300 game design ideas

[Sebmojo]

Amazing. (http://www.squidi.net/three/index.php) via RockPaperShotgun.

[Rollory]

I saw that (or at least some earlier incarnation of it) a while ago and was not impressed. I don't see what exactly makes any of those into an actual game that is fun to play, as opposed to "hey lookit what I can think up".

Squidi is a blowhard who spent quite some time going around antagonizing anybody and everybody. I remember on the Mud-dev list in particular, he made all sorts of claims to tremendous genius that the eeevil game industry wasn't capable of recognizing and that was the only reason he wasn't getting hired to design games. Also had some ridiculous things to say about how the advertising industry alone was responsible for men and women preferring different things in entertainment, and with proper brainwashing via advertising anybody could be made to like anything.

There was also the "Penny Arcade incident" in which he took careful aim at his own foot with an elephant gun.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:BigCow/Backup

I'm not inclined to pay much attention to anything he has to say.

[Matt Perkins]

Those are so cute. From the "I don't know how this would actually work, but it's genius, I swear" theories to the "This is amazing stuff which I'm sure no one else has ever thought of."

There are some pretty damn hilarious entries there.

[Ben Sones]

I dream of the day when I can sit down at a computer and type "design scifi rpg" and it does so, instantly. I see that possibility (and have, I believe, solved it), but I see other possibilities as well.

Uh... yeah. First, kicking around some ideas is a long, long, long, long LONG way from solving the design problem "create a system for generating an entirely procedural, playable RPG." Second, Dwarf Fortress says "hi."

You can use any of these ideas you'd like, but credit to Sean Howard must be given in some form.

His wacky notions regarding intellectual property persist, apparently. Ideas are not protected by copyright law, or any other law, so he doesn't have the legal authority to dictate usage terms to anyone. If these mechanics were more specific, he could try to patent them, I guess. They'd almost certainly be rejected, though.

[Matt Perkins]

The ultimate arm chair designer!

[Rollory]

If only he *could* design good arm chairs.

[Fugitive]

I dream of the day when I can sit down at a computer and type "design scifi rpg" and it does so, instantly. I see that possibility (and have, I believe, solved it), but I see other possibilities as well.
Pfft, even the now-ancient Adventure Construction Set beat him to this with its random generation mode.

Oh, he wants a *good* one? That might involve a bit more effort than typing three words...

[Kool Moe Dee]

Hahahahaha...I'm sure he'd totally be willing to split profits 50-50.

[Matthew Gallant]

"I gotta lotta good ideas. Trouble is, most of them suck."
--George Carlin

[jim crawford]

There are several newish, cool, and easily implementable ideas in there amongst the clunkers. This would be a great read for indie developers who feel brave enough to deal with this guy's shaky understanding of copyright law and tendency to cause legal trouble at the slightest provocation.

[russellmz00]

http://www.squidi.net/three/entry.php?id=30

i like his communist zombie mmorpg idea. should add the link to the qt3 zombie game design doc.



Basically, players can get togteher and create safe zones by barracading areas up so zombies can't get in. They can then contribute to a small community outpost there and improve it by donating items found in the world. But these outposts are constantly under attack, and if you aren't constantly maintaining it in tip top condition, the zombies may break through and trash the place. You've got to make sure the generator has gas. You've got to repair the barracades. You've got make sure there are enough guards defending the place.

The point is, eventually, somebody is going to slip up. They'll forget or they'll leave the drudge work to somebody else who never does it. Eventually, somebody is going to make a mistake, and the whole outpost will fall. That's what the zombie genre is about. Zombies aren't a threat individually. Even a golf club can be enough to survive in a group of them. The problem is when you think you are safe and get complacent.

...


This isn't a mud where you win. This is a mud where you lose. Eventually. Your only measure of success is how long before the enevitable happens.

[lesslucid]

Wow, a lot of hatin' on this guy, huh? I guess it does seem likely that he's got some emotional problems, but firstly, well, everyone does, we just vary in how well we hide it, and secondly, some of those ideas are pretty cool in my book, and the pictures are cute, too. Of course the distance between "cool idea" and "game that implements that idea and is actually good" is unfortunately rather large, but I'm in favour of anybody who's willing to put some time and thought into contributing something to the conversation on, "where do games go next?"

[Sebmojo]

I saw that (or at least some earlier incarnation of it) a while ago and was not impressed. I don't see what exactly makes any of those into an actual game that is fun to play, as opposed to "hey lookit what I can think up".

Squidi is a blowhard who spent quite some time going around antagonizing anybody and everybody. I remember on the Mud-dev list in particular, he made all sorts of claims to tremendous genius that the eeevil game industry wasn't capable of recognizing and that was the only reason he wasn't getting hired to design games. Also had some ridiculous things to say about how the advertising industry alone was responsible for men and women preferring different things in entertainment, and with proper brainwashing via advertising anybody could be made to like anything.

There was also the "Penny Arcade incident" in which he took careful aim at his own foot with an elephant gun.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:BigCow/Backup

I'm not inclined to pay much attention to anything he has to say.

Yeesh. Well he does call them 'game mechanics', so I'm not sure he's saying they're ready to slap a clickwrap on. They seem interesting to me, and it's a much more usable way of presenting this kind of thing than Hrose style blocks of text.

Don't know about the copyright stuff, but he seems to be happy for his ideas to be used on a sort of Creative Commons Attribution basis; whether or not he has the legal right to require that, it's not an unreasonable position.

I do note there are only 60 ideas, not 300 - it was late, I was tired.

[krokodile]

I thought this would be about a good game of the movie 300.

I am sorely disappointed.

[malkav11]

http://www.squidi.net/three/entry.php?id=30

i like his communist zombie mmorpg idea. should add the link to the qt3 zombie game design doc.

That sounds an awful lot like Urban Dead to me.

[extarbags]

Turn-based shmup sounds neat.

[Angrycoder]

Turn-based shmup sounds neat.

http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-13-71-bl-49-en-15-r_type-70-24ph.html

[Ben Sones]

Yeesh. Well he does call them 'game mechanics', so I'm not sure he's saying they're ready to slap a clickwrap on.
Most of them aren't really even game mechanics, though, so much as ideas for game mechanics. My benchmark for "mechanic" is that it's something very specific, that you can test. Take his "Cross-Section Battle," for instance. It's a neat idea, but he's not even sure what purpose the cross-section fights serve in context of the overall design. He's not sure how the battles would work even in and of themselves, and his suggestions for how they could work are so vague that they barely even qualify as ideas. How do you issue orders to the units? What determines whether one unit defeats another? What happens if the units can't reach each other on the cross-section that you generate (say, if the lava pool was between them, or the wall)? In his "Archon" suggestion, what happens if more than two units are fighting (do you control all of them? How?)?

I picked that one because it's actually my favorite of his ideas. But it's a long way from being a game mechanic, really.

[shang]

The cross-section fight was my favorite too. It's not usable as-is, but it might actually be worked into something functional and interesting.

[Ex-S Woo]

Don't get it. Load times are long and the strategy lacking.

Thinking about trading my copy in, infact. :|

http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-13-71-bl-49-en-15-r_type-70-24ph.html

[Equis]

Am I the only one who liked the idea of SimMMORPG?

[Fugitive]

I thought this would be about a good game of the movie 300.

I am sorely disappointed.
That one's easy: Pit Dismount