Forgive me if something like this thread has been done before. The concept is a little hard to search, and I don’t think I remember anything.
Let’s take the style of a game we like - graphics, music, sound effects, art direction, tone, maybe even story and characters if you think you can—and transpose it into a different genre. Let’s not get too complicated like you’re actually writing a game design document (don’t do “the music of x with the art of y and the game design of z”) but try switching up some of your favorite games with styyyyyle to make them into something that sounds really interesting.
Some examples of mine that are fun to think about:
What if Cuphead was like Super Mario RPG? Wow, I’d definitely be way more excited about it.
What if you made a Devil May Cry-style character action game out of Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne?
Can I cheat and use “Hobbit” as a genre? I just want a good travel game. You need to prepare before next leg of your journey. You make camp at night, you cook, you fix your gear, you hunt and gather, etc. Not really a survival, at least not a hardcore one, but with elements of it. No fast travel of any kind, but you can encounter a river and make a raft to travel for a while. Or you can buy mounts, but you can lose them too. You can encounter a village, stay there for couple of days, help people, so they would help you. Etc., etc.
Mario Kart 8 but with an overworld like Diddy Kong Racing and the tracks are absolutely fucking loaded with secret places and junk like the N64 San Francisco Rush games. Basically a racing game where the tracks are open world playgrounds with side quests and collectibles and stunt areas and shit EDIT: and also you can do flips and shit like in SFR obviously
@Atlas DUDE yes this reminds me of how Guardian Heroes/Advance Guardian Heroes and River City Ransom EX have always represented the idea of a longform action game with the combat of a fighting game that I’ve always thought I wanted, but never seen fully realized, or with which I quickly grew bored.
Um, I love this answer a lot. You just described a game I would absolutely buy day one, and now I’m real interested in Outward, which I hadn’t heard of until now. The
My answer would be very similar. I love big open immersive RPGs, but get bored if the gameplay loop is just bouncing between caves, castles, and crypts until I have to go dump all my loot and go do it again. I would love more emphasis on downtime and prepping for the adventure like you described.
I’m playing a no fast travel Fallout 4 replay right now and wind up spending 15-20 minutes in my settlements every time I go back, tweaking my gear, making food, and pretty much clearing out my entire inventory every time to start from scratch and taking what I think I’ll need. Nowhere near the depth of preparation that I’d like but it ads a change of pace.
I really liked Diddy Kong Racing’s hub world, amazed no one ever did that again. A Burnout Paradise-style open world setup with the Mario Kart visual charm would be amazing.
To add to the conversation, I’m thinking back to the way you can assign subordinates to tasks in several Assassin’s Creed games and wondering what a full-fledged AC strategy game would look like. Maybe something like XCOM?
Well, Guilty Gear 2 was a thing that happened… but most people didn’t care for it. I think there’s a Guilty Gear brawler for mobile, as well. Or maybe that was Blazblue. I can’t remember.
I’ve been listening to a lot of synthwave recently, so I would love something with a cyberpunk look (maybe Ruiner or Syndicate?) with the gameplay of F.E.A.R. (the first one).
