Hey everyone, I want to build a game that I will be able to play while at college, utilizing networking to play my creation with some friends. That is my requirement, but right now I can't think of any good gameplay ideas. // feel free to skip this ramble I think alot of games can be easily divided into two categories, single player and multiplayer, with people prefering one, the other, or liking both (or disliking both... i suppose). Myself, i've always been a multiplayer person.. there's just something about playing Counter-strike, or Halo 2 online, not to mention some small online RPGs i've played. I guess its the human to human interaction I like. // also feel free to skip this But I digress, I love innovative gameplay on top of all that. So over the past week or so i've been trying to come up with a good game idea ( and by game i mean gameplay, not game story line or anything, that is why i gave the little ramble on multiplayer above ). However, I have failed to come up with anything, and the only thing in my head is a little bomberman clone I wrote as a school project last year, that was intended to have multiplayer but never made it. Sorry for the blocks of text. The point of this post is this: Where do _you_ find inspiration for innovative gameplay ideas? The best ways i can think of are to A) play games, and B) read topics here.

Dreams can also be a good source of inspiration (if you can ever remember any) and can be good sources can they can be quited werid and different.

Another place would be from moveies. I'm not suggesting just going and making a game of a movie, but take one of the events/situations in the movie as a starting point.

I read. The ideas I get from reading don't even seem like they have to do with the text I am reading, but must allow my mind to branch off to other ideas. Subconcious, non?

EDIT>
The above might seem misleading. I don't read stories much anymore. I am talking about reading technical manuals and information on various things (wikipedia >.>)

you can go back about 10 pages and take someone elses ideas. thats what i do!!

/me is kidding :D

Quote:Original post by Dragoncar
Dreams can also be a good source of inspiration (if you can ever remember any) and can be good sources can they can be quited werid and different.

Another place would be from moveies. I'm not suggesting just going and making a game of a movie, but take one of the events/situations in the movie as a starting point.

Haha, last night I had a dream that I had a dream that I drew inspiration from. Then I woke up and thought I had inspiration, but it turns out it was all a dream.

Quote:Original post by MSW
some good ideas listed so far...but I would suggest haveing a look at old games. Not just pre-current gen stuff...but age old games and sports kids play like tag and cops and robbers, and the dozens of variations.

Also imagine combineing gameplay mechanics of two different games...for example imagine combineing rock/paper/scissors with checkers.

Heh, actually, when trying to get ideas, I thought back to rock/paper/scissors and tic-tac-toe. Even sometimes when i'm designing a game engine I think: How can I get this to easily change between Tic-Tac-Toe/Checkers/Pong/Super Mario/Halo.... (But that's probably over-generalization)

When I was younger, I used to play games and think to myself, "Wow, that was a cool game. But you know what'd make it REALLY cool?", and draw ideas from that. These days running out of motivation is a major problem for me. I love tapping into inspiration. But it never lasts long enough.

Whatever you do, always remember that it's not the inspiration you need to work on, it's what you do between bursts of inspiration that really matters. But whatever you do, make sure you have more than one way of inspiring yourself. If you don't, you'll find yourself running dry very frequently. There's no real formula for coming up with innovating ideas. They just sort of come to you. I think very few people know how to spark inspiration in their own minds. It's really a self-discovery thing. Whatever works for you, works for you. Explore your own mind and tendencies. It's there that you'll find out what really inspires you.

Oh, and, for what it's worth, I've heard that hot showers work.