Oh boy...
This is something I can talk about at length! My friends and I are all so interested / affected / inspired by video games through the years, that we will often waste away hours throwing out visions and then riffing off one another about how to add to the idea, how that would be done, and how it would translate into play. Everything gets mentally logged, and then stored away in fantasyland where we all hope one day some magic man with a suit lined with... nay, made out of money will say "Speak." and we will-- and then he will reach into his pocket and pull out the money what with it would be done. Here are some of the concepts I personally have thrown out, and we have collectively spoken about.
Game Concept 1: Dynamic Horror Project.
I noticed something interesting every time I tried to traipse my way through a survival horror game, like F.E.A.R. for example. Certain things will set off my "F-That-O-Meter" more than others. I.e-- A hallway with a light that flickers on cue as you start to make headway down it, and a door at the end that is flanked by signs that say "Do Not Enter". When I see that, I generally think "Hmm... signs are there for a reason. I'm not going in there." and park my ass outside the door for an indeterminate amount of time until I work up the courage to walk through.
And I thought... how much of a persistant mind-screw would it be have a game that notices that, and reacts to that? In that... let's say I am playing the game, and I come to a fork where I may choose to go along a path that goes up flimsy, metal stairs onto platforms in the air or a water filled area. I choose the metal stairs. Later, I might come to another fork where I might choose between a dark, boiler-room type area, or another flooded room. After choosing the dark-boiler room area, the game would "notice" that perhaps I am afraid of being in water (which is true, the 360 degree area of susceptibility, and general "murkiness" that allows me not to be able to see 2 feet in front of me doesn't sit well with me) as as a result-- put me in a position later in the game where I have no choice but to "face my fears" and go into an area filled with water.
This concept would encompass the game as a whole, so... if along the way I saw a spider on the wall, I decided to destroy it with the utmost of prejudice and FAR too many bullets and force than necessary-- it is very likely that I will come across more spiders in less-than-inviting methods. To me this would be very, very immersive. Something I would absolutely love to work on.
Game Concept 2: Re-Actioner
This is is much more mainstream , building off the concepts of characters like "Action Man", Prince Of Persia style gaameplay and bullet-time. In this case, the protagonist is a Jackie Chan-eqsue. And truly... the whole game would play very much like a over-the-top Jackie Chan fight scene. Upon an altercation, instead of relying solely on fists and feet to take on enemies with the implements at hand. Perhaps, due in part to the main characters inability to exhibit brute strength (he it's not ridiculously muscular, but rather very dextrous and agile)... this sort of freestyle fight system would be much more effective than trying to put down a guy with only fisticuffs.
Think of it as general action games are Bruce Lee. You get hit, and you get pissed, but the recoil is sparse, and you can continue on to fight without so much as skipping a beat. Here... you are anything but superhuman-- getting hit hurts.
In any case... the way I percieve the game now is in a very radical sense. I see the game working with a sort of makeshift "mix wheel", like you might see on a video editing software/machine. A bar as part of the HUD that acts as a visual representation of how many actions I can string into one fluid movement before I need to run away and survey again before launching another attack or defense. You might say it's like Viewtiful Joe, but instead of a time that ticks down as you do cool ****, you have a set amount of time in which you can drop cool **** [/i]into[/i]. And, everything tangible in the game having a sort of drop-down menu that lists the current possible things I could do with said objects.
So let's say I have a 30 seconds of peristant time to work with. I might "stop time" to survey my surroundings. The "mix wheel" is now available to me, and I can see what will happen to me in 30 seconds if I do nothing. I flip back to present, and begin my action set. In the paused time, I see that a man is hurling a barrel in my direction, and 1 one man is almost directly to my side.
I might kick-jump lightly off the guy next to me, which disorients him momentarily, launching in the direction of the barrel that is now closer to me. Then, backflip off the barrel back towards the guy who threw it, land behind the guy I disoriented, and then grab his arm and force him to shoot the barrel, that would explode and the force of which would knock the other guy down on his ass. Then I quickly finish things off with a swift knock-out via a pistol whip to the neck. This pleases me thusly, so I allow it to happen-- and it does, and I wait for my bar to recharge before I attempt anything else. And I'm +1 Pistol. Bonus.
The way I saw the storyline is that the main character discovers he is actually the physical manifestation of LaPlace's Demon, which allows him to see the probable outcome of all possible actions and decisions. This also explains why the gun-toting men are hesitant to mortally wound me, as they are trying to capture me alive for government testing. Something like that.
And like with any traditional action style game, the character would develop his ability as time progresses (allowing for more foresight and using of the mix wheel to set up stunt lines), and learn to do more things with the world around him. This whole concept is essentially "Badassness Tycoon," what way can I look the coolest as I do things, and still accomplish them to a full degree of effectiveness. Super styish and over-the-top.
(I expect Stranglehold to be the closest thing to be available that mimicks what I have in mind.)
Game Concept 3: Traditional Action-Platform Revival.
This game, when I see it in my head, I see it as being inspired heavily by some of my favorite game-- Mega Man. The whole game would be very tongue-in-cheek, with an art style not unlike Kameo or Oddworld's Stranger. Somewhat cartoony, but not completely child-like... rather, very stylish and odd.
The protagonist of the game is a sort of typical hero... well, as much as you could be in such a strange setting. Imagine a land with several kingdoms, but instead of each kingdom being the homeland of orcs and humans and dwarves and goblins-- each one if inhabited primarily by B-Movie concepts.
The Kingdom of Carnivorous Zombies. The Kingdom of Large Spiders. The Kingdom of Swarms of Killer Bees. The Kingdom of Frighteningly Monstrous Mosquitoes. The Kingdom of Oversized Snakes. The Kingdom of Vampires. The Kingdom of Robot Ghost Pirates. And so forth, you get the idea.
As war breaks out, the hero must venture forth mostly into the kingdoms, eliminating the threat of Large Spiders and taking down Spider Queen. And, as a throwback in style of the Mega Man, upon vanquishing the threat of a kingdom a new skill is learned, based on the abilities of the figurehead of the kingdom.
So the Spider Queen allows you to wallwalk somewhat. The Mosquito Swarm Queen might grant life leech possibilities. The Snake King would allow you to slide for a time-- imagine diving towards a horde of zombies, but rather than stopping once you hit the ground, you slide for longer that you ought to be able to, allowing you to pass through the legs of the shambling mass, and pop them in the head with your trusty firearms. That sort of thing.
Later, it would be learned that each kingdom's (generally) peaceful ruler was being controlled by a decidedly evil overlord. This would allow for some super rad final stages that would have tons of baddies from all of the previous kingdoms, working together.
The game would play from a third-person perspective, not unlike Dead Rising, and allow for some really kickass throwback gameplay but in a fresh new way that doesn't scream "2D Side Scroller +1 Dimension"-- the clunkiness of which has been the downfall for several Mega Man and Castlevania outings.
This particular concept is to me, the most off-kilter, which would allow for lots of rather inventive and twisted concepts for art, gameplay, and style. Really want to make this one. 
Those are just a few of my big ideas, that I hope I will be able to bring to fruition at some point in my lifetime...
Some smaller concepts I really want to see brought to the game world is less of a focus on action and more primarily with social concepts like Groupthink, and Sociological norms as a whole. Moreover, games that more open-ended in their possibilities. Like, many games now only have 1 (maybe 2) outcome(s) for any given situation. Say my friend is possessed, and starts to attack him-- most games expect me to lay into him immediately and put one inbetween his eyeballs without any sort of moral ramifications aside from the ones the cutscene and the in-game text tell I'm supposed to have. What if I do all I can not to hurt him, and stay away from him so I don't get hurt... shouldn't that have an outcome as well, instead of resulting in a death that I cannot avoid because that I must do is scripted and predetermined? (On that note, the concept of death needs to really be scrutinized in gaming. It for the most part, doesn't matter in games right now.)
Basically, I want to see the idea behind the outcomes / consequences / reprocussions between shooting a guy in the head versus hitting him with a tranquilizer and immobilizing him taken to the next level. I want game designers to contemplate on what I might do to move on, rather than dictating what I MUST to progress in the game. Perhaps BioShock will be one of the first in a new generation that really tickles my fancy in this area. (I hope so.)
Another one is note-taking. Why can't I make my notes in game, rather than having to log things on a piece of paper that de-immerses me. Samus, for example, the ever-expanding scope of the Metroid games... you'd think with all that machinery, she'd have a voice-log (I'm almost positive she does). So that when I come to something I cannot open / deal with right now, I can make a mental note about it.
Return to Sector I-9 later should new demolition technology be found.
This way, I don't have to spend 100 years backtracking once I've found the missle upgrade I need, or worse-- get up off the couch, out of the game, and look it up in a walkthrough. This is something all adventure games should have a default I think. Especially dungeon-crawling overworld-sprawling games like Zelda-- something which I believe is being implemented somewhat into Phantom Hourglass.
That's the kinda stuff I want to see.
(I realize this post will be far too long for most, especially here on NeonAges, but this is nothing new... )
~Apok | Talkback!
(Original post to which this article was written in response to:
Imagine you have the power to create your own game. Forget programming knowledge, publishing costs, and the many obstacles that stand in the way of producing a great gaming experience. What type of game would you create? Would you simply mimic your favorite title and put your own twist on the experience? Would you rather mod existing software and make your own improvements or come up with something completely original? Given this dream scenario do you think the homebrew market would be flooded with GTA clones and Madden rip-offs or does the general public have original ideas to add to the mix? )
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