Getting New Ideas for Video Games (Pt 4)

Don’t forget to read A Theory Behind Producing New Ideas too. There’s lots of good stuff in there!

Creating video games is an art, no doubt. The problem is that it isn’t easy to come up with ideas for video games. And even when we do get an idea, it doesn’t seem as fresh or exciting as we want it to be. The following offers a few ways you can generate some creative ideas to keep your video game as fun to play from beginning to end.

18. Don’t finish developing the game.

Wouldn’t that be a hoot! Instead of developing a video game that has a beginning and an end, design a game that continuously loops with challenges (levels) that increase with difficulty on every round.

Winning a game like this would be a matter of racking up points, and to satisfy game play, you could have the game post the name of the player with the highest points to a community website. (Hey, it’s a thought!)

19. Exaggerate, Exaggerate, Exaggerate.

One way to generate ideas for a video game is to exaggerate the characters, scenes, plots, and strategies that you already have down. This is how ‘nice” turns into ‘cool’ and how ‘cool’ turns into ‘awesome.’

The trick is to know when you’re crossing the line and going from “possible” to “impossible.” You always want to keep a sense of possible reality in a game, however on the same token, you don’t want to make the game so possible that it’s predictable. There’s a delicate balance and as a game developer who wants to stand out from the crowd, you’ve got to know how far you can stretch this balance without being offensive, silly, or stupid.

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The basic point that we want to stress throughout this guide is that your game development doesn’t have to follow the status quo. If you stick to what’s been done before or what’s been played before, you’ll find that your games will collect dust on the shelves and that all your time and efforts will have been for naught.

Break established customs or doctrines and you’ll get noticed. Get noticed and you’ll gain a reputation for developing the most outstanding games around. Being able to get good ideas for your video games ideas is a gift – especially since good ideas can be hard to come by. But stop and think about what you have so far. Is it the best? Could it be better? Would a different approach help you obtain the fame that you crave?

Take a look at each strategy we’ve introduced in this article and see if you can’t implement just one or two of them. Implementing ALL of them would certainly be a challenge, but so would the end result: your game.

Today’s gamer craves the unknown, he craves something new, different, and original. If you’re suffering from the “blank page syndrome,” just pull up our article and consider each strategy as the answer. Expand your current ideas to the point where they excite even you – the developer.

And always remember that your video game is an extension of you. It deals with self-expression, creativity and communication. Don’t underestimate yourself or your capabilities to do the unthinkable. And whatever you do – don’t underestimate your players.

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The advantages of following our suggestions far outweigh any doubts you may have because once you step out of the realm of expectations, you make a wonderful contribution to the world.

External Resources:

1.Level Up!: The Guide to Great Video Game Design
2. Game Development Essentials: An Introduction
3. The Ultimate Guide to Video Game Writing and Design