There have been a few ‘I need ideas’ style topics lately, so I thought we should have a thread to share where we get our ideas from, and give any advice that might be helpful.
Here are mine:
What game do you want to Play?
This should be your first question as, if the game doesn’t appeal to you, then what’s the point. I’ve seen horror stories on the itchio forum of people spending a year on a game and then deciding they’re not that bothered about it.
What can you do that no-one else can?
Think about your own abilities and interests in and out of games. If you’re a ventriloquist rapper who’s into Pokemon, consider a game where you train talking dummies to rap battle against each other. If you’re an artist who works at McDonalds and hates one particular customer, how about a murder mystery game about a poisoned French fry set in an oil painted fast food restaurant?
Don’t put up walls or be afraid that your game doesn’t fit in- one of the best things about indie games is that they’re unique and often very personal.
Play Bad Games
A good idea is to often play bad games, or just random stuff. This could well inspire you to think ‘Could I do this?’ or, preferably, ‘what could I do better?’
Combine Elements from other Games
This might sound theft but- If you take elements from, say, three games and combine them- you’ve got a whole new game. Fortnite is basically just PUBG with Overwatch style graphics and tone, and that did alright.
What If?
Similar to the above, but think about stuff in your day to day life, or things you see on TV or wherever and whether you could make anything of this. I had a job transporting medical casenotes round a hospital and think a cool game would be ‘Casenote Chaos’- a parkour game where you have to navigate a hospital to save people’s lives, having to avoid obstacles like people throwing up, and patients speeding past in wheelchairs and hospital beds.
Sadly, this game remains beyond our technical abilities XD
Collaborate
Game development can be loosely split between technical people and creative people. Creative people are good at coming up with ideas, technical people are good at implementing them. This is how Krunchy Fried Games works- there are only two of us, but we have both wickets covered. I was going to say ‘bases’, but there are more than two bases in baseball..
Aaaaanyway, finding people in game jams or on the itchio Help Wanted forum to bounce ideas off is a good way to spark creativity.
Write Stuff Down
Keep a notebook on you at all times and write things down when inspiration strikes, or get some pens and highlighters and make a mindmap: write some headers anywhere on a page, and write down ideas stemming from these as they occur to you.
Good headers to start with include:
Theme,
Tone,
Graphics,
Music,
Mood,
Genre,
Characters,
Plot,
Story,
Goal,
Enemies,
Dangers,
Power Ups,
Clothes,
Sound Effects
Just clearing your mind and sitting down in a distraction free environment- or with music on- can be very helpful.
Anyway, those are my tips. If anyone else has any, please share!