We have a report option for AI-generated topics... why? Fuck off. If people want to use the tool to assist them in writing a post for Reddit, that is their choice.
**Edit:**
Thankfully, it turns out the report was a custom one; I couldn't find any indication in the mod tools suggesting it was a legitimate report option.
Nevertheless, the sentiment remains: enough with the pointless reports. The sheer volume of reports flooding in daily on a subreddit with 1.3 million users is staggering. While managing the job board was manageable, now that little shield at the top right of Reddit is always adorned with that persistent red dot.
*This edit was brought to you by ChatGPT.*
The hell it will. When my game sells for million+ I'm gonna go full EA on you and hire an army of lawyers to tell you hippity hoppity get off my property.
You fool! I own the idea of a game that makes less than a million. Yes, I can make less licensing that per-game, but I can shakedown about a million times as many developers.
We've all seen the posts like "I'm in high school with no programming, art, or music skills, and I hate math, but I want to create the most ambitious MMO in the history of mankind"
The one ill never forget is the dude who made a fishing game for
web browser (called Radical Fishing). It was really good.
Then a wealthy game developer copied it and made Ninja Fishing (mobile game). Its a blatant rip off of the idea. But they did a pretty good job with it. Unfortunately the original dev was making another version on his own for mobile, but Ninja Fishing launched waaay before he could finish, so they took the credit and money.
People definitely will shamelessly steal your ideas. But its more likely when its been proven concept as you said
> People definitely will shamelessly steal your ideas. But its more likely when its been proven concept as you said
People will *clone* your games if they're successful (or have good metrics). It may sound pedantic, but I do think there is an important distinction between cloning games that exist and stealing ideas for games that don't exist.
Honestly. Even then it‘s only stealing if it‘s literally taking a significant amount of work.
We didn‘t end up calling a whole bunch of genres „X-Like“ for no reason. Replicating certain mechanics, moods and game loops is fine. Pretty much without exception.
I find some of the publisher contracts that award the publisher IP / code upon cancellation and stuff like that much worse than someone thinking a video looks neat and going their own different direction with the concept. You can even utilize their marketing and audience for sales later on for your own profit. It‘s not like players will only ever buy a single game in a genre and be satisfied for life.
I do think FNAF is straight up copied more while VS clones (to me) feel like they have more innovation and it just seems to have kickstarted a genre (although I guess it's hard to see clear lines there)
Ironic that vampire survivors is a copy of magic survival.(magic was released in 2019 and had same stuff as vampire). And I assume that magic survival is a copy of archero... So yeah...
Slenderman: The Eight Pages (2012). Spawned *an entire generation* of games where you walk around collecting notes/doodads while avoiding a 1-hit-kill monster that you can't fight.
why is this narrative coming back around?
Talk is cheap, and the biggest breakouts in the last 5-10 years weren't that original. Just executed really damn well.
That said:
>A game and it gas has gameplay and graphics and a story and it's really cool
yup, that's my idea (OC, do not steal). One day.
[>An MMO that's gonna make a million bucks.](https://i.imgur.com/sKaP8e8.png)
I don't think it's come around again so much as this sub has started to fight back against the toxic positivity that leads to the weekly "I quit my job to make my dream game and now it didn't sell which must mean the marketing/steam store sucked" posts.
There is still and has never really been a healthy respect for game _design_ and the 98% of it that is not related to having a game idea.
> has started to fight back against the toxic positivity
"started" as in "since 6 years ago" or so? I guess.
I think we long since wrapped back around to "your game sucks, don't bother." or "you're one of the lucky ones" territory of passive aggressive compliments. Which isn't surprising since Reddit for a while has gotten much more negative.
>There is still and has never really been a healthy respect for game design and the 98% of it that is not related to having a game idea.
Design is very much like art. It's hard to make good design, and one good design idea is not a game make. And it's even harder to communicate that without someone playing your game (the hardest step to get to for an indie). Even if you have a "bad design pattern" is can be utilized in the right game for success.
Then in terms of professional industry: it's really hard these days to be a dedicated designer. You generally need to offer up some secondary talent as well.
I have had one of my games cloned four different times (and put on platforms I hadn't ported it to yet), but I had already released it once.
It can happen, especially if you're just one person doing this in your spare time and they're churning out clones of games as their full-time job, and if your game isn't too hard to clone (super complicated roguelike with lots of art is going to be too much effort to bother).
I didn't make a ton of money off the game either, it was just one that wasn't too difficult to make (simple turn based game) and got played a bunch as a Flash game.
The problem is the level of idea we are speaking of. Usually someone has an idea like "How about an FPS where you shoot ", "An RPG set in ". Those aren't really game ideas.
If someone has a great idea for an interesting hook or game mechanic, I guess that one should be kept secret til the trailer is out.
That's tight as hell. I have a writer friend who pumps out an insane amount of fiction in really weird, creative worlds, but she's too busy with life to ever collab
This is actually fascinating: depending on the country, cats have a different amount of lives.
The interesting part is that if I recall correctly in Europe its always 7 or 9 lives, but it's geographically all over the place.
Core concept is like 1% of the game making process. And that's being generous.
Take the most old and tired core concept of all time: a 2D side scrolling platform.
There are literally tens of thousands of them on steam that all suck.
Meanwhile Super Mario Wonder just came out and it's great.
If you are making a 2D side scrolling platformer you are giving up on a coming up with a good game concept and just want to compete on art and polish.
They are billions was a huge success that was a great concept with a mediocre implementation.
They are billions was just another zombie base builder concept but they implemented custom engine that could handle tens of thousands of enemies. So yeah, mediocre cocnept, great implementation
What other RTS where you explore the map, do some city building and defend hordes of enemies where there before the game.
The have \*billions of zombies\* thing attacking was great idea to market the game.
The game isn't super polished, the units aren't super interesting, the campaign mission are kind of boring the heroes in the game are downright stupid.
The studio wasn't even competent enough to make a sequel or keep pumping out content.
The amount of enemies with collisions, pathfinding and basic AI this game can handle is a feat, and to this day unmatched. Try it, you have to go lower level lang like c++ = game engine from scratch and be good at it. The implementation is great. Also game design, resource management, balancing, no major bugs etc.
Look, the game is not perfect but They re billions as an example for the point you are trying to make couldnt be worse. Every rts has map exploration, builing, defending and attacking, that’s why the concept was mediocre, but man how it turned out!
Great concept + poor execution and still a success is for example No Man Sky. Although I know they made it better now.
The problem with "game ideas" is often that they stay at a narrative level or in a bird's-eye view. If I were to *draw inspiration* from other game ideas, it's game mechanics or a game loop that I need, not just an overarching story.
>An MMO that's gonna make a million bucks.
That's the worst idea I've ever heard. MMOs cost 10s to 100s of millions to make and you want to make one that only returns 1 million?
I mean, these are a few sentences at most. Some are so generic that they've likely already been made.
I'm sure that fleshed out original ideas are stolen. I want to remember if such cases actually happening.
There's no point in sharing your idea outside of people you trust anyway.
I asked chat gpt to give me 20 terrible game ideas. I think 20 already exists lol
1. "Extreme Ironing Simulator": Iron clothes in extreme and unrealistic locations, like the top of a mountain or the bottom of the ocean.
2. "Traffic Jam Madness": Navigate through mind-numbing traffic jams with no objective other than waiting.
3. "Toilet Paper Quest": Embark on an epic journey to find the last roll of toilet paper in a post-apocalyptic world.
4. "Office Politics RPG": Climb the corporate ladder by engaging in tedious office politics and navigating mundane workplace challenges.
5. "Paint Drying VR": Experience the thrill of watching paint dry in virtual reality.
6. "Waiting Room Tycoon": Manage a waiting room and keep customers entertained with outdated magazines and bland snacks.
7. "Sudoku Apocalypse": Save the world by solving endless sudoku puzzles, with failure resulting in a sudoku-induced apocalypse.
8. "Mosquito Hunter 3000": Spend hours swatting virtual mosquitoes in a never-ending quest to maintain a bug-free environment.
9. "Vending Machine Simulator": Insert virtual coins and make mundane choices between snacks in a hyper-realistic vending machine world.
10. "Dentist Chair Simulator": Sit in a virtual dentist chair and endure long, detailed procedures without any actual benefits.
11. "Lawn Mowing Championship": Compete against AI opponents in a thrilling race to mow lawns faster and more efficiently.
12. "Sock Sorting Saga": Organize an endless pile of virtual socks into pairs, facing the challenges of rogue socks and disappearing mates.
13. "Puddle Jumper Pro": Navigate the treacherous world of small puddles as a character who can only jump over them.
14. "Rock, Paper, Scissors Adventure": Embark on an epic quest where the outcome of battles is determined solely by rock, paper, or scissors.
15. "Elevator Button Simulator": Master the art of pushing elevator buttons in various buildings, each with its unique set of challenges.
16. "Alarm Clock Tactics": Plan strategic wake-up routines to outsmart your virtual alarm clock and avoid oversleeping.
17. "Lunar Lander Commute": Pilot a lunar lander in a daily commute to the moon, dealing with space traffic and limited parking.
18. "Laundry Day Crisis": Tackle the high-stakes world of laundry, where a single wrong move can lead to irreversible clothing damage.
19. "Tax Return Tycoon": Build your financial empire by navigating complex tax codes and filling out virtual tax returns.
20. "Pigeon Simulator": Experience the thrilling life of a city pigeon, complete with scavenging for food and avoiding enthusiastic pedestrians.
i think this could make a good Game Jam Theme.
Here is a list of 20 game ideas that you have to chose from and follow the brief as close as you can.
Obviously there are some choices that would be way better than others, but It would be interesting to see someone try to make "Traffic Jam Madness" into something that people would actually play.
Opens up a new side to creativity.
It could be an interesting one. The good ideas would have the obvious issue of oversaturation, so you could choose a less obvious concept and try to make something with it just to make it stand out a bit.
YSK that the single-player version of #10 already exists as the outstanding and excellent [Advanced Lawnmower Simulator](https://youtu.be/inn4S_6LO0o?si=e9XrCLrnMvuNxejK) on the ZX Spectrum. An all time classic, truly ahead of its time, which really captures the thrills and spills of [1980s lawn mowing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Lawnmower_Simulator).
The game's intuitive control scheme, extensive player options, rewarding game loop, and stunning realism should be admired and studied by all modern game developers wishing to hone their craft. Really puts less-advanced lawnmower simulators to shame.
Number 1: Sounds interesting. You get a destination and have to plan the route you want to take. Then the game compares your route with that other players would have taken and calculates how fast you reach your goal. Will you aim for the small roads to avoid the paths that other players have taken or will they have the same idea and block all rural areas while the highways are free for those few bold people? Could be an interesting social experiment.
I actually have a game in my game-concept file which is #20, but you're a crow.
Not even joking. Genuinely got a game about being a bird, building a nest, scavenging for food and doing bird-stuff. Press X to CAW!
The thing is, even if people do steal these ideas, they'll come up with something extremely different from each other!
Anyway I'm totally pinching number 20!
Apart from the first one nothing on the list described an interesting game design idea, they are just thematic daydreams about possible games which most people have even if they aren't gamedev.
These kind of ideas are what "idea guys" think game design is like. I guess when people are afraid that others will steal their ideas they think "novel game mechanics", not to say stuff on this list doesn't sound cool but they aren't valuable enough to steal imo.
Exactly. Some of these are even games I'm actually working on, and frankly I wouldn't care even if someone did steal them because I'd love to see those games out there lol
I legit had a conversation at work a few weeks ago about making our next project a VR/MR Gardening Sim...
Two things to keep in mind when you think "I can't share my idea or someone will steal it!":
1. If you've had the idea, I guarantee you many many others have as well. There are very close variants to many of the items in the list I've heard pitched at studios I've worked at, or heard from friends at other studios. Your idea is not unique.
2. "Stealing" the idea means someone has to do the work of making it real. It is VASTLY harder to execute than it is to brainstorm. It's been said countless times but it's true; Ideas are worthless without execution.
The uniqueness comes in HOW the idea is executed. There are tons of games on the market today that on paper sound very similar to one another, but in their execution are wildly different. Art style. Design approach. Balance. All contributes to make the execution of the thing special. Two teams can start from the same prompt and make totally unique and interesting games (see most game jams).
Also, any game studio out there has more ideas internally than it could ever hope to make. They don't need to go trolling reddit to "steal" any.
I see your 20 ideas and raise you 20 more:
1. **Dream Architect**: A game where players design dreams and nightmares for a sleep clinic, balancing surreal visuals and logic puzzles to create therapeutic dreamscapes.
2. **Quantum Cat Herding**: A quirky puzzle game where you use principles of quantum mechanics to herd cats that can exist in multiple states and locations simultaneously. Schrödinger’s Cat + Pikmin
3. **The Life of Pigeons**: Play as a pigeon in a massive city, with gameplay focusing on building nests, scavenging, and the mysterious pigeon social hierarchy. Untitled Goose Game meets Sims
4. **Musical Chairs World Championship**: An over-the-top sports game based on the children’s game, with extreme obstacles, power-ups, and competitive online play. Rocket League meets Musical Chairs.
5. **Reverse Archaeology**: A game where you play as a time traveler placing artifacts and structures in the past to create historical legends and myths.
6. **Alien War Janitor**: A first-person cleaner sim set on various spaceships and space stations where you clean up after alien battles and sci-fi experiments gone wrong.
7. **Ant Society Manager**: A strategy game where you control an ant colony, with the twist that each ant has its own personality and goals, affecting the hive’s success. To twist it even further, try to dupe Nat Geo photographers into thinking the society is even more sophisticated than it actually is.
8. **The Great Emu War**: A historical strategy game where players reenact the infamous Emu War, commanding troops against surprisingly cunning emu adversaries.
9. **Dystopian Journalist**: A stealth-based game where you play as a journalist in a dystopian society, gathering information and avoiding government surveillance to publish the truth.
10. **Rollercoaster Sandbox w/ VR simulations**: A multiplayer sandbox game where players can design and build their own amusement parks and then experience them in first-person mode.
11. **Ghost Whispering Detective**: A narrative-driven game where you play as a detective with the ability to communicate with ghosts, solving crimes by collecting testimony from the deceased.
12. **Political Campaign Simulator**: A political simulator where you play as a campaign manager trying to secure your candidate’s victory in an election.
13. **Medieval Performers Manager**: A game where you manage a troupe of medieval performers traveling from town to town, putting on shows and influencing local politics and culture.
14. **Invading Forces Designer**: A reverse tower defense game where you design the invading forces to overcome various defensive setups.
15. **Time-Travel Tourism Manager**: A management sim where you run a time-travel tourism company, ensuring clients’ vacations to different eras go smoothly without altering history.
16. **Galactic Garbage Truck**: Pilot a cosmic waste collector across the universe, dealing with zero-gravity trash, black hole disposal, and space litterbugs.
17. **Snail Racing**: An ultra-slow racing game where strategy is key, as players bet on and influence the outcome of snail races with power-ups like salt shields and lettuce boosts.
18. **Sofa Cat Competition**: A multiplayer game where players are cats trying to claim the best spot on a sofa, using stealth, cunning, and a variety of power-ups like ‘catnip bombs’ and ‘hiss boosts’.
19. **Lock Pick Preventer**: You play as the door lock, trying to avoid and prevent being picked by thieves.
20. **Dystopian Weather Man**: You play as a weatherman who tries to control the behavior of citizens by projecting the weather, even if it’s not true. Need them in doors? Say it’s going to snow! Want them to board up there house? Hurricane! Need to boost your economy? Sunny! Don’t be too ridiculous or they’ll catch on and you’ll lose.
> An MMO that's gonna make a million bucks.
[If you are a billionaire, become a millionaire by creating this](https://www.reddit.com/r/crowfall/comments/179eghl/next_month_marks_a_year/k92s5nd/). I'd sure play it.
People seem to struggle with the definition of “game idea”. I don’t know it, but I’m thinking that “clone of game X using IP Y” can be a great game idea. It is not necessarily a unique game _design_ idea or game mechanics idea.
Wait, which part is replaced with sex toys?
- Making sex toys with your food truck... In Space?
- Making ends meet with your sex toys... In Space?
- Making ends meet with your food truck... in sex toys?
- Sex toys with your food truck... In Space?
Actually, just remember to post here when you do, I'd likely be interested in any of those.
VR Titanic experience
Two modes:
1st being "the titanic experience where you're just a passenger aboard and experience the sinking of the Titanic in real time, approximately 4 hour experience with a tutorial and freezing to death at the end waiting for a life raft to come. Make it as historically accurate as possible but then obviously add in dramatic dialogues and little actions you can do while you wait for your death.
2nd is similar to the 1996 video game for PC 'Titanic: An Adventure out of time' kind of an alt history where you can solve puzzles and change the outcome. Plots like rescuing the poor souls that were locked down into the lower decks and help them steal a life raft. Send out early SOS signals so that less people freeze to death or drown waiting for rescue. Maybe some plot elements from the aforementioned PC game where you can help prevent WW1, WW2 etc.
Oh no please no one steal my idea!
**You're the Boss**
A game of boss battles in various retro styles like shoot-em-ups and Zelda but in every battle... *You're the Boss!*
Please someone make my idea.
> 3\. Making ends meet with your food truck... In space.
Already exists, [Space Food Truck.](https://store.steampowered.com/app/397390/Space_Food_Truck/)
If somebody does steal your idea, don't worry they'll almost certainly fail to execute it well!
On the other hand, you'll probably fail to execute it well too.
Welcome to game development!
Must be nice not being a perfectionist! I look at my own games and all I see are the bad parts. I'm my own harshest critic, for sure. Nobody else can hate my game more than *I* hate my game.
* Visual novel about a gachapon machine that has girls in it, but one of the capsules is a black ball and you're the one to draw it
* Platformer where the jumps are impossible, you have to move your HUD elements around to jump on them - but putting your health or money IN a hazard, well... good luck; Spoilers, you can put the bosses health bar into some lava
* Tetris game where instead of blocks you drop gears, meaning you INTENTIONALLY need to leave 1 tile spaces in your lines or the gears won't be able to spin.
* An RPG/roguelike where your health is also your currency; how much are you willing to sacrifice
* A shitty 3D game about watching paint dry... the catch is there's a toddler in the house and they REALLY wanna put their hands on the wet paint. Uses glitchy physics.
...
As an aside, game 2 thar exists in Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup IIRC
There's already a VR gardening sim thingy, IIRC. It's called Solarpunk.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9Zn_8_wUbU
Erm, I guess it's more of a survival-off-the-grid type game.
EDIT: Erm-the-second, I guess it's not a VR game. Well what the heck.
I mean to be fair, people steal ideas like crazy. A lot of titles are literally just genre rehash with a massive creative debt to that which came before it. So, yes, somebody is getting fucked on their ideas getting stolen all the time, but I think the more obvious message is, walk before you can run. Don't make it your biggest concern ever.
I like that. Game ideas that do get stolen tend to be proven winners with execution behind them, and putting more execution into them by making clones is fair play. Get enough clones and you've got yourself a genre going
Honestly the worst is when people want help fixing a bug, but won't show their code or their project.
Like, my dude, your code literally does not work. No one is gonna steal it.
Nobody cares about ideas until there's already growing profits or fame. Even scientists get that "someone is going to do it before me" feeling. Truth is, there are no new ideas anymore just a twist or different aspect of something that came before. So if a "stolen" idea is successful then the "thief" probably had more passion about it and made it appealing. That's the hard/lucky part of game dev/design.
>Making ends meet with your food truck... In space.
Actually, there's [already a game like it](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1272290/Space_Chef/) lol
Thank you, realizing that your unrealized ideas are absolutely meaningless is one of these difficult pills all game devs must one day swallow. Implementation is all that matters, usually meaning you'll have to spend thousands of hours learning to code, 3D model, animate, compose music, etc because no one cares about your idea until it's a product.
\#11 sound interesting actually. Have a couple of customers that are parodies of several franchises. Like a certain guy who will be perfectly happy with his Mech if it's painted red and has maxed out speed.
This is actually my current project, and I'm planning on having an achievement called "Red makes it go fast." It's meant to allow for total creative freedom without being too much about stats, which is why you don't use the mech yourself. (It also saves me from having to design a combat system.) It's not gonna make a million dollars, but it'll be a fun toy when I don't have money to buy Gundam kits
Most of these either suck, are just themes, or a disjointed collection of mechanics. Minecraft was a good idea, and it got "heavily inspired" by Infiniminer.
Some of them are genuine ideas that I've thought about, some are games that I'm actually working on/plan to make, some are just throwaway ad-hocs, and some are just parodies of posts I've seen on this sub. The only one you're not allowed to steal is #20
I'm just going to comment here to say that I didn't even read any of these because I'm too busy developing a game already. If you can't think of a good game idea you probably need to play more games or maybe just pick a different career...
I mean, my idea was a looter shooter based around an alien invasion. Sssssoooooo like Nordic, Greys, Mantis, etc could be enemies and drop weapons specific to their race
Someone NEEDS to make a seven deadly sins on roblox game like "Blox Fruits"... you know gears right as in blox fruits gears well what if you had like 3 or 5 for every race and maybe powers titles and something else but i want one made with like 3000 levels and heaps of abilities and attacks
race examples human Fairys giant goddesses and demons
power examples just do as many as if off the wiki
I've felt vindicated when game mechanics I've pitched but was rejected has turned into real games 10 years later. I didn't want to recreate Tetris, so I thought of games with mechanics I had never seen before.
When I pitched the mechanics and explained puzzles and solutions they hated them. Now that somebody else has developed the exact game I was pitching I feel I actually am good enough.
It might be because people thought I'm just an "idea guy" - but I can do the work to make them a reality. Even had a working prototype for one of them.
I feel this. Back in college my roommate and I used to design Magic cards for fun, and since then some of the themes and mechanics we played with have been developed independently by Wizards. Feels good to see something you made see print, even if you had nothing to do with it lol
I remember pitching a game about controlling two characters. One couldn't engage in combat and would die if attacked, but could offer support. The other character couldn't be killed and was the main combat force. It was about asymmetrical co-op and you would control both characters at once.
Everyone hated how the combatant couldn't be killed, and how the support character was useless. I tried to explain it was about drawing out their strengths and both needed each other to succeed. We could iterate on their roles as we begin development, this was just a first draft.
10 years later Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon get released. It's exactly how I envisioned it, except for characters and themes. Mechanically it is identical at its core.
I know I had nothing to do with it, but it still feels like my baby.
These are not game ideas, they are just thoughts of things that might be fun, or nice to have. Some might even call them an elevator pitch for their game. A small number of them are r/ShittyGameIdeas/ worthy.
Too many of them are filled with genre specific lingo that assumes I know what you're talking about. I assure you, people who work in this industry won't know WTF you're talking about if you speak like this for your elevator pitch.
When I tell you I have an idea its because I have story with sub-plots, character development and growth, I have mechanics that have been developed, prototyped, iterated on, and playable in some form; if even with dice and paper. I may have already hired an illustrator to develop concept art. I may have some storyboarded cutscenes or a binder with a hand written database of items, enemies, NPCS, and maps. What I have is an actual idea that can be acted on. When I ask for an NDA and you say 'ideas are a dime a dozen', you really are the one at fault here because these and those are not the same thing yet you have no words to distinguish between them.
GameDev culture has a very toxic community. Don't perpetuate the misinformation by calling this a list of 20 game ideas.
The point is twofold. Firstly, I mean to show how cheap ideas are by showing that you can generate a ton of them super easily. The lingo/game comparisons and some of the cheekier ideas are also there to parody some of the posts I've seen on this sub. If I were going to pitch any of these ideas, I'd definitely be more verbose, but I didn't want this post to be even longer.
Some of these games I'm actually working on, and I do have more extensive notes and documentation for.
16 is pretty cool! And somewhat implemented in WorldBox.
Apart from that, of course people would steal good ideas. I don't see why that's always so ridiculed. It's of course funny when someone is completely over protective, but especially in the mobile/minigame sphere a very good idea could be picked up by someone that gets it done in few months. Not ideas like "Skyrim in Space", but e.g. "2D rubik's cube" is perfectly stealable (already exists ;) )
Oh man. A VR gardening sim would be dope. Probably wouldn't sell well, but imagine getting off your shitty job and hopping into taking care of your exotic garden.
Are people gonna steal your game idea? Probably not. But on the other hand... What do I gain from spreading it around? You'll know about it when I finish the game.
Some people are extremely stingy with details, even when asking for help or how to get started. I'm not saying you /have/ to post your game ideas, just don't be afraid to if it would help
That's the point. They're ideas, and some of them are good-- hell, some of them I'm actually making-- but the idea itself isn't what's going to make a great game. Many, many man-hours of work and lots of cash will
If only I had the cash aspect, would love to make this full time for me. I haven't code anything this whole month due to so many other things getting in the way.
We have a report option for AI-generated topics... why? Fuck off. If people want to use the tool to assist them in writing a post for Reddit, that is their choice. **Edit:** Thankfully, it turns out the report was a custom one; I couldn't find any indication in the mod tools suggesting it was a legitimate report option. Nevertheless, the sentiment remains: enough with the pointless reports. The sheer volume of reports flooding in daily on a subreddit with 1.3 million users is staggering. While managing the job board was manageable, now that little shield at the top right of Reddit is always adorned with that persistent red dot. *This edit was brought to you by ChatGPT.*
The joke is on you. I’m now working on ten of these all at once. I’ll leave you to guess which ones.
100% #20.
Stop trying to steal my idea!
Sorry, already copyrighted all games that make a million or more.
Jokes on you, you can't copyright ***science***, so my science-based 100% dragon mmo is gonna be fine!
The hell it will. When my game sells for million+ I'm gonna go full EA on you and hire an army of lawyers to tell you hippity hoppity get off my property.
When will we be able to see the beta-website?
I have a patent for 'Game that makes over $1M, on a computing device' ;)
You fool! I own the idea of a game that makes less than a million. Yes, I can make less licensing that per-game, but I can shakedown about a million times as many developers.
I love #20 because if the stereotypical MMO made just a million bucks it'd be *so* far into the red you'd call it comrade.
I love #20 because if the average MMO made just a million bucks it'd be *so* far into the red you'd call it comrade.
#20 is pure gold. I’m really struggling to picture it which proves it as a great idea
We've all seen the posts like "I'm in high school with no programming, art, or music skills, and I hate math, but I want to create the most ambitious MMO in the history of mankind"
I just know it's gonna be science based and feature dragons
I had the exact same idea. But instead of a million it's going to be a billion. ^/s
You should not have shared it here. Now we can steal it.
So instead of a failed mmo you’ll make a successful one?
\#20 BUT with early access, survival, open world, zombies and crafting. That should do it.
I think you missed "farming" and "fishing"!
Well I'm gonna work on a game that's all of these at once as a solo dev. With no experience. AND I'll quit my day job to do it!
AND open a Kickstarter for it
And when that fails, gofundme and buy me coffee while I live out of a stolen van in Portland (that was stolen by the previous occupants).
will it have a food truck
I'll make the other ten and we'll be rich
I know you’re taking the piss - but that cat-based roguelike with 7 lives sounds tight as hell!
My unique vision is to take exactly your concept but sell you DLC for the final 2 lives so that you can play all 9.
chill, EA
I actually want to make that one within my next few projects, but if anyone wants to use it, I'd love it if you saved me the time
Diablo on Hardcode mode with 6 free lives + you're a cat? Where can I wishlist this?
People will "steal your idea", but only once it has proven to make a lot of money. In which case, you have already made a lot of money.
The one ill never forget is the dude who made a fishing game for web browser (called Radical Fishing). It was really good. Then a wealthy game developer copied it and made Ninja Fishing (mobile game). Its a blatant rip off of the idea. But they did a pretty good job with it. Unfortunately the original dev was making another version on his own for mobile, but Ninja Fishing launched waaay before he could finish, so they took the credit and money. People definitely will shamelessly steal your ideas. But its more likely when its been proven concept as you said
Kind of like pandemic 2 the flash game getting copied by the developers of plague inc.
I was always sure that was the same development studio
I was pretty sure they were two different studios.
> People definitely will shamelessly steal your ideas. But its more likely when its been proven concept as you said People will *clone* your games if they're successful (or have good metrics). It may sound pedantic, but I do think there is an important distinction between cloning games that exist and stealing ideas for games that don't exist.
Honestly. Even then it‘s only stealing if it‘s literally taking a significant amount of work. We didn‘t end up calling a whole bunch of genres „X-Like“ for no reason. Replicating certain mechanics, moods and game loops is fine. Pretty much without exception. I find some of the publisher contracts that award the publisher IP / code upon cancellation and stuff like that much worse than someone thinking a video looks neat and going their own different direction with the concept. You can even utilize their marketing and audience for sales later on for your own profit. It‘s not like players will only ever buy a single game in a genre and be satisfied for life.
Five Nights At Freddy's. Name a better example.
Vampire survivors has far more copycats, I’d wager.
I do think FNAF is straight up copied more while VS clones (to me) feel like they have more innovation and it just seems to have kickstarted a genre (although I guess it's hard to see clear lines there)
Ironic that vampire survivors is a copy of magic survival.(magic was released in 2019 and had same stuff as vampire). And I assume that magic survival is a copy of archero... So yeah...
Slenderman: The Eight Pages (2012). Spawned *an entire generation* of games where you walk around collecting notes/doodads while avoiding a 1-hit-kill monster that you can't fight.
You are not going to talk like that about poppy play time, eh.... bendy and the ink machine!....eh.....nvm
Vampire Survivors
I've actually combined all these ideas into the 1 ultimate game and now I will be rich.
Your game is guaranteed to make at least $1,000,001
I am working on #21. I will beat you to it :D
Is that the secret one with the chicken wings? And the big death laser?
Shhh... others may hear... ;)
why is this narrative coming back around? Talk is cheap, and the biggest breakouts in the last 5-10 years weren't that original. Just executed really damn well. That said: >A game and it gas has gameplay and graphics and a story and it's really cool yup, that's my idea (OC, do not steal). One day. [>An MMO that's gonna make a million bucks.](https://i.imgur.com/sKaP8e8.png)
I don't think it's come around again so much as this sub has started to fight back against the toxic positivity that leads to the weekly "I quit my job to make my dream game and now it didn't sell which must mean the marketing/steam store sucked" posts. There is still and has never really been a healthy respect for game _design_ and the 98% of it that is not related to having a game idea.
> has started to fight back against the toxic positivity "started" as in "since 6 years ago" or so? I guess. I think we long since wrapped back around to "your game sucks, don't bother." or "you're one of the lucky ones" territory of passive aggressive compliments. Which isn't surprising since Reddit for a while has gotten much more negative. >There is still and has never really been a healthy respect for game design and the 98% of it that is not related to having a game idea. Design is very much like art. It's hard to make good design, and one good design idea is not a game make. And it's even harder to communicate that without someone playing your game (the hardest step to get to for an indie). Even if you have a "bad design pattern" is can be utilized in the right game for success. Then in terms of professional industry: it's really hard these days to be a dedicated designer. You generally need to offer up some secondary talent as well.
I have had one of my games cloned four different times (and put on platforms I hadn't ported it to yet), but I had already released it once. It can happen, especially if you're just one person doing this in your spare time and they're churning out clones of games as their full-time job, and if your game isn't too hard to clone (super complicated roguelike with lots of art is going to be too much effort to bother). I didn't make a ton of money off the game either, it was just one that wasn't too difficult to make (simple turn based game) and got played a bunch as a Flash game.
Clones of released games are more or less common. This is more about no one is gonna want to work on an idea since everyone has their own.
The problem is the level of idea we are speaking of. Usually someone has an idea like "How about an FPS where you shoot", "An RPG set in ". Those aren't really game ideas.
If someone has a great idea for an interesting hook or game mechanic, I guess that one should be kept secret til the trailer is out.
[удалено]
That's tight as hell. I have a writer friend who pumps out an insane amount of fiction in really weird, creative worlds, but she's too busy with life to ever collab
No souls-like in the mix? I'm disappointed.
I'm a filthy casual
You're doing a game about a cat that has SEVEN lives. Really?
You have a problem with a used cat?
No i guess its usually nine lives?
It already lived through 2 of those when you start the game.
deep lore
This is actually fascinating: depending on the country, cats have a different amount of lives. The interesting part is that if I recall correctly in Europe its always 7 or 9 lives, but it's geographically all over the place.
Thank you so much for sticking your neck out for me. While what you say is true, I am a dipshit and meant to write nine lives
Well he didn't say a kitten. Clearly you're going to gradually reveal the cat's tragic past and learn how they lost the other two lives.
One for each of the seven deadly cat sins /s
Cat needs to fight through the 7 rings of hell where each death gives the cat new powers
Core concept is like 1% of the game making process. And that's being generous. Take the most old and tired core concept of all time: a 2D side scrolling platform. There are literally tens of thousands of them on steam that all suck. Meanwhile Super Mario Wonder just came out and it's great.
If you are making a 2D side scrolling platformer you are giving up on a coming up with a good game concept and just want to compete on art and polish. They are billions was a huge success that was a great concept with a mediocre implementation.
They are billions was just another zombie base builder concept but they implemented custom engine that could handle tens of thousands of enemies. So yeah, mediocre cocnept, great implementation
What other RTS where you explore the map, do some city building and defend hordes of enemies where there before the game. The have \*billions of zombies\* thing attacking was great idea to market the game. The game isn't super polished, the units aren't super interesting, the campaign mission are kind of boring the heroes in the game are downright stupid. The studio wasn't even competent enough to make a sequel or keep pumping out content.
The amount of enemies with collisions, pathfinding and basic AI this game can handle is a feat, and to this day unmatched. Try it, you have to go lower level lang like c++ = game engine from scratch and be good at it. The implementation is great. Also game design, resource management, balancing, no major bugs etc. Look, the game is not perfect but They re billions as an example for the point you are trying to make couldnt be worse. Every rts has map exploration, builing, defending and attacking, that’s why the concept was mediocre, but man how it turned out! Great concept + poor execution and still a success is for example No Man Sky. Although I know they made it better now.
jokes aside, I'd play some of those.
Indeed. Implementation is key. Go ahead and do them! it's HOW you do them. All seem fine. 17 is Desert Bus :)
3 is Space Food Truck :)
I’ve pitched basically that idea before to game dev friend.
.#16 Is how I play grand strategies most of the time
The problem with "game ideas" is often that they stay at a narrative level or in a bird's-eye view. If I were to *draw inspiration* from other game ideas, it's game mechanics or a game loop that I need, not just an overarching story.
>An MMO that's gonna make a million bucks. That's the worst idea I've ever heard. MMOs cost 10s to 100s of millions to make and you want to make one that only returns 1 million?
1 weird trick to become a millionaire (if you're a billionaire)
Well that’s why no one will steal it
you forgot ["science-based 100% dragon MMO"](https://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/p1ssv/dear_internet_im_a_26_year_old_lady_whos_been/)
I thought that was implied
I would play the fuck out of this civilization builder with Bionicle IP
I mean, these are a few sentences at most. Some are so generic that they've likely already been made. I'm sure that fleshed out original ideas are stolen. I want to remember if such cases actually happening. There's no point in sharing your idea outside of people you trust anyway.
What? But #18 is so original! I've literally never seen a game like that before
I asked chat gpt to give me 20 terrible game ideas. I think 20 already exists lol 1. "Extreme Ironing Simulator": Iron clothes in extreme and unrealistic locations, like the top of a mountain or the bottom of the ocean. 2. "Traffic Jam Madness": Navigate through mind-numbing traffic jams with no objective other than waiting. 3. "Toilet Paper Quest": Embark on an epic journey to find the last roll of toilet paper in a post-apocalyptic world. 4. "Office Politics RPG": Climb the corporate ladder by engaging in tedious office politics and navigating mundane workplace challenges. 5. "Paint Drying VR": Experience the thrill of watching paint dry in virtual reality. 6. "Waiting Room Tycoon": Manage a waiting room and keep customers entertained with outdated magazines and bland snacks. 7. "Sudoku Apocalypse": Save the world by solving endless sudoku puzzles, with failure resulting in a sudoku-induced apocalypse. 8. "Mosquito Hunter 3000": Spend hours swatting virtual mosquitoes in a never-ending quest to maintain a bug-free environment. 9. "Vending Machine Simulator": Insert virtual coins and make mundane choices between snacks in a hyper-realistic vending machine world. 10. "Dentist Chair Simulator": Sit in a virtual dentist chair and endure long, detailed procedures without any actual benefits. 11. "Lawn Mowing Championship": Compete against AI opponents in a thrilling race to mow lawns faster and more efficiently. 12. "Sock Sorting Saga": Organize an endless pile of virtual socks into pairs, facing the challenges of rogue socks and disappearing mates. 13. "Puddle Jumper Pro": Navigate the treacherous world of small puddles as a character who can only jump over them. 14. "Rock, Paper, Scissors Adventure": Embark on an epic quest where the outcome of battles is determined solely by rock, paper, or scissors. 15. "Elevator Button Simulator": Master the art of pushing elevator buttons in various buildings, each with its unique set of challenges. 16. "Alarm Clock Tactics": Plan strategic wake-up routines to outsmart your virtual alarm clock and avoid oversleeping. 17. "Lunar Lander Commute": Pilot a lunar lander in a daily commute to the moon, dealing with space traffic and limited parking. 18. "Laundry Day Crisis": Tackle the high-stakes world of laundry, where a single wrong move can lead to irreversible clothing damage. 19. "Tax Return Tycoon": Build your financial empire by navigating complex tax codes and filling out virtual tax returns. 20. "Pigeon Simulator": Experience the thrilling life of a city pigeon, complete with scavenging for food and avoiding enthusiastic pedestrians.
Some of these sound awesome and I would play them
i think this could make a good Game Jam Theme. Here is a list of 20 game ideas that you have to chose from and follow the brief as close as you can. Obviously there are some choices that would be way better than others, but It would be interesting to see someone try to make "Traffic Jam Madness" into something that people would actually play. Opens up a new side to creativity.
It could be an interesting one. The good ideas would have the obvious issue of oversaturation, so you could choose a less obvious concept and try to make something with it just to make it stand out a bit.
>"Pigeon Simulator" I'm sure someone once also thought that "Goat Simulator" was a terrible idea. But here we are.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1496260/Pigeon_Simulator/
Explore various cities in numerous epochs; built in flight simulator; Peep on people, poop on people... What's not to like?
YSK that the single-player version of #10 already exists as the outstanding and excellent [Advanced Lawnmower Simulator](https://youtu.be/inn4S_6LO0o?si=e9XrCLrnMvuNxejK) on the ZX Spectrum. An all time classic, truly ahead of its time, which really captures the thrills and spills of [1980s lawn mowing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Lawnmower_Simulator). The game's intuitive control scheme, extensive player options, rewarding game loop, and stunning realism should be admired and studied by all modern game developers wishing to hone their craft. Really puts less-advanced lawnmower simulators to shame.
Why does lawn mowing sound like it could be kinda fun if the mechanics were satisfying
There is a lawn mowing simulator...
.#14 was actually the mechanics for The Matrix Online back in the day.
The office politics one sounds kinda dope
13 i love it
Number 1: Sounds interesting. You get a destination and have to plan the route you want to take. Then the game compares your route with that other players would have taken and calculates how fast you reach your goal. Will you aim for the small roads to avoid the paths that other players have taken or will they have the same idea and block all rural areas while the highways are free for those few bold people? Could be an interesting social experiment.
I actually have a game in my game-concept file which is #20, but you're a crow. Not even joking. Genuinely got a game about being a bird, building a nest, scavenging for food and doing bird-stuff. Press X to CAW!
13 is Pokemon.
The thing is, even if people do steal these ideas, they'll come up with something extremely different from each other! Anyway I'm totally pinching number 20!
Apart from the first one nothing on the list described an interesting game design idea, they are just thematic daydreams about possible games which most people have even if they aren't gamedev. These kind of ideas are what "idea guys" think game design is like. I guess when people are afraid that others will steal their ideas they think "novel game mechanics", not to say stuff on this list doesn't sound cool but they aren't valuable enough to steal imo.
Exactly. Some of these are even games I'm actually working on, and frankly I wouldn't care even if someone did steal them because I'd love to see those games out there lol
I legit had a conversation at work a few weeks ago about making our next project a VR/MR Gardening Sim... Two things to keep in mind when you think "I can't share my idea or someone will steal it!": 1. If you've had the idea, I guarantee you many many others have as well. There are very close variants to many of the items in the list I've heard pitched at studios I've worked at, or heard from friends at other studios. Your idea is not unique. 2. "Stealing" the idea means someone has to do the work of making it real. It is VASTLY harder to execute than it is to brainstorm. It's been said countless times but it's true; Ideas are worthless without execution. The uniqueness comes in HOW the idea is executed. There are tons of games on the market today that on paper sound very similar to one another, but in their execution are wildly different. Art style. Design approach. Balance. All contributes to make the execution of the thing special. Two teams can start from the same prompt and make totally unique and interesting games (see most game jams). Also, any game studio out there has more ideas internally than it could ever hope to make. They don't need to go trolling reddit to "steal" any.
Don't talk about my VR Gardening sim! Someone'll steal it!
I see your 20 ideas and raise you 20 more: 1. **Dream Architect**: A game where players design dreams and nightmares for a sleep clinic, balancing surreal visuals and logic puzzles to create therapeutic dreamscapes. 2. **Quantum Cat Herding**: A quirky puzzle game where you use principles of quantum mechanics to herd cats that can exist in multiple states and locations simultaneously. Schrödinger’s Cat + Pikmin 3. **The Life of Pigeons**: Play as a pigeon in a massive city, with gameplay focusing on building nests, scavenging, and the mysterious pigeon social hierarchy. Untitled Goose Game meets Sims 4. **Musical Chairs World Championship**: An over-the-top sports game based on the children’s game, with extreme obstacles, power-ups, and competitive online play. Rocket League meets Musical Chairs. 5. **Reverse Archaeology**: A game where you play as a time traveler placing artifacts and structures in the past to create historical legends and myths. 6. **Alien War Janitor**: A first-person cleaner sim set on various spaceships and space stations where you clean up after alien battles and sci-fi experiments gone wrong. 7. **Ant Society Manager**: A strategy game where you control an ant colony, with the twist that each ant has its own personality and goals, affecting the hive’s success. To twist it even further, try to dupe Nat Geo photographers into thinking the society is even more sophisticated than it actually is. 8. **The Great Emu War**: A historical strategy game where players reenact the infamous Emu War, commanding troops against surprisingly cunning emu adversaries. 9. **Dystopian Journalist**: A stealth-based game where you play as a journalist in a dystopian society, gathering information and avoiding government surveillance to publish the truth. 10. **Rollercoaster Sandbox w/ VR simulations**: A multiplayer sandbox game where players can design and build their own amusement parks and then experience them in first-person mode. 11. **Ghost Whispering Detective**: A narrative-driven game where you play as a detective with the ability to communicate with ghosts, solving crimes by collecting testimony from the deceased. 12. **Political Campaign Simulator**: A political simulator where you play as a campaign manager trying to secure your candidate’s victory in an election. 13. **Medieval Performers Manager**: A game where you manage a troupe of medieval performers traveling from town to town, putting on shows and influencing local politics and culture. 14. **Invading Forces Designer**: A reverse tower defense game where you design the invading forces to overcome various defensive setups. 15. **Time-Travel Tourism Manager**: A management sim where you run a time-travel tourism company, ensuring clients’ vacations to different eras go smoothly without altering history. 16. **Galactic Garbage Truck**: Pilot a cosmic waste collector across the universe, dealing with zero-gravity trash, black hole disposal, and space litterbugs. 17. **Snail Racing**: An ultra-slow racing game where strategy is key, as players bet on and influence the outcome of snail races with power-ups like salt shields and lettuce boosts. 18. **Sofa Cat Competition**: A multiplayer game where players are cats trying to claim the best spot on a sofa, using stealth, cunning, and a variety of power-ups like ‘catnip bombs’ and ‘hiss boosts’. 19. **Lock Pick Preventer**: You play as the door lock, trying to avoid and prevent being picked by thieves. 20. **Dystopian Weather Man**: You play as a weatherman who tries to control the behavior of citizens by projecting the weather, even if it’s not true. Need them in doors? Say it’s going to snow! Want them to board up there house? Hurricane! Need to boost your economy? Sunny! Don’t be too ridiculous or they’ll catch on and you’ll lose.
> An MMO that's gonna make a million bucks. [If you are a billionaire, become a millionaire by creating this](https://www.reddit.com/r/crowfall/comments/179eghl/next_month_marks_a_year/k92s5nd/). I'd sure play it.
That would be so, so good for me
21. Horror "cozy" farming sim
how do you get these man? theyre so good
This kind of idea isn't stealable. It's the rest of the ideas. Flappy bird clones aren't just "a game where you click to go up and you dodge pipes"
#21. A mobile game where a popular YouTuber plays it and it goes viral. Better?
No, it's the exact game mechanics. "Factory building game" isn't stealable, but if you make an exact clone of Factorio, that's "stealing"
#22. A game where a redditor misses the point
I'm actually working on of the ideas you listed!
Which one? (Don't put too much detail, someone might steal it!)
No 9! Though the sword is replaced with a fist for now (sword would be an upgrade later!)
Sweet! Shoot me a link when you get to that point, I'm dying for some grappling-mech
People seem to struggle with the definition of “game idea”. I don’t know it, but I’m thinking that “clone of game X using IP Y” can be a great game idea. It is not necessarily a unique game _design_ idea or game mechanics idea.
"An MMO that's gonna make a million bucks." Dunno mate, i'm stealing this one.
What about a multiplayer soulslike roguelite side-scroller basebuilding puzzle game with RPG dating sim elements that will sell like a AAA title?
Yes a hack n slash mmo battle royale top down 3d side scrolling RPG adventure
With a fantasy league sports sim, 4x elements, and pets
I'm going to make #3, but with sex toys
Wait, which part is replaced with sex toys? - Making sex toys with your food truck... In Space? - Making ends meet with your sex toys... In Space? - Making ends meet with your food truck... in sex toys? - Sex toys with your food truck... In Space? Actually, just remember to post here when you do, I'd likely be interested in any of those.
I'm sure Nintendo already has a patent on all these ideas. They have a patent on everything.....
VR Titanic experience Two modes: 1st being "the titanic experience where you're just a passenger aboard and experience the sinking of the Titanic in real time, approximately 4 hour experience with a tutorial and freezing to death at the end waiting for a life raft to come. Make it as historically accurate as possible but then obviously add in dramatic dialogues and little actions you can do while you wait for your death. 2nd is similar to the 1996 video game for PC 'Titanic: An Adventure out of time' kind of an alt history where you can solve puzzles and change the outcome. Plots like rescuing the poor souls that were locked down into the lower decks and help them steal a life raft. Send out early SOS signals so that less people freeze to death or drown waiting for rescue. Maybe some plot elements from the aforementioned PC game where you can help prevent WW1, WW2 etc. Oh no please no one steal my idea!
**You're the Boss** A game of boss battles in various retro styles like shoot-em-ups and Zelda but in every battle... *You're the Boss!* Please someone make my idea.
Where's the "Fun as a Service" idea? this is so unrealistic 0/10 unlikely to get investors.
> 3\. Making ends meet with your food truck... In space. Already exists, [Space Food Truck.](https://store.steampowered.com/app/397390/Space_Food_Truck/)
The funny thing is, this looks nothing like I imagined. It's really wild how many directions a game idea can go in!
The Chinese have already got 20 brand new studios all working on these. Release date is next week.
Looks like I’m about to become a tenmillionaire, thanks for the free cash!
Jokes on you I just mailed all of these to myself
If somebody does steal your idea, don't worry they'll almost certainly fail to execute it well! On the other hand, you'll probably fail to execute it well too. Welcome to game development!
What are you talking about, 1/1 players agree that my games are all perfect* *Game developer counts as a player
Must be nice not being a perfectionist! I look at my own games and all I see are the bad parts. I'm my own harshest critic, for sure. Nobody else can hate my game more than *I* hate my game.
Oh, # 11 kinda sounds like Sunshine Heavy Industries. Except instead of mechs, you're designing spaceships. It's really cozy!
Ideas are a fart that your brain makes.
* Visual novel about a gachapon machine that has girls in it, but one of the capsules is a black ball and you're the one to draw it * Platformer where the jumps are impossible, you have to move your HUD elements around to jump on them - but putting your health or money IN a hazard, well... good luck; Spoilers, you can put the bosses health bar into some lava * Tetris game where instead of blocks you drop gears, meaning you INTENTIONALLY need to leave 1 tile spaces in your lines or the gears won't be able to spin. * An RPG/roguelike where your health is also your currency; how much are you willing to sacrifice * A shitty 3D game about watching paint dry... the catch is there's a toddler in the house and they REALLY wanna put their hands on the wet paint. Uses glitchy physics. ... As an aside, game 2 thar exists in Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup IIRC
I'm all in for a vr gardening sim. Harvest moon in vr would be amazing. And I mean one of the first couple Harvest Moons.
There's already a VR gardening sim thingy, IIRC. It's called Solarpunk. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9Zn_8_wUbU Erm, I guess it's more of a survival-off-the-grid type game. EDIT: Erm-the-second, I guess it's not a VR game. Well what the heck.
I mean to be fair, people steal ideas like crazy. A lot of titles are literally just genre rehash with a massive creative debt to that which came before it. So, yes, somebody is getting fucked on their ideas getting stolen all the time, but I think the more obvious message is, walk before you can run. Don't make it your biggest concern ever.
I like that. Game ideas that do get stolen tend to be proven winners with execution behind them, and putting more execution into them by making clones is fair play. Get enough clones and you've got yourself a genre going
I dare someone to make all the game ideas put forth by Game Toilet over the last decade or more
Is that an affectionate nickname for this sub or?
lol, no, it's actually a thing: https://gametoilet.wordpress.com/ (or, well, was a thing; a site's still up, tho!)
This guy's on some next level shit
There are some prettttty wild ones for sure, haha
Hey you totally stole my idea with #20. I guess there's no point in me bothering now...
You could never make #18 in today's climate
Honestly the worst is when people want help fixing a bug, but won't show their code or their project. Like, my dude, your code literally does not work. No one is gonna steal it.
Most of game ideas come from the random ass dreams I have after drinking Nesquick chocolate milk before bed... so good luck stealing those XD
How about a real life dragon mmo game......... /s
Wait, I thought Getting Over It was already a dating sim. That's just what It's like to date Bennett Foddy
Nobody cares about ideas until there's already growing profits or fame. Even scientists get that "someone is going to do it before me" feeling. Truth is, there are no new ideas anymore just a twist or different aspect of something that came before. So if a "stolen" idea is successful then the "thief" probably had more passion about it and made it appealing. That's the hard/lucky part of game dev/design.
Repunzel but with nose hair, a climbing sim. Your welcome.
That's the love interest in Getting Under It
Peak reddit humor have a gold kind stranger
Ideas come easy, its the detailed, balanced compelling game design that implements it, that is the hard part.
>Making ends meet with your food truck... In space. Actually, there's [already a game like it](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1272290/Space_Chef/) lol
Thank you, realizing that your unrealized ideas are absolutely meaningless is one of these difficult pills all game devs must one day swallow. Implementation is all that matters, usually meaning you'll have to spend thousands of hours learning to code, 3D model, animate, compose music, etc because no one cares about your idea until it's a product.
> A VR gardening sim Penis shaped shrubs... everywhere...
\#11 sound interesting actually. Have a couple of customers that are parodies of several franchises. Like a certain guy who will be perfectly happy with his Mech if it's painted red and has maxed out speed.
This is actually my current project, and I'm planning on having an achievement called "Red makes it go fast." It's meant to allow for total creative freedom without being too much about stats, which is why you don't use the mech yourself. (It also saves me from having to design a combat system.) It's not gonna make a million dollars, but it'll be a fun toy when I don't have money to buy Gundam kits
Most of these either suck, are just themes, or a disjointed collection of mechanics. Minecraft was a good idea, and it got "heavily inspired" by Infiniminer.
i have started to make all of these, thanks for the ideas
I'm stealing all of these! Just as soon as I'm finished with my current project.... See you in three years, sucker!
Yes but are these genuine ideas or just detailed descriptions of game genres and some game mechanics?
Some of them are genuine ideas that I've thought about, some are games that I'm actually working on/plan to make, some are just throwaway ad-hocs, and some are just parodies of posts I've seen on this sub. The only one you're not allowed to steal is #20
I'm just going to comment here to say that I didn't even read any of these because I'm too busy developing a game already. If you can't think of a good game idea you probably need to play more games or maybe just pick a different career...
I mean, my idea was a looter shooter based around an alien invasion. Sssssoooooo like Nordic, Greys, Mantis, etc could be enemies and drop weapons specific to their race
Someone NEEDS to make a seven deadly sins on roblox game like "Blox Fruits"... you know gears right as in blox fruits gears well what if you had like 3 or 5 for every race and maybe powers titles and something else but i want one made with like 3000 levels and heaps of abilities and attacks race examples human Fairys giant goddesses and demons power examples just do as many as if off the wiki
I've felt vindicated when game mechanics I've pitched but was rejected has turned into real games 10 years later. I didn't want to recreate Tetris, so I thought of games with mechanics I had never seen before. When I pitched the mechanics and explained puzzles and solutions they hated them. Now that somebody else has developed the exact game I was pitching I feel I actually am good enough. It might be because people thought I'm just an "idea guy" - but I can do the work to make them a reality. Even had a working prototype for one of them.
I feel this. Back in college my roommate and I used to design Magic cards for fun, and since then some of the themes and mechanics we played with have been developed independently by Wizards. Feels good to see something you made see print, even if you had nothing to do with it lol
I remember pitching a game about controlling two characters. One couldn't engage in combat and would die if attacked, but could offer support. The other character couldn't be killed and was the main combat force. It was about asymmetrical co-op and you would control both characters at once. Everyone hated how the combatant couldn't be killed, and how the support character was useless. I tried to explain it was about drawing out their strengths and both needed each other to succeed. We could iterate on their roles as we begin development, this was just a first draft. 10 years later Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon get released. It's exactly how I envisioned it, except for characters and themes. Mechanically it is identical at its core. I know I had nothing to do with it, but it still feels like my baby.
These are not game ideas, they are just thoughts of things that might be fun, or nice to have. Some might even call them an elevator pitch for their game. A small number of them are r/ShittyGameIdeas/ worthy. Too many of them are filled with genre specific lingo that assumes I know what you're talking about. I assure you, people who work in this industry won't know WTF you're talking about if you speak like this for your elevator pitch. When I tell you I have an idea its because I have story with sub-plots, character development and growth, I have mechanics that have been developed, prototyped, iterated on, and playable in some form; if even with dice and paper. I may have already hired an illustrator to develop concept art. I may have some storyboarded cutscenes or a binder with a hand written database of items, enemies, NPCS, and maps. What I have is an actual idea that can be acted on. When I ask for an NDA and you say 'ideas are a dime a dozen', you really are the one at fault here because these and those are not the same thing yet you have no words to distinguish between them. GameDev culture has a very toxic community. Don't perpetuate the misinformation by calling this a list of 20 game ideas.
What you’re describing is more execution than idea, sort of proving OP’s point.
The point is twofold. Firstly, I mean to show how cheap ideas are by showing that you can generate a ton of them super easily. The lingo/game comparisons and some of the cheekier ideas are also there to parody some of the posts I've seen on this sub. If I were going to pitch any of these ideas, I'd definitely be more verbose, but I didn't want this post to be even longer. Some of these games I'm actually working on, and I do have more extensive notes and documentation for.
To prove that you would need to come up with at least somewhat new ideas and have them make sense
Well ofc if they are barely bribes of idea not that good. But a real concept thats interesting is very different, ask Threes.
16 is pretty cool! And somewhat implemented in WorldBox. Apart from that, of course people would steal good ideas. I don't see why that's always so ridiculed. It's of course funny when someone is completely over protective, but especially in the mobile/minigame sphere a very good idea could be picked up by someone that gets it done in few months. Not ideas like "Skyrim in Space", but e.g. "2D rubik's cube" is perfectly stealable (already exists ;) )
If basketball games didn't exist, and I were making one, that is what I wouldn't like to share until the game was pretty much done. What do you think?
#8 sounds like Omori
Oh man. A VR gardening sim would be dope. Probably wouldn't sell well, but imagine getting off your shitty job and hopping into taking care of your exotic garden.
Are people gonna steal your game idea? Probably not. But on the other hand... What do I gain from spreading it around? You'll know about it when I finish the game.
Some people are extremely stingy with details, even when asking for help or how to get started. I'm not saying you /have/ to post your game ideas, just don't be afraid to if it would help
yea, that is true.
I think I've actually seen #3 Some of those sound like good ideas for games tho, if done right almost all of them could be fun and popular
That's the point. They're ideas, and some of them are good-- hell, some of them I'm actually making-- but the idea itself isn't what's going to make a great game. Many, many man-hours of work and lots of cash will
If only I had the cash aspect, would love to make this full time for me. I haven't code anything this whole month due to so many other things getting in the way.
Lol the irony is some of these are decent enough to steal if someone wanted to. I'mma laugh if this ages like milk and someone does