Hi, I've dreamed of becoming a video game designer one day because I love to play games. Especially RPGs and survival horror. I plan to move to Japan in order to get a career and I'm studying Japanese culture and the langauge. Anyways here's 3 ideas I have and I know they might need some work as I am always changing them to sound better. If anyone would like to give any suggestions I'd appreciate it. :) The first story is about a young woman named Emily who visits her grandmother's house after her death. The woman was raised by her grandmother and was very close to her. While going through her old home and remoring she comes across a story book called "The White Princess". The story was about a young princess who would one day rule the world, but her evil mother the Queen wanted her dead so she sent an evil sorcerer to create monsters to kill her to prevent her from taking the thrown. Emily never finished the story when she was a girl. At night Emily wakes up to hear a strange noise and finds a tall man wearing a black cloak in the house and she tells him to get out before she calls the cops. The man leaves but whispers some strange words and latter Emily is attacked by large wolves with red glowing eyes. By dawn the wolves are gone and Emily calls the police and tells them about the man who broke into her house and the strange wolves that attacked her. They say they will send someone to keep an eye out for the animals or the man who broke into her home. The girl Emily gets pulled into another world with a castle and forest latter. A cop named David gets pulled in with her and they find themselves in the world from the story book with fairy tale monsters like the red eyes wolves, giant spiders, trolls, goblins, and a dragon, plus many more. Together they work to survive and end up in places such as the forest, an underground prison, a ship, and last a castle. You have you play as David and Emily on different missions and use each other's skills such as Emily is skinny and can squueze through holes and run fast while David is a cop trained to fire a gun and can take more damage. Emily and David are constaintly stalked by the evil sorcerer and Emily learns that she is the white princess from the story and that the queen wants to kill her. You have to play as David to rescue Emily from the sorcerer, but you play as Emily in order to kill the queen. Of course they develop a romantic relationship. Now the game works by using stradgy such as hiding or using traps such pushing a tortch on a pool of oil to cause a wall of fire. You can use ordinary objects as weapons. Emily first starts with a fire poker and latter after battling the wolves in her apartment she has a revolver that belonged to her grandfather. Of course since she's a normal person she has a hard time aiming it as good as David who's a train cop and does better firing up close. Latter you'll find swinging weapons like a tree branch, a kife, or an axe that might be heavy for Emily and cause her to struggle for a moment but David can swing it faster. Also in the game a mysterious white dove comes to aid David and Emily occasionally by dropping key items or showing them where to go. Books similar to the one Emily found can be found and used as save points. After beating the game you can unlock some extra costumes for Emily and David. Emily. Costume 1: A white gown like hers from the end of the game when the sorcerer transforms her. She wears no shoes. Costume 2: A french maid uniform. Costume 3: A pink shool uniform but with her appreance changed to have cat ears and cat eyes with whiskers and brown fur. She also has a tail and a crown with heart jewels. David: Costume 1: A warrior outfit with armor and a swird holder. Costume 2: A secret agent outfit with a black suit, sunglasses, and ear phone. Costume 3: A space soldier outfit. Along with the costumes you can also unlock 2 special weapons for Emily and David that are only playable with their third costumes. Emily gets a magic wand that blasts pink energy beams while David gets a laser gun. What do you think of it? I think the idea P.S. Sorry that I'm new here. I just found this place over google because I was looking for a place to give my idea. I didn't read the guide lines and now I feel like an idiot. :( I would like some suggestions though on my idea because I know it needs some work.

You're thinking more like a player than a designer. You've described a series of experiences. The wolf attack scene, the strange fairytale world, and the unlockable extras are all events that would stick in the mind of someone playing the game.

If you want to make the game, you need to look above and behind those events.

Your story right now is highlights, like the blurb on the back of a novel. Now you have to write the novel. Pacing, character development and tone will factor in. Will there be drama? Horror? Romance? Writing, even for a game, is very complex.

World design will be another monumental task. What's the dragon doing there? Is it relevant to the story? The evil queen wants her dead, perhaps, but does that mean the whole world is against you? Are there friendly towns and creatures, too?

How about gameplay? Will you be chopping your way through the game, killing everything that moves? Will there be stealth scenes that are scripted, like the first SPlinter Cell game, or will you just have the option to sneak and make your life easier, like in Halo? Third-person? Side-scrolling? Isometric?

There are dozens of problems to overcome just to get a tentative design for the game down on paper. Once you've got that, though, you have to start dealing with problems like artwork and the actual code, which I can't even begin to fathom.

Also, don't put the Japanese on a pedestal. They've got a strong claim to the origins of mainstream video games, but they've made the same five games with the same three stories for the last twenty years. You don't have to copy someone else to make something that's good. That's a lesson the Japanese themselves are often slow to learn.

I get the impression that you have a lot of time left to you before you embark on a career in any field, and I wish you the best of luck.

Id have to agree with Iron Chef

Right now you dont really have a workable design for a game, you just have a list of thing you want to see in a game. You need to look at what you’re designing from a broader view, also try not to get hung up on little details before you have a foundation for your game.

[Edited by - Kaze on March 6, 2006 5:07:17 AM]

So You Wanna be A Game Designer

Thank you all. I was afraid i was going to get flamed.


Me and my friend like to write ideas for games and stuff together. I know I have a long ways to go but I intend to try and make my dream a reality.


I know that idea needs a LOT of work! That's just the idea of what the story is about. If I wrote everything then it would take too long. I need to go to a programing college before I I try to get a career in game design.


Well thanks for the feed back.

try gettting game maker or some tool like it, you can learn whats involved in going from ideas to working game without having to get into serious programming

The best way to prepare for making a really good game is to make dozens of crappy ones. Try making a text adventure with your basic story. That'll give you some data and ideas about plot branches and key choices. Then, make a mini-game that's kind of like how you want the combat to work. Then, put together a couple of neat one-off puzzles that you might want to eventually put into the game, but can be enjoyed by themselves.

If you have a good body of work, then you'll be able to conceptualize the whole project more clearly.