up with silly stories.

Soo

The game I am thinking of is a side-scrolling platformer. The twist is that when you press a button, you go into an alternate universe where all of the plants are different. The change is consistent per plant type; a certain type of tree in the normal world will always be a climbable beanstalk in the alternate universe, and what is a nondescript bush in the normal world is always a giant flesh-eating tomato in the other world. So you will learn to predict what the alternate universe will look like based on what you see in the real world. This provides interesting navigational puzzles because while a tree might block your path in the real world, in the alternate universe it is a beanstalk that you can climb up.

Since you play as a gourmet chef, your arsenal consists of various kitchen implements. You find more utensils as you progress, Metroid-style, and each one has a different function. While the giant fork is an excellent stabbing weapon for example, the cleaver can cut through foliage, and the frosting applicator can shoot globs of frosting that immobilize enemies and turn them from adversaries and into convenient platforms.

BEAR BIRD BACKPACK
Starscream
Conquest is made from the ashes of one's enemies.
6110
Hrm? Stupid game ideas?

ONLY ON PS3
Very short and Simple Story

I can't find many good games only on ps3.


Videogame Boy Universe
A boy is playing an NES game in his room when all of the sudden he is sucked into his videogame! He is magically whisked away to the Nintendo universe. Therein he find a world threatened by major Nintendo villains. Luckily, several Nintendo heroes are around to help him save the day. He is now known as Captain N

...Seriously, if we are going to do this we should really choose better concepts than this. Something not obviously linked to videogames.

next challenge:

FISH COINS COFFEE
Just don't ask...

Jimmy Knucklespazz researches fishfor a job and how good they taste as a secret ingredient in coffee because he didn't finish college and wants to start a coffee business (later renamed Nescafe). one late night while having his first taste of fish coffee Jimmy falls into a conviently placed barrel of nuclear waste, transforming him into a Fishman, but Jimmy is broke and the only way he can afford reconstructive surgery is by collecting coins on 24 boring designed levels. But it won't be easy, an arch nemesis arrives for absolutely no where, hell bent on stopping Jimmy by sending mindless goons at him. (I would buy that)


1)I CAN'T BELIEVE ITS NOT BUTTER 2)EYEBALL 3)ROPE
Wow, I'll give this a shot:

Set it fantasy times, Witch's Fantasy has you playing as an amatuer witch as you rise up the ranks to surreme ruler of Witchville. You do this by playing tricks on people and baking odd thingamagigers. Try convincing someone it is, indeed, not butter, the ONLY magical trick in the game. Or, use a magical eyeball to spin a giant rope made of a substance of your choice to reach new heights -- literally!

OMG, that game sucks....

Try these three words on for size!

CHEESE RPG MAKER NUMBERS
author=Spazzgamer27 link=topic=751.msg10434#msg10434 date=1205276306
CHEESE RPG MAKER NUMBERS
Death changes people. Sometimes good people go bad. A trio of evildoers have stepped out of history to force a world of authoritarian corporatism on the world. Though they were celebrated for the contributions they made to science and mankind, their deaths have changed them.

Louis Pasteur, who invented the process of pasteurization, and Isaac Newton, discoverer of the laws of thermodynamics have turned ot the dark side. They use dark reflections of the powers they had in life--Louis Pasteur's pasteurization discoveries have given him total, metaphysical control over cheese and milk. And Isaac Newton's power with numbers allows him to rearrange the physical properties of those who seek to fight him. They are lead by the Destroyer of Worlds, Robert Oppenheimer. After helming the Manhatten Project, he has since focused on miniaturizing his nuclear bombs, and his new project is a factory for the production of nuclear Rocket Propelled Grenades and provide them to the most megalomaniacal CEOs and fascist dictators around--the world's greatest fear is about to come true: a Nuclear RPG Maker.
They have assembled a horde of other figures, not so maniacal but almost as capable to ensure the triumph of authoritarianism over liberty.

The only people who can fight them are intrepid heroes whose deaths have done nothing to erode their dedication to freedom. Teddy Roosevelt and Thomas Jefferson team up to fight the evils of Cheese, Numbers, and the RPG Maker. The only things they have on their side? Passion, soft voices, a big stick, and the dark powers that Jeff can call upon due to his legal training. It's going to be a tough battle.

The player must guide the duo through many harrowing battles with historical figures with strange and sometimes horrifying powers. Control Teddy as he pummels his way through the enemy forces and call on Jeff's "contracts" with the forces of darkness (he is a lawyer after all) to power up enough to fight these darker powers. Gain access to new powers by helping Jeff to bind demons, and power up attacks with softly-soft whispers into a USB microphone.

By the way, most of these are pretty far from stupid game ideas. These stories sound way more interesting than just about anything I've seen short of Katamari Damacy.

Also, I must admit--my story here is halfway taken from a story idea I've got called "Trustbuster," involving Teddy Roosevelt and Thomas Jefferson fighting the forces of government-sponsored monopolies with similar powers to those that I mentioned above. It's not for a game, though


STEAMPUNK, ROCK AND ROLL, GIANT ROBOTS
(I'm lobbing a softball with this one--there's no way to make a bad story with those concepts)
My turn ;D
STEAMPUNK | ROCK AND ROLL | GIANT ROBOTS

It is the year 5532 and the age of humans is finally coming to an end. Giant robots rule the planet, forcing the remaining humans to serve as mere entertainment for them.

In a remote island lies a small settlement of humans whose sole purpose is to hide from the Giant Robots that now rule the planet and struggle to survive and possibly reproduce their race. Young Jasper lives with his family and, like the rest of the humans, have grown a hate towards the mechanical fiends. One night, an elite group of Giant Robots finds the village, captures all they find and carries them away in their mobile prisons. Young Jasper is spared as he was hiding. His hate for the Giant Robots swell until he finally comes up with a dastardly plant:
In order to save the humans, he must become like the robots. He must get close enough to where he can strike them the hardest...
Young Jasper travels to the Robot City of Egtropolis to form a Steampunk band and become a Rock 'n' Roll legend in the eyes of the robots.
This may be the humans only ray of hope left. Will Jasper he successful, or is the human race finally doomed?


SEX TIRE SWORD

Enjoy :)

NoblemanNick
I'm bringing this world back for you and for me.
1390
SEX TIRE SWORD


In the modern city of today, an autoshop man trys to make it big in the sexed up city of las vegas. When everything doesn't go as planned, he sells his sould to the devil, who turns him into a vegas magician, who floats on a magic tire and weilds a sword instead of a wand. But after man years his time is up and he has to complete a list of 100 things to do before 24 hours is up or the devil keeps his soul forever!

Pidgeons Firecrackers Pasta
The flying rats (aka Pigeons) of the city are attacking your quaint italian restaurant! Protect your pasta by rapidly firing firecrackers at the offending birds in increasingly hectic levels! Collect powerups like Rapidfire and Megablast!

This arcade genre game would be fun, imho. It'd be like Missile Command. But with pigeons.

Next One:

HOCKEY STICK PHONE MAGNIFYING GLASS
HOCKEY STICK PHONE MAGNIFYING GLASS

Daniel Roberts comes home from his job at the drug store to find everyone in his apartment complex has disappeared. What's more, the other people he runs into on a daily basis don't seem to have noticed the change, or think that a nearly-empty building in bustling New York is strange at all. But it doesn't stop there. More and more people and objects disappear from his life every time he wakes up. And one night, he has a mysterious dream where he receives a phone-call, prompting him to take on a series of tasks in the dark, parallel world he never knew existed around him.

Gameplay- I see it as a survival horror. You have to fight with the objects you find in areas around you- a hockey stick would make an ideal weapon. You would only communicate with the mysterious third party, (the only one who also seems to be aware of the changes) by phone. During daytime, gameplay is a lot like a point-and-click adventure game where talking to people, finding clues with various tools, and solving puzzles is the way to progress through the game. During nighttime, you play through Daniel's dreams- where he walks through a dark, shady version of the city, battling strange creatures as he goes along.

The ending, and the reason people were disappearing? Daniel's dreams were allowing him to see into the dark world of the shadow people, where individuals and objects were being dragged into from the real world. (The shadow people's attempts to overtake the world of light) He is one of the rare few that can traverse both of these planes, and is the only hope to return balance to the universe. (gosh, I've never heard that before)

The premise is sort of clich'e, but imagine gameplay akin to a strange mix between Resident evil, Silent hill and The Longest Journey.

Next Prompt;

LIBRARY DISEASE DRAMATIC PLOT TWIST
LIBRARY DISEASE DRAMATIC PLOT TWIST

In a dark, distant future, most of the population has been ravaged by a mysterious disease. Research and technology has all been forced into finding a cure to save the last 15% of humans on Earth. As a result, only medical technology has taken any real advancement.

Now, as one of the last survivors, Cecil sees it is his duty to try and aid this situation all he can. So, he starts looking into some medical books and theories from various libraries. As he reads, he learns that the disease is not a disease at all! It is in fact the work of an evil cult, poising the minds of the populace, and nothing else, with concentrated radiation. It is now up to Cecil to prove this fact and to stop the cult!

This would be more of a mystery game, trying to find evidence to prove your point, rather than go fighting the cult yourself. Only thing I could think up for a Dramatic Plot Twist was this cult.

Can you do THIS!?

PEANUTS ICE THE METRIC SYSTEM
LIBRARY DISEASE DRAMATIC PLOT TWIST

A teenager named Percy Perkins is woken up one night by a mysterious man in a red coat. This mysterious man in a red coat tells him that the world is diseased, and will end in precisely one month, three days, one minute and one second; he then whispers a word in an unknown language into Percy's ear--and all of a sudden, Percy wakes up in his bed. In the days to come, strange whispers are heard under the city streets, the laws of physics themselves are violated several times, men and woman are repeatedly erased from existance--only to be brought back again after a few days--and mysterious shadow-creatures begin to spring from the living earth itself. Soon Percy comes to believe that something horrible is happening to the world he lives in--and that he alone has the ability to save not just his town, but all times and all places that were and will be...

Basically, the game plays similar to Negrek. Percy Perkins tackles his adventure one day at a time; during this day, you go to school, progress through the story, meet people, etc. After school, you can choose where to go, but eventually you'll have to go to bed, and if nothing happens during the night the next day begins. Throughout the game world are hidden secrets that explain the predicament Percy is in; most are confusing and fragmentary, but by putting them together the player can fill in many of the story's holes and piece the rest together. The game points the player towards many of these secrets--for example, a book is found in the library somewhere in the beginning that proves crucial to the plot--but in order to find the wide majority of hidden stuff the player will have to look. Upon initially finishing the game, the locations of a few of the documents are revealed, and for each subsequent playthrough more and more documents are uncovered--and if they are all found, then the ending changes significantly...

Oh, and throughout the story, Percy has to fend off shadow-beings spewed from the living earth, symptoms of the world's corruption. He isn't always required to fight these things, but defeat enough of them and something important might be revealed...
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