Hello, I am dust and I want to make games but I lack ideas (Even worse). All the ideas I have weren't "ideas". It was like program was loaded in my mind just like in Profession by Isaac Asimov..

How to come up with ideas for games? How are you making ideas for your games?

You don’t tend to get good ideas by explicitly looking for them. Like dreams, they just come and go, which is why people usually have idea boxes or idea vaults, where they write down ideas ASAP.

After a certain period passes, you can return and review those ideas to make sure if they are worth working on.

I think one of the best ways to get ideas for games is to play games. I played games many years before I started coding. Pokémon on GameBoy, SimCity, strategy games, World of Warcraft, Minecraft and lots of others, which had different elements that inspired me to make some game projects. I think if you enjoy playing some games, you will probably find some elements from them that you enjoy (maybe a levelling system, abilities, crafting, exploration) or maybe some story or environment from the games could inspire you.

Ideas are what I have plenty of, and resources are what I lack. I work on an old computer whose components can break at any time, and on the creative side I keep coming up with new ideas and things I want to do, from things like various fiction, personal sketches or even dreams. Just last night I had a dream that has given me ideas for a new game.

Also, my programming skills are terrible and I rely on getting by with RPG Maker and its event system and community plugins. Still, I won't be able to make all my ideas come true, or at least not as I want them to. Funny thing that there are skilled programmers but no ideas, which situation is better? having ideas but not knowing or being able to do them or the other way around?

As someone who gets ideas easily and quickly, I don't know exactly what to say to someone who doesn't, maybe you can try to sketch something in a text or a illustration, keep the things you like about it and complement them with other things you personally like or that other people like and work from there. I think that's my recommendation.

I heavily depends on what type of game you want to create. If you want to tell a story, you face the same problem as any story writer, and can look up advice accordingly.

Then there are stories that are only an excuse to have a  game mechanic. Like the Mario games.

And on the far side are games that are only mechanic. 2048, Baba Is  You and  Pong come to mind.

Coming up with a new mechanic is really hard. If you have a pitch for a story, you might come up with fitting mechanics or puzzles or whatever.

But if you are bored, maybe try making a game you would like to play.

Thanks everyone! I will think about it and try at least some of it

you should look at other games of the same kind. for example if you want to make a horror game look at other horror games but you should not copy them.

hope this helps :)

Making a game can feel like cooking a five-course banquet at a michelin star restraunt. Experienced chefs know what to do from sourcing ingredients,  preparation, multi-step cooking, plate aesthetics, and serving. We know that not every meal needs to conform to such standards to be enjoyable, nourishing, and filling.

Extending this metaphor further; ideas can be considered the ingredients. Without them, it's difficult to make anything substantial. *SEE VIDEO*

However, also like ingredients; you don't add everything you possibly can to a meal. You evaluate each of the ingredients as you develop a style of what you feel goes together with what else. It's possible your current situation isn't because you lack ideas, but rather you are feeling overwhelmed at all the possibilities while feeling all the expectations for making it somehow magically work. That's a huge burden before you even get started!

There are lots of 'ideas' out there in the world. But it takes a lot of observing and thinking and trying stuff out to learn why it is that certain things work. This is the tricky bit. One could even borrow good ideas taken from various places, but without having space for the concept/s that give reason for the ideas to be there, it can feel inauthentic to the people who browse your work. eg: naively combining words of robot + basketball + eggs to make a game about robots playing basketball with chicken's eggs is empty until you can fill the blanks on WHY this is happening. Perhaps the chicken farmer's robots have been taken over by an A.I. that's worked out it can get more profits to the farmer by filing an insurance claim because of a loophole when the A.I. misbehaves? To answer this why, I've reached into my knowledgebase of information I've passively picked up on. Mid's advice (above) is good. Life experience will give you more ways to fill in the blanks and create deeper and stronger developed WHY.

Also, start small. You have more control over and can understand the impact better with small things. Past me would shirk advice from other people who told me to start small. Small projects feel so inconsequential when compared to the grandiose splendor of behemoths like Dungeons& Dragons or AAA games. Something small can still be impactful! At the moment I'm simply designing a document for use in a game world. Very few people may ever have a use for it, but since I know what I'm going for and why; I know that what I'm going to make will perfectly fit the need for those who will be on the hunt for something like it. The potential that other creatives might see what you've done and feel encouraged to make their own versions may be knowledge enough to cut through feelings of isolation.

Thoughts? Queries? Comments?

I have my ideas for my game stores in google docs lol.