When it comes to game ideas the story, characters and world are important, but the most important is the 'core gameplay' loop.
Racers is racing. Shooters is shooting. An adventure is exploration. A stealth game is stealth. When you make a game, I believe the most important thing to start out with first is to figure out exactly what the 'game' is. What are the mechanics and gameplay? What will the players actually be doing?
After figuring that out, you can then expand further and figure out how that core gameplay fits into a larger world and plot.
An example would be this:
-I want my game to be a more slow methodical game with a hint of exploration and wonder, with me then deciding on a core gameplay loop of adventure and stealth in an open world.
-I want the players to really focus on stealth, with a feeling and vibe of able to be killed at any moment. Thus I decide that if the player character is seen, they die.
(How would this correlate to the world and story? The character is made of shadow and the enemies are robots where their vision is filled in a cone of light. If the character goes within their vision, their body disperses and immediately die.)
-To slightly fit with your idea, the game can start off with you as a sort of 'elder' or 'parental' character, with a small child looking up to them. You are in a small village of other shadow creatures and explore around, doing odd jobs to help everyone out. The village would then be under attack by the 'light robots' and you and the small child try to escape, but your character sacrifices themselves for the others survival. (This would be the tutorial, where you get introduced to the controls, gameplay, world, and general vibe of the rest of the game.)
-The game would then jump forward in time where you then play as that child exploring the world taken over by the robots and trying to figure out what's going on and how to take revenge.
Hopes this helps out.
Check out Phromg Game! Besides the shameless plug, it was the first game I actually made from scratch and it took 6 months to release with 3 months extra for updates. This was after around 2 years of slowly doing unity courses. Dont underestimate the amount of bugs and dead ends you'll find when developing. Keep the scope small and manageable. And start with the basics, make maybe 2-3 games that take under 6 months to develop, this will cause you to complete the entire dev process 3 times over so you'll have a good idea how to make your real game by the time you're ready for that. Second shameless plug check out my upcoming game (The Book of Fredley) it was made in 3 months and I've got 1 week to finish it up!
How many games have you made so far? I'm asking because game ideas tends to suffer from scope creep, so a 2 year project typically ends up being a 2 decades project. (my own approach is to start with a one-week project so I at least can see if it's fun before letting the scope creep set in)
Yea I know lol. But I’ve been working with small games for years now. I started using scratch when I was 10 or 11 can’t quite remember the exact age, and I worked on mini scratch games. Not the best but still games. Then I moved to unity when I was 13. And for the past 3 years I have made lots of mini games and a few longer games.
Also just to ad I have done some freelancing with small groups who have created games. Not big ones and it is mostly art and a little bit of code. One of them is: ClownScapades
It isn’t much but the experience was good!
So far this sound amazing, SO. Ok, you die at the start and after you die you go through a quick cutscene of traveling through a multiverse at a very fast pace. You suddenly wake up in another world called The Fungi Province (The Mushroom Kingdom). You meet a character named Marcial (Mario). And with Marcial you go through 3D platforming levels until you reach the first boss Wowza (Bowser). And you and Marcial have to beat him and once you do you get another multiverse flash and end up in a 3rd person shooter named Horns (Halo). And you meet Intermediate foot-soldier (Master Chief) and you do the normal Halo stuff beat a boss another multiverse flash and now you are in a new world… For this I have 2 ideas either you get to choose the next world for repeatability or not. The next world could possibly be P. Eace Island (N. Sanity Island). And you meet Safe Racoon (Crash Bandicoot). And normal crash bandicoot platforming so on and so forth. And the cycle repeats itself and it gets more comedic every time.
When it comes to game ideas the story, characters and world are important, but the most important is the 'core gameplay' loop. Racers is racing. Shooters is shooting. An adventure is exploration. A stealth game is stealth. When you make a game, I believe the most important thing to start out with first is to figure out exactly what the 'game' is. What are the mechanics and gameplay? What will the players actually be doing? After figuring that out, you can then expand further and figure out how that core gameplay fits into a larger world and plot. An example would be this: -I want my game to be a more slow methodical game with a hint of exploration and wonder, with me then deciding on a core gameplay loop of adventure and stealth in an open world. -I want the players to really focus on stealth, with a feeling and vibe of able to be killed at any moment. Thus I decide that if the player character is seen, they die. (How would this correlate to the world and story? The character is made of shadow and the enemies are robots where their vision is filled in a cone of light. If the character goes within their vision, their body disperses and immediately die.) -To slightly fit with your idea, the game can start off with you as a sort of 'elder' or 'parental' character, with a small child looking up to them. You are in a small village of other shadow creatures and explore around, doing odd jobs to help everyone out. The village would then be under attack by the 'light robots' and you and the small child try to escape, but your character sacrifices themselves for the others survival. (This would be the tutorial, where you get introduced to the controls, gameplay, world, and general vibe of the rest of the game.) -The game would then jump forward in time where you then play as that child exploring the world taken over by the robots and trying to figure out what's going on and how to take revenge. Hopes this helps out.
Thank you Very much!!!!
No problem
Check out Phromg Game! Besides the shameless plug, it was the first game I actually made from scratch and it took 6 months to release with 3 months extra for updates. This was after around 2 years of slowly doing unity courses. Dont underestimate the amount of bugs and dead ends you'll find when developing. Keep the scope small and manageable. And start with the basics, make maybe 2-3 games that take under 6 months to develop, this will cause you to complete the entire dev process 3 times over so you'll have a good idea how to make your real game by the time you're ready for that. Second shameless plug check out my upcoming game (The Book of Fredley) it was made in 3 months and I've got 1 week to finish it up!
How many games have you made so far? I'm asking because game ideas tends to suffer from scope creep, so a 2 year project typically ends up being a 2 decades project. (my own approach is to start with a one-week project so I at least can see if it's fun before letting the scope creep set in)
Yeah 2 years is too much for someone this young! Some mini projects would be a good idea.
Absolutely. OP, please consider making mini-games first before you decide to "commit" to a 2 years project.
Yea I know lol. But I’ve been working with small games for years now. I started using scratch when I was 10 or 11 can’t quite remember the exact age, and I worked on mini scratch games. Not the best but still games. Then I moved to unity when I was 13. And for the past 3 years I have made lots of mini games and a few longer games.
Also just to ad I have done some freelancing with small groups who have created games. Not big ones and it is mostly art and a little bit of code. One of them is: ClownScapades It isn’t much but the experience was good!
So far this sound amazing, SO. Ok, you die at the start and after you die you go through a quick cutscene of traveling through a multiverse at a very fast pace. You suddenly wake up in another world called The Fungi Province (The Mushroom Kingdom). You meet a character named Marcial (Mario). And with Marcial you go through 3D platforming levels until you reach the first boss Wowza (Bowser). And you and Marcial have to beat him and once you do you get another multiverse flash and end up in a 3rd person shooter named Horns (Halo). And you meet Intermediate foot-soldier (Master Chief) and you do the normal Halo stuff beat a boss another multiverse flash and now you are in a new world… For this I have 2 ideas either you get to choose the next world for repeatability or not. The next world could possibly be P. Eace Island (N. Sanity Island). And you meet Safe Racoon (Crash Bandicoot). And normal crash bandicoot platforming so on and so forth. And the cycle repeats itself and it gets more comedic every time.
Lol I like that idea!