Need for Speed: The Run, but good. Give me an uninterrupted race accoss the US (or any other continent), against 199 other drivers, with strategic decisions to make such as fuel stops, sleep breaks, multiple paths... Make it a rogue lite with unlockable vehicle classes, police chases, weather changes, racing through traffic... Bonus points for realistic physics and VR support.
Cities: Skylines but ecosystem repair. Plant forests, regrade areas of mountains to mitigate landslide potential, reintroduce species and study their functional relationships with each other... Game progression comes in the form of additional research grants or new area assignments which present new challenges and unlock a new set of tools/procedures, but the successes from previous sites allow for migration of the reintroduced species into the new site.
Hmmm, quite hard to choose. I would say an anticapitalist game. Most of game focus on growing, gaining power and i never saw an game that has horizontal power hard coded to its bone.
For example : city skyline unlock new building based on population threesold. The city development is geared toward growing, expanding and creating new job. That's bad. We can't live in this kind of world anymore and yet we fail to imagime something different.
Can't we imagine a new economical system and set up new variable ? Or a game that go beyond the scope of heroes's story ? Why should we be special ?
Back in the day I playtested this game concept under an NDA, but since it expired I can talk about it.
An FPS game in an open map with buildings, has 12 players playing but when someone dies, they respawn right there but swap to the opposite team. The last person to get shot gets eliminated and then the teams split again. This goes on until 6 players are remaining, who are declared the winning team.
It was really fun to play, and I quite miss it.
Eve Offline, with all other players being NPCs.
I have a mental hangup with the very real dread of when hosted multiplayer games die, that all the time and effort I have spent, and all the things I've built, will just suddenly disappear. It's why I run a private G17 Mabinogi server on my pc, rather than playing online.
It used to exist, but not so much anymore. I miss heavily community based FPS multiplayer games. With custom servers and so on. I played Counter-Strike: Source last night, what a breath of fresh air!
Same, I played some Day Of Defeat: Source also a while back. I got onto a server, people were talking about random things and seemed to know each other, there was a sense of community, it felt like a local bar.
It's 3am and I'm chilling and talking with strangers while surfing on CS:S. God, I miss this.
I miss that in newer games. It's all matchmaking, all competitive and in many ways, modern games like this feels "no fun allowed".
Hereâs a weird one I had a half-baked idea for: Tower Defense Metroidvania. The idea is that your an acolyte of a temple (or a mechanic in a space station, whatever), and thereâs an armed group trying to force their way past the templeâs traps and defenses to get to the heart of the temple and steal the macguffin; thatâs going on in a little horizontal track at the top of the screen, and meanwhile the rest of the screen is Metroidvania gameplay as you navigate the interior of the temple (or space station) to activate defenses, acquire magical relics, and eventually awaken the templeâs guardian spirit. You lose if the bad guys get to the heart of the temple, you win when you successfully gather everything you need to awaken the guardian. In the meantime, you have to decide when and where to spend resources (including time) shoring up the ânormalâ defenses (that delay the attackers) and when you need to just push onward to awaken the guardian.
A turn-based, tactical, squad-centered action title where a collective of vicious aliens invade the planet and you as the leader of a group of brave if vulnerable heroes have to save the world from the strange new threat. Except this time the world the aliens have picked to invade is a fantasy realm.
Guiding mages, warriors and rogues against the threat from outer space, combining XCOMesque battles with traditional fantasy game combat and levelling mechanics. Advance through the map taking regions back in control rather than zigzagging around the globe. Both the dwarven and elven capitals are under attack, which one do you go to rescue first and gain the help a new race to pick your pool of heroes from? Manage your kingdom and choose which deities you build a temple for, determining whether you unlock paladins or warlocks as a sub-class. Beat the aliens to reach the dragon before its captured and converted to their side. And as you encounter more armoured enemies, let your blacksmiths experiment with slapping together scavenged items from the battlefield to form high -tier magitech armour of your own.
It's a fever dream combination of effectively XCOM and Majesty that's been in my head for years because I love quirky mashups like this. Not necessarily anything new under the sun but I feel like with some work put into it, you could really forge something unique by embracing the combination of styles and genre conventions.
Truly open-world Star Wars. Like a Breath of the Wild game except with multiple planets and all the Star Wars stuff.
We had something close to it with SW: Galaxies, but... RIP SW: Galaxies.
I want to play a game like Fallout, with perhaps a light plot, but a much heavier settlement building mechanic.
Like, you found a settlement, and itâs filled with trash, debris, and burnt-out structures. As you scavenge and collect things, and attract people to your cause, the place slowly becomes cleaner and more structured. You can have settlers scavenge for themselves and fix up structures, farm for food, treat wounded, lead small armies against mutants and generally secure an area of a map, and really be able to treat the settlement as a home base.
Playing Fallout 4, I was bothered by how I could build out all these settlements, place structures and whatnot, help these people, and still no one had the sense to pick up a broom and sweep up the pile of trash in the street.
I want a game that's somewhere between Animal Crossing and Dwarf Fortress - something with the extensive world gen of DF, but with cute goofy animals, and maybe a little less grisly. So less sudden death by wildlife/zombies/collapsing ceilings, and more adorable wagon travel, trade and founding of settlements - which you then get to live in!
Modern AAA matrix game
A Microsoft Flight Simulator game but for cars.
I just wanna drive around the world and see shit I can't otherwise see, but in real time drives. I got the inspiration from those Trucker Simulator games.
We're almost there with Street View and satellite images, and the developer could do hand-modeling for certain cities and landmarks like MS FS does.
The WoW raiding experience, but without the MMO, and possibly the addition of rogue lite elements (each raid is a run with its own progression, but wiping would be allowed and embraced).
The format of DRG or Gunfire Reborn is pretty close, but 1) I prefer the high fantasy setting of warcraft to the gunplay, 2) I'm not interested in procedural levels, and 3) I want the focus to be on polished boss mechanics.
Dungeon Defenders is also close, but 1) you're defending instead of delving, and 2) it is also focused on killing waves of trash mobs rather than boss mechanics.
Destiny bosses are sometimes well designed, but 1) don't care for the gunplay, 2) classes hardly matter, 3) it's a max of 6 people, and I think closer to 10 is the sweet spot.
Gauntlet from a few years back was probably the closest, but still far from the mark. It could have used more mechanic heavy bosses, more meaningful gear, and a larger party size.
1: An open world exploration game that doesn't have combat ... like Breath of the Wild but without all the fighting and with lots of short stories and puzzles.
Basically I want to be able to go wandering off and uncover ancient ruins etc without having to fight for my life.
2: Snowrunner, but with a good narrative story mode and gearboxes that actually work.
There's so much potential to have engaging stories in that game, which could be tied into improved game structure (namely restricting truck / tire choice to make some tasks challenging in an interesting way).
I'll tell you what I want... Katamari Damaci online multi player. Imagine the final level where you roll up the world but with the mechanics of the multiplayer mode that was already in place. It'll be like agar.io where you get bigger and you absorb other people as you get bigger or you get absorbed because you weren't quick enough at growing. They could update the levels to be themed and add new items and Easter eggs for you to discover and pick up. I want this soooooo bad! I want to play with my friends and strangers. I want different play modes where you get the biggest in the time, pick up the most of a specific thing, capture the flag, use your katamari to play golf but it gets harder if you pick up weird shaped stuff that throws off your balance, Easter egg hunt, racing, team games where you absorb the enemy!!!!!!!! I want it alllllll!!!!
Oh, a Diablo or Borderlands like game where the items (loot) and their effects are AI generated.
I don't think we're at a point where this is possible yet. But I'd love to see the kind of random stuff the AI could come up with.
That would also mean: no more meta builds. You'd have to come up with your own build based on the unique items you got.
I'd love to play a fighting game, with 0 executional difficulty. I'm not talking a simplified fighting game, no. I love the fighting game culture, and discussion and analysis of fighting game tech is super interesting. But before I get to have any fun I have to grind and memeorize for hours the structures and matchups. I can't just pick up guilty gear, do a quick match and have fun.
I want a full fat, meaty fighting game where its turn based. Every frame, or at least every frame where I could have an input, I can look at the scene and make a choice. 0 hidden information, 0 mystery on why I got bodied. The depth of a real fighting game, but now its all understanding of the mechanics and not practicing dragon punches.
If this game existed I'd be so jazzed. I would like for it to have CPU matches as well, maybe not as fleshed out as a full story mode but something I can casually play with even when the community inevitabily dies.
A modern version of black and white
I've always thought it was weird that there hasn't been a Hunger Games video game. Not to play out the teen movie storyline, but as the Battle Royale part.
Imagine creating a character using typical RPG elements (strength, endurance, speed, crafting, survival, etc.) with a limited number of points, the same number of points as everyone else. Then you're placed inside different large arenas that have environmental hazards for a Battle Royale survival that could last up to 30 minutes per game if you're good enough to make it to the end.
You have to survive against random encounters just like the gamemasters use in the books, dangerous animals, and you can get sponsorship drops like the COD kill streak rewards (healing items, tools, weapons). You could even make it through by not killing anyone if you're good enough at surviving the environment, but you'd better hope you don't end up in a fight.
I just think a game like that would be sick.
Endless procedurally generated open-world omni-directional 2D shoot-em-up. Start with a weak spaceship and go on missions to find new weapons and ship improvements. Go to spaceports to buy and sell stuff, fight against aliens or Lovecraftian monsters, survive asteroid waves, find the treasure inside the hostile nebula.
Skyrim but it's an MMORPG (and I don't mean some shitty WoW clone with an Elder Scrolls skin draped over it like ESO)
Guild Wars 2's World vs World mode, but with an established IP and without the bolted-on single player content. And increase the team sizes while you're at it. Sell cosmetic DLC to pay the bills if you must.
WvW was a blast until they shelved it for a year to focus on poorly-written single player DLC, and lost half of the community in the process. I tried going back a few years ago but it's a grindfest now.
Zombie apocalypse game with souls like combat but all slow zombies. The game takes your GPS coordinates (or any coordinates you enter) and uses a maps API call to generate the game map based on the real world. It would take things like residential/commercial/industrial areas and generate similar structures but not exact to not be a privacy issue. All major landmarks would be generated. So you could start from your house, or the Eiffel tower, or the middle of the Amazon. Things like grocery stores and malls and schools would be in similar locations, roads and highways etc.
The game would generate slightly different every time you create a map so while always based on the real world, things would be different.
You then must rescue your partner who is across the map (random generated) and find shelter.
There would be some crafting and survival mechanics, but mostly action based combat, skills to level up etc. Minimal if non-existent gunplay, though I'd be open to it if done well.
Very gorey, rogue like/light with persistent stats and incremental style progression (get so far then reset/start new map with higher their upgrades)
So think dead rising meets dark souls, mixed with vampire survivors and incremental games, all with this AR framework. I also considered a multiplayer persistent map br style mode but would prefer a single player experience myself
A hacking sim like Uplink, but with a less rigid story and a more open world. Also with simulated bash that allows for some scripting
Basically Dwarf Fortress, but sci-fi, with space travel and with really good 3D graphics.
An overly complicated simulation of an entire universe where I can do anything that the game's laws of physics allow me to do. Particularly, I dream of a game where you can fulfil Star Trek fantasies of solving convoluted problems with equally convoluted solutions; but without it being a pre-programmed option. ("Reconfigure the deflector dish to output a neutrino wave to counter act the tachyon field!")
Fake physics that allow for real fake science and engineering.
Iâm not sure that this is a âgameâ idea so much, but Iâve had this idea I havenât been able to wrap my head around the implementation of.
Think a digital audio workstation such as Ableton Live or Logic, but gamified. Complete various musical objectives to pass levels, have a creative mode for just making music and maybe even a multiplayer mode for collaborative or competitive music making.
A modern take on the (pre-NGE) Star Wars Galaxies style MMO, mainly the social aspects like player housing and player driven crafting system it had. We have still not seen such a deep crafting and resource system as SWG had in any game since.
While there are still private servers around in abundance, they are all too small to properly support the social aspects properly, and the dated engine really hold it back. A newer game engine and some modern QOL and UI changes is all you really need, and although the Star Wars IP would be great it would be fine with a lesser IP or fully unique setting.
There have been a few indie attempts at this but none have finished development, with the most recent one pivoting to AI and then going dark earlier this year, though to be fair indie MMO have a pretty bad track record for actually completing.
A new Ori game. :/
Diablo 3. Not the one Blizzard released.
I would like to see a (real)guitar-centric music game (like Rocksmith) that allows people to input their own songs/guitar tabs. I've always found the limitations that licensing entails very off-putting.
Edit: just to clarify, I meant being able to look up whatever song you want, and then importing the tabs into the software so that you could play the song using the visual format that Rocksmith has (falling notes fretboard style).
A single server MMO like eve online, but with real stakes.
In eve, when you die, you keep your character, most of your assets are safe, either by meta gaming or game mechanics.
You can't *really* harm/steal from characters.
Which reduces the need to work together and defend your character and your assets. Risk aversion and occasional replacement is a valid strategy.
There is more stuff wrong with eve... but the biggest problem is the stakes.
I really want to play single-player versions, or at least on my own private server, games like Travian or Ikariam. Basically resource management strategies but without the insane need to be 24/7 online in anticipation of an enemy attack.
Edit: Also a single player tab targetting open world rpg.
A remaster of the original two Thief games of the quality they did with Dead Space.
So, while INFRA already does fully exist, I'd love to see more games like it. It's really hard to describe what INFRA is without major spoilers, but if you've played it then you probably know what I'm talking about.
It's like... take the new Chernobyl game and remove literally all the death states, then fill it to the brim with easter eggs, lore content, secret rooms and pathways, challenging logic puzzles, stuff like that. INFRA ticked all those boxes for me and I have yet to find a game like it.
Every game that I've looked at and been recommended as being "like INFRA" always has some major flaw or some concession that really sets it apart from the original game. INFRA is pretty much all about exploring your surroundings to uncover the plot of the game and even change some of the story if you're vigilant enough about the puzzles. You can literally complete the game just as a walking sim while doing fuck-all, but I think most players will find the intrigue of the story interesting enough to be almost coerced into going down the other fork in the road, so to speak. Like there are sections in every chapter where you have to use your knowledge in civil engineering to repair some sort of machinery using intermediate logic puzzles, but you're always able to just skip it. However, completing these puzzles allows you to unlock the story as the puzzles require exploration. Hope that made sense.
Destroyable environment like Company of Heroes but modern rts setting.
Cities Skylines in the latest Unreal Engine.
Stardew Valley in pretty 3D graphics with no tile system. Valheim comes close but the graphics, while unique, is far from highly detailed.
Teardown multiplayer shooter.
General a lot of single player could use a simple coop that's just playing the game together. It's very rare that coop is more of an addition than a game focus. While often I just wish I could share the fun with friends together. It's sadly because of the complexity of adding coop, vs rewards when it's "just" the same experience but with friends, instead of a competitive like mode where they can sell skins and shit.
I personally always wanted to build a battle ship simulator game with crew system and destructible ships, with harsh survival elements like in the movie Master and Commander. Where you're very close in the action and ships get real impact holes. Most indie games don't come close enough on the realism level I'd like to see. Sea of thieves is somewhat there.
I want a modern difficult farming Sim with an in depth relationship mechanic and no fucking combat. The old harvest moon games are good, but I've kinda played them to death and for some idiotic reason they removed stuff like rival marriages from the remakes. Rune factory has combat, and so does stardew valley (in addition to having a relationship mechanic that's just, really shallow), and it seems like all the farming Sim games that don't have combat are like baby's first farm Sim and are all cutesy and aren't very difficult
Like it feels like this would be an easy thing to do, right?
A bard/artist game that really makes use of the creative potential of music/painting. A great example of a "tech demo" of what I'd like is the magic system in Tchia. You got a ukulele that you can play super freely (possibly the most realistic thing if you don't play it irl), but depending on what notes you play, you unleash different spells (kinda like in the old Zelda games with the ocarina).
I would absolutely love if the creative spell freedom of Magicka (or Fictorum) was combined with the freeform instrument play of Tchia.
A true modern successor to The Guild (aka Europa 1400). That concept has soooo much potential imo, but the games after the first were notoriously underfunded, half-baked and riddled with bugs!
I love playing/writing interactive stories with an AI. A dream game of mine would be an RPG/Adventure game that extends this to a fully realized game that adapts to how you want to play.
Want to be the adventurer who slays the evil monster and saves the kingdom? Go right ahead!
Prefer to stop halfway, settle down and become the village baker, getting involved in the town's intrigues? Also fine!
It would probably be too much to ask to turn this into a full-fledged 3d world with high detail. But a consistent Visual Novel would be a really great next step.A modernized .hack// mmo <3
Fallout 5
Animal Crossing with a super deep friendship system, where you play intricate minigames (like a full tennis sim) and go on adventures together.
I think most of what I'd like has already been made. But they are old, few and far between.
I'd really like a modern Freespace game.
I enjoyed how it made your keyboard into a functional cockpit and how you could customize your own and your squads fighters and loadout. And sending tactical info in the thick of battle.
All that junk. It was great. But the old games are showing their age.
I like all those kind of chill "X Simulator" games, but I'd love to see a bunch of them all combined into one mega-game.
So like if there was a game where you could find parts and build a PC like PC Building Simulator, and also build a vehicle like Car Mechanic Simulator, you could cover huge areas like American/European Truck Simulator, grow crops like Farming Simulator, build a shelter like Construction Simulator, keep the place clean like Powerwash simulator and/or House Flipper and so on.
It'd actually be really good for a post-apocalyptic type of game I think, where you could scavenge all that stuff and build a base.
Pacific Drive with the graphics from Sonst of the Forest
Iâd happily take âfully co-op Elden Ringâ (keep meaning to try the mod, tbf), and âDwarf Fortress, but in 3D and you can play/explore/participate like Minecraft.
Quake that people actually play. Like look at the virality of Battle bits Remastered, the Battlefield with block characters so you can have like 200 people in the match. Games need to feel snappy and run on a lot of low tech machines, and developers are mostly never catering to that budget demographic. FPS games have a huge demand for this. The hundreds of thousands of nerds who can infodump about how incredible the Source engine feels is my proof. So yeah I think there is still a market for competitive movement game 2.0 - a team fortress 3, a titanfall 3, a quake / unreal tournament that runs well and allows community mapping. Like unironically last gens engines followed the wrong upgrade paths and there is still more performance to squeeze out (titanfall 2 using highly customized source and it looking like a AAA game rather than a source game as my proof)
haven and hearth but before they nuked the xp system đ
