Ok, just because I'm a nosy bastard lol, and am intrigued by imagination, I propose the following in this here topic.

Create your dream game:

Give your game a title, make it pertain to the game somehow, be it the atmosphere, the characters, some play on words based on the content.

Give your game a synopsis, tell us all what the basis is, capture our interest.

DETAILLLLLLL, give us a little on mechanics, for example if your game is a shooter, tell us what you'd prefer it modelled on and why, maybe one isn't enough, perhaps you want the overpowered knifing from CoD able to kill people beside you that you couldn't hit at that angle to save your life, but want bullet mechanics from Battlfield where bullets travel in a natural arc (realistic sniping ftw). Perhaps you want graphics to go back a bit, tired of 3D in your RTS? Want to go back to (in my opinion) the greatest RTS style of Red Alert 2 and it's Yuri's revenge add-on. Link us to pictures of gameplay from those games, use them to help describe features you want.

or

If it's an rpg, what sort? what influences? FF-esque? Which model? Really show us what it is you'd want.

Finally, breakdown the story a little more thoroughly, a few paragraphs about the protaganist or the villain of the piece. Little plot sequences perhaps. Some jokes (should your game be that way inclined) from the plot and give us more on the unique features which make this game extra special.

Now it'd take a lot of typing, lots of research, but I'd like to think us GoGers here are the ones really able to take all those pieces of our favourite games since gaming began, melt 'em all down and showcase to each other what we would call our dream games.

My dream game would be Fooly Cooly with an option button for japanese and english.
It would be a sandbox mission game where you earn funny costumes, enjoy the most random of sitations, and would end such as the series did after an extensive playthrough if you choose to follow it. Storyline missions would be repeatable and you could get into random fights when riding with Lord Kianti. Haruko would randomly harass you and when she hit you, a "Mechanica" monster would slowly grow and eventually threaten you being stronger than the random fights. You could hang around town and certain missions could be like part-time jobs, mini-games sports, and trying to get collectibles from the series just to screw around. Honestly, just a truly random, insane, membrane-bashing kind of game, a Fooly Cooly kind of game.

And just to throw in a curve ball, complete unlockable soundtrack from "The Pillows".

Nice nice, keep 'em coming peeps.

I've already listed a few games I came up with (very briefly) in my indie gaming post earlier, but none of them are really my "dream" game.

That's a bit more difficult question to ask. Hmm...

I guess my dream game would be one I came up with a few years back called "Fortuna Quest."

The storyline is something like this: The land of (insert world name here) has enjoyed centuries of prosperity under the rule of the Great Gods: Aros, the God of Wisdom: Rapapos, the goddess of Courage; and Heirotos, the goddess of Strength. As the three mightiest gods of the world pantheon, they have kept order among the lesser deities, allowing the mortal inhabitants of their world to live long, happy, and fulfilling lives.

But Cordos, the god of decay, has long felt limited by their rule. With the aid of a small army of like-minded lesser spirits he manages to destroy Rapapos's physical manifestation and imprison both Aros and Heirotos within a chamber of impenetrable stone high atop their once-majestic mountain castle. With his newfound power among the deities, he begins to set about changing the world into his own image -- an image of death, of suffering, of rot.

Enter Doma, our young hero. The last in a long line of warriors, his family once served the gods well, though in the ages since their great deeds have been forgotten, and he has made his living as a petty thief and mercenary. Imprisoned after being caught by the city guard, he is unexpectedly visited by the apparition of a beautiful woman -- Rapapos herself, seeking the last warrior capable of restoring order to the world.

His mission? To seek out the Fortuna stones -- three stones created by the council of three gods that would grant their bearer the powers of their respective creators. Once he has collected them, he must take them to their mountaintop keep, where Cordos spreads his vile undead armies and corrupting influence from, and defeat the God of Decay once and for all.

Pretty generic story, I know, but the elements that would make the game great are the level of control the player would have, and the music, which would play a key role in the game.

The controls would be based around the character wielding two weapons, and handling each one individually. I'm imagining this as a console game, so bear with me as I use a typical console controller to describe how it would control. The top shoulder button on each side would serve as the weapon selection trigger. While camera and movement controls would normally be linked to the joysticks as normal, when the weapon selection trigger is held down the joystick on that side changes to controlling the movement of that weapon. Different movements of the joysticks would cause the weapons to swing in various ways depending on enemy placement around the character, and an auto-targeting system would even allow the character to move short distances while swinging their weapons if an enemy were just out of reach. The other two triggers would each control a separate magical attack, two of which could be mapped to the character at any time, with a third effect being possible if both triggers are used at once that combines the powers of the two spells. Face buttons would control other actions, such as jumping and so forth.

Next is the music. I've got a soundtrack of about 35 songs planned for this thing, ranging from "Porch" by Pearl Jam through "Grimacy Park" by Deadsy and even "Zombie Stomp" by Ozzie Osbourne. Each "stage" would have one to three associated songs depending on length (most would be pretty short, with multiple "stages" making up each level) and players would fill up a special meter by striking and dodging enemies in rhythm to the music. When the meter is full pressing a button would activate an alternate mode that changed the look of the level and slowed down enemies, allowing the player easier combat and access to secret areas that are only visible and accessible when the special mode is activated. Beating a stage would unlock the ability to replay the stage at any time, and replaying a stage with a different song -- all songs are unlocked as the game is played through -- and using it instead of the stage's default song/s has the possibility of opening up alternate pathways and secret areas that otherwise would not show up.

Beating the game would also unlock a new character -- Iieana, half-daughter of Aros and a powerful magic user. All four of her attack buttons cast different spells, and all four can be combined to achieve devastating effects, though she has a harder time chaining combos than Doma does. Beating the game with her unlocks the ability to play as another as-yet-undetermined character, with any luck one of the musicians featured on the soundtrack as a guest star. In addition, each alternate character playthrough would have several stages and songs that could only be unlocked by them, and replaying those unlocked stages or songs with the other characters can open up even more bonus content -- costumes, weapons, powerups, and so on and so forth.

Stop coming up with ideas, and start realizing those you already have! :p

I'm not going to write as much as you want, but my dream game would be an open-world RPG in a cyberpunk setting. You would be a detective and quests would basically be cases and mysteries. The game would have a heavy emphasis on factions with choice and consequence.

Sort of like Deus Ex mixed with Fallout 3 and Grand Theft Auto.

Basically the Shadowrun game we should have had not the CounterStrike wannabe we ended up with.

Shadowrun was a great game and a rather unique one at that. When I first saw the Shadowrun game on the "re-release" PC-DVD, I was shocked, perturbed, and disturbed to find they abandoned their award-winning version and truly loved by just about every game for a Cloned Online Game.

Well, I've had a lot of ideas over the years, and have actually tried working on a few of them (unfortunately, being dumb and untalented gets in the way of that...), so there's a lot of dream games I could list here.

One of the more interesting is of the "Metroidvania" style. You start the game as a spider, happily spinning webs across a bookshelf like any other mindless arachnid, with the only notable difference being that you happen to be at the top floor of a wizard's tower. The game begins with this with this wizard toiling away through his books, having at long last unlocked magic secrets necessary to bend reality to his whim. Just then, a band of heroes break into the room, resulting in a standoff. The wizard, in a panic, casts a medley of spells which ricochet across the room and outside of the tower, but the heroes manage to slay him. The sky outside turns red, and the heroes quickly leave, taking the wizard's staff with them.

Meanwhile, the spider is visibly glowing, having been struck with a stray bolt during this scene. The view zooms in on the spider, who seems to have gained sentience and realizes he is able to read and understand the spines of the books. While trying to figure out how to remove one of the books, lightning strikes outside, shaking a table and dropping one of the wizard's flasks to the ground. Out of a puddle of the red liquid emerges a giant fly, which flies out of the tower window, shortly followed by loud screams.

You now gain control of the spider and walk over to the spilt potion, becoming man-sized. A cutscene shows the spider reading through several books and fades out. The screen flashes white with the sound of thunder, and we now see the spider again, having read several of the books.

The room starts to blur, and the spider suddenly finds itself in the middle of a peaceful green field adorned with cyan obelisks. This serves as a tutorial area, where you learn to jump, climb, and attack. Killing enemies has a random chance of dropping items and magic, but the first enemy you come across, a gnome, always drops the gnome polymorph potion when you kill it.

You will gain spells, abilities, self-polymorph magic, and all sorts of items. You gain the ability to morph into a spider, gnome, skunk, octopus, slime, and unicorn over the course of the game.

Generally, to keep things from being annoying, you can tackle most situations in any form you like, with certain areas pretty much requiring you to stay in a certain form. In towns, you'll usually want to be in gnome form so you can talk to humanoids. You can see in the dark and dig through dirt in skunk form. Everybody can swim, but the octopus can get through water jets and controls better. You can change form on the fly, and many abilities you gain can be used by multiple forms.


Depending on the form you take, you use the weapons you equip in different ways. Each form also has it's own dash. The gnome can do a backdash a la Castlevania, while the spider can lunge forward, the slime can split into two (primarily used for puzzles), the skunk can repel enemies backwards and use it while attacking for a burst attack, and the unicorn becomes rainbow-colored and intangible for a moment, allowing it to dodge forward (like Julius' dodge in Aria of Sorrow).

You can use keyboard shortcuts, but using a gamepad, you can morph by holding "morph" and pressing another button. Enemies can drop magic scrolls, which you can equip to eight different slots. You can use keyboard shortcuts for these, but each slot can also be used by holding "magic" and pressing a button, or performing a fighting game motion and pressing attack. The gamepad controls are made with a PS2 controller in mind, using L1 for dash, R1 for morph, R2 for magic, X for jump, [] for attack, and O and /\ for morph abilities one and two.

The areas would have lots of variety. There would be a healthy supply of secrets, minigames, and collectables, as well as quests, puzzles, and fun powers. Good enemy, boss, and level design would be important, as would having vibrant spritework and music. Obviously, the game doesn't take itself too seriously and the story isn't the forefront of the game, but humor and charm, cutscenes, and books you find throughout the game help give it life. Ultimately, time and space have become twisted, and it turns out everybody really seems to hate that band of warriors much more than they ever hated the wizard. Also, the wizard was a bit of a jerk and a time-traveler.

I'd play that, bro, and I'm not usually a big fan of Metroidvania.

nah

My dream game would be something I can actually make. With that said the PC needs to be a Tactics Ogre/ Final Fantasy Tactics type with the story and complexity of these games but without random encounters/grinding as I believe they are bad game design philosophy.

Not sure on a title but it would be related to a universe I've created for writing stuff where the modern day world exists but under it exists a conflict between 2 groups over different philosophies on how to use different types of power that exists naturally within the world.

One is called aether that without protection corrupts the user and turns them into a shell of their former self. This is wielded by a group called Keepers who will brand their body, hidden to the normal eye until aether is channeled, to achieve greater power without losing their humanity. Past a certain point the brand becomes useless and the excess power flows into them.

The other is called creation where it is driven by channeling a neutral energy through objects such as swords or guns. The group who wields these are called Guardians and see the Keepers as a threat to themselves and everything else.

I would have the grid based combat reflecting the difference in the two factions and probably tie classes into this somehow. Energy/MP would start empty and charge up to reflect channeling. Some of the classes would specialize in physical combat while others devote all of their energy into long range combat.

No generic characters would be used and each battle would be followed a story segment and then another battle. Each character would be tied into a class with only a promotion at a certain level. Fire Emblem is a decent idea of how it would work.

Not sure on the story but it would be something very political oriented and would show the glaring weaknesses in the philosophies of both sides.

Only thing stopping me is general lack of knowledge in game design. If I ever had a few months to kill it would probably be spent learning to program well enough to do a mock up to see how viable the concept would be with just my skills.

One of the things that I despaired about with Troika's closing was they never got to make a sequel to Arcanum, or re-use the same steampunk, Industrialized fantasy setting in a new game. Then there was their unfinished post-apocalyptic RPG they couldn't get a publisher from, that many surmise was the original Fallout 3 before Bethesda took over the franchise, but I won't get into that can of worms. Since Arcanum was technically their biggest seller, it seemed likely they'd follow it up if they got funding. Funding and sponsors was always a huge problem for this creative, struggling company.

I'd like a new cRPG that would be a heir apparent to Arcanum, taking place in a similar steampunk world, mixing fantasy tropes and races with the technological and cultural upheaval indigent to a 19th-century Victorian England and America, like the [url=Victoriana]http://www.cubicle-7.com/victoriana.htm[/url]RPG.

I'd also want the the game to take a notable anti-heroic slant. The world is gritty and chaotic, classicism and exploitation is rampant. You may have Elvish mining moguls and railroad robber-barons importing cheap halfing or gnomish labor to complete their railroads and fill their silver mines, the way cheap Cornish or Chinese were used, fleeing the poverty or famine of their native lands. You may have organized labor movements or suffrage groups from half-orcs or other "mulatto" races fighting for enfranchisement in a world ruled by Elvish and Human "elites." I imagine wars being faught over Illusionists worried that their talents will be edged out over developments in photography and the new-fangled "moving pictures," and consortium of mages embroiled in similar fights over the standardization of electricity to power public places and homes when their magically-bonded light globes are no longer required, fletchers and smithies, both mundane and magical, warring against government subsidized rifle-makers, and I imagine a lot of propaganda being waged on both technological and magical sides to paint the other side as dubious, criminal, and possibly dangerous. ("Do you want to risk electrocution every time you turn on the light? Say NO to ballot 52 on Westinghouse's Alternating Current!" --paid by the Starlight Mages Guild Sexism and racism will be very real forces that take hold in the cultural mindset, something usually glossed over in politically correct representations of pseudo-medieval fantasy RPGs, adding additional challenges to female player characters.

I don't want simple economies or a geocentric worldview where the world's politics and events revolve around your merry band of six, or whatever. I don't want evil foozles. Evil takes place in a more murky, grey area of Social Darwinism between the races wanting control of their particular industry or niche, and in disenfranchisement and homelessness and epidemics caused by unhygienic slums, something that can't be defeated as an EndBoss. I also don't want adventuring glorified, with some hapless fat mayor who can't welcome our intrepid band warmly enough to save their quivering posteriors from the evil ______. In fact adventurers are often looked at a necessary vigilante evil at best, and opportunistic looters are worst, ruining local economies with massive amounts of plunder and defiling historical landmarks. There are no Chosen Ones or Valiant Orphans Seeking Revenge in your adventuring band. They are often failures in their own past lives, drifting into adventuring as a last recourse or due to a scandal that ended their "respectable" careers, and they are as self-involved and self-serving as any merchant or smuggler trying to escape high national trade tariffs and scrape by. I also imagine an economically depressed world where there are actually a glut of adventurers and not enough villages to save. Adventurers often fight each other for work and commissions for even mundane errands (think of the difficulty of employment today, with fifty applicants for every plum position at a company, at least), and often sabotage or even stealthily ambush and kill each other for jobs.

I want this RPG to not just be another grinding excuse in fantasy escapism, but a piece of social realist art, a metaphor even for the troubles and tribulations of our current world. This is a "dream game" forum, so I don't need to worry about placating investors or the sales figures with the hoi polloi for whom franchises live or die by. It also would be isometric pre-rendered 2D, like the Black Isle Studios games, with highly detailed sprites and beautiful artwork and a good deal of dialogue NOT spoken, instead of relying on resource intensive and often ugly 3D environments, and expensive slow-as-molasses voice actors all the time.

There are other "dream games" in genres I have mulled over, but I'll try to avoid this post bloating into marathon length and just stick with this most prominent one in my mind.

I too own arcanum, and love it, and the steampunk thing, be it victorian-esque or futuristic steampunk or post apocalyptic, love 'em all, and this game, be the anti hero... I'm seriously liking. Nice work.