Ideas Dump

A place to discuss things that aren't specific to any one creator or game.
Forum rules
Ren'Py specific questions should be posted in the Ren'Py Questions and Annoucements forum, not here.
Message
Author
gekiganwing
Lemma-Class Veteran
Posts: 2473
Joined: Wed Sep 29, 2004 1:38 pm
Contact:

Re: Ideas Dump

#1516 Post by gekiganwing »

"The protagonist is one part of an action team." They don't have to create or lead it. Instead, they can just be part of a group of heroic people who are proactive and capable. They get to be a part of a story which focuses on things I've liked in fiction for many years: external conflict, exploration, battles, and so on. Here are a couple examples of how this could work...

* Protag is a thief in a low fantasy genre adventurer group. They have to be subtle about their intentions, and they need dexterity in order to survive traps.
* Protag is the medic on a modern day team. They need survival and teamwork skills.
* Protag is a brave member of a paranormal investigation squad. They might not like facing the unknown, but they can outwit / defeat foes. (The first things can come to mind are the Scooby-Doo team and the '80s Ghostbusters.)

An interesting angle for an otome game: "The protagonist starts as the first girl of a male action team, and then avoids becoming a territorial smurfette." At some point in the story, another girl joins the group. However, the protag decides not to become jealous or hostile of her. She believes that the group will survive if they can be friends, or perhaps friendly rivals.

User avatar
Harick
Veteran
Posts: 249
Joined: Sat Aug 22, 2015 7:34 pm
Contact:

Re: Ideas Dump

#1517 Post by Harick »

I just had the worst idea for a dating sim. Baically it's a gay dating sim, set in the 80s, steeped in 80s nostalgia. But the twist is that the AIDS epidemic starts at the same time so like almost all of your romance options die a slow painful death. The only way to make this idea not horrible is to make it educational about that period, with how people treated gay people bacuse of it and showing just how huge it was and stuff.

User avatar
ScarletKnives
Newbie
Posts: 16
Joined: Sun Oct 30, 2016 11:11 am
Deviantart: ScarletKnives-X
Contact:

Re: Ideas Dump

#1518 Post by ScarletKnives »

A idea I have but Im too lazy to create it:

Basically its a conflict between 2 time-traveler teams. First one prevents the time from being altered and believes what will happen is bound to happen. The second group (and the one with the protagonists) are committed to change certain events from the story so great tragedies and wars would be avoided. The first part of the story will narrate that conflict... however, a bigger menace appears and both sides needs to join to defend time (time-eaters? I don't really know)

User avatar
puffinlady
Regular
Posts: 56
Joined: Fri Jul 20, 2012 8:25 am
Completed: Soundless, Three Lilies
Projects: POLYCHROMANIA, 7388
Organization: milk+ visual
Tumblr: milkplusvn
itch: milkplus
Location: United States
Contact:

Re: Ideas Dump

#1519 Post by puffinlady »

All of the ideas I have that don't even see a game design document are usually the same thing rehashed over and over:

1. You are a girl who dates cute girls who all represent different kinds of lolita fashion
2. You are a girl who dates cute girls who are all based off of important philosophers
3. You are a girl who dates cute girls who all represent different genres of fiction

And on and on like that.
Maybe when I'm done making games with actual substance I'll create an imprint called sappho+ or honey+ or something that releases nothing but stupid gimmicky yuri games. It'll be like retirement, but better.
"A novel is never anything but a philosophy put into images." - Albert Camus
Posts written outside of our WIP/Completed threads are written by papaya


Image Image
Three Lilies | POLYCHROMANIA

gekiganwing
Lemma-Class Veteran
Posts: 2473
Joined: Wed Sep 29, 2004 1:38 pm
Contact:

Re: Ideas Dump

#1520 Post by gekiganwing »

"What's it like to go on a date?" Write about characters going out together. Tell a story about their experiences during a single day, or just a handful of dates. Where do they go, and what do they think about their interaction? This story can include conflict, humor, fantastic elements, or anything else you consider relevant.

"Is stat-building beneficial?" Give the protagonist at least a few statistics (intelligence, art, strength, social skills...) and then let the player shape the protag through stat-building. This will determine what sort of person the protagonist will be. Now... is this a good thing? Maybe it is, if the protag is using their time to become a more complete, refined person. Or maybe it isn't, if the protagonist *only* intends to attract a love interest by becoming smarter or more artistic.
Harick wrote: Fri Nov 17, 2017 8:36 pm The only way to make this idea not horrible is to make it educational about that period, with how people treated gay people bacuse of it and showing just how huge it was and stuff.
I think it's good to consider whether your story stands on the "entertainment versus educational" spectrum. There are many published works of fiction which exist in the middle ground between escapist fun and a stark reflection on events. There are also many examples of stories which convey a message, while making the world relatively entertaining, and not downbeat all the time.

User avatar
FluffyCakeFactory
Regular
Posts: 26
Joined: Mon Jun 19, 2017 6:24 am
itch: fluffycakefactory
Contact:

Re: Ideas Dump

#1521 Post by FluffyCakeFactory »

puffinlady wrote: Sun Nov 19, 2017 5:07 am ...
2. You are a girl who dates cute girls who are all based off of important philosophers
...
There's Asphyxia which kind of does this. In case you're interested in reading something like this :)

I came up with the following:
You befriend a classmate in college (or high school, or a co-worker) who is very nice and calm. The first time you go to their house you notice they are collecting a lot of dolls. They tell you they are making them themselves. It turns out they kill people to get their hair (and maybe clothes or eyelashes) to make the dolls. When they notice you know more than you should, they attempt to kill you too.
Maybe include some choices which lead to one of these endings: you ally with your friend, they get caught by the police, they kill you, you survive the attempted murder but they manage to flee.

gekiganwing
Lemma-Class Veteran
Posts: 2473
Joined: Wed Sep 29, 2004 1:38 pm
Contact:

Re: Ideas Dump

#1522 Post by gekiganwing »

"The pressure's on now." Here are a couple visual novel ideas in which the protagonist has limited resources, or they have to act in a hurry.

* The characters are isolated in an emergency situation. But wait, they have mobile phones! However, their batteries are running low. They can only justify calling two or three times. Also, after a few hours, the batteries will run out of power.

* The protagonist has a supernatural power, but it has a major drawback. Such as a magician who can use a fireball spell, but it only works once per day. Their ability recharges after several hours of sleep.

* The antagonist knows what they're doing, and won't just wait for the heroes to show up. Like Ozymandias from Watchmen, they can say that their plan was activated thirty-five minutes ago, and they aren't bluffing.

* The protagonist has only a few hours or days in which they interact with people. For instance, they meet someone during a vacation or summer camp, and know that they'll part ways rather soon. Of course they can talk afterwards. However, they want to become friends with a person, and their time meeting face-to-face is limited.

* Reading about the recent OJLVN Making Lovers reminded me of things which I like. One of them is a male protagonist whose friends and family want him to find a significant other soon. Another thing which I don't often see in boy x girl stories is a short common route -- quickly transitioning from "several characters meeting each other" to "two characters committing to their relationship." (Incidentally, it sounds like this VN provides justifications for why the heroines are single.)
FluffyCakeFactory wrote: Sun Nov 19, 2017 2:27 pm The first time you go to their house you notice they are collecting a lot of dolls... It turns out they kill people to get their hair (and maybe clothes or eyelashes) to make the dolls.
One possibility: even though the dollmaker is doing horrible things, they have a motivation which makes sense. (They believe that magic will let them revive a dead family member, but they need fifty sacrifices.) When the protagonist learns about the dollmaker's motive, they can choose to side with them, or continue to oppose them.

User avatar
curry nochi rice
Miko-Class Veteran
Posts: 746
Joined: Sat Mar 27, 2010 3:12 am
Projects: Delicatessen, Whom to Notice, Start of Something, Love Sorcery
Organization: Circle Cosine
IRC Nick: Curry
Skype: after.curry.rice
itch: project-rothera
Contact:

Re: Ideas Dump

#1523 Post by curry nochi rice »

dating/management sim involving "instagram" models or youtubers or twitch streamers.
Personal (R-13) | Now at IndieDB | Circle Cosine's itch.io
I wanna be done.

User avatar
Chiagirl
Regular
Posts: 45
Joined: Fri Mar 31, 2017 1:08 pm
Completed: Ellen and the Pumpkin
Projects: The Crossing
Skype: SummonerNinja
itch: Chiagirl
Location: USA
Contact:

Re: Ideas Dump

#1524 Post by Chiagirl »

I've had an idea bouncing around where the MC wakes up in a hospital with amnesia only to be told they were the victim of an attempted murder; with the main three suspects being their spouse, their sibling, and their best friend. Throughout the game you try to figure out who was actually behind it, and watch your relationships with the aforementioned characters change based on what you perceive to be the truth. There would be different endings depending on which character you end up "remembering" tried to murder you, or if you "remember" at all, or bad ends if you end up getting killed for real this time. As well as your relationship with characters being drastically affected based on decisions and suspicions made. (Happily married or divorced? Are you close to or estranged from your sibling? Still best friends or are you now enemies?) After unlocking all of those you are unable to unlock the true end where you accurately remember everything this time. I have 2 ideas for how this could go, but I can't decide if
I want them all to be in on it together, or if I want it to have actually been a suicide attempt.
Maybe do both and let the player decide the "true end" for themselves?

The other idea I've had was a time travel fic where an agency goes to the past to recruit you to help catch a terrorist in the future...
that is actually your future self.
Of course you don't discover this until much later on accident when they "rescue" you after almost killing you in the first place. You're faced with your major path/branch point here of helping the "terrorist" or sticking with the organization; though it should be possible to get a couple bad endings before this point, and I've debated there being the potential to end up not discovering this altogether or not until it's "too late" depending on what options you pick. Based on your choices you can either get more bad endings, or 2 good endings for each route; a friendship or
family
ending for sticking with the terrorist, or a colleague or romance ending for sticking with the organization.

While I'd very much like to make these games myself one day, they both feel as though they're quite a big challenge for a first VN project, especially since I lack artistic skills and thus would have to hire everything out if I couldn't find free resources to fit with the overall theme. Though just so I have an idea of which one to start on first, which of the two do you guys find most interesting and why?
Last edited by Chiagirl on Fri Feb 22, 2019 12:17 am, edited 1 time in total.

gekiganwing
Lemma-Class Veteran
Posts: 2473
Joined: Wed Sep 29, 2004 1:38 pm
Contact:

Re: Ideas Dump

#1525 Post by gekiganwing »

"Can't load your previous save and reconsider a decision." When I finally tried a Telltale game earlier this year (six or seven years after hearing a ton of positive buzz...), this was the aspect that surprised me most. I'm used to loading save files in video games in order to retry stages or bosses or conversation questions. So I assume it was a deliberate design choice. I'm thinking about how this affects the reader. Some implications:

* The reader has to live with their decisions and move on. There's no going back.
* Most choices will make a small impact on the story.
* The reader can assume that they'll be warned if a decision will result in characters dying or the world ending.

I didn't get far enough into Minecraft Story Mode to know whether it has at least one negative ending which concludes a story. Likewise, I don't know if it includes at least one sudden Game Over style ending. I will think about resuming the story to see whether it includes these elements.
Chiagirl wrote: Sat May 26, 2018 3:21 amThe other idea I've had was a time travel fic where an agency goes to the past to recruit you to help catch a terrorist in the future...
The story concept makes me think "another remake of Total Recall." That is not a bad thing. The 1990 movie starts with a protagonist who doesn't know who he is. Then it brings up questions such as 'how much of a story is a dream, and how much actually happened?' as well as 'do you know who you are?' And it has plenty of external conflict.

Challenge #1: Time travel fiction is notoriously difficult to write. Even some of the best examples have logic problems.
Challenge #2: Total Recall was loosely based on a Philip K Dick short story. Then it had a remake in 2012.

User avatar
gas
Miko-Class Veteran
Posts: 842
Joined: Mon Jan 26, 2009 7:21 pm
Contact:

Re: Ideas Dump

#1526 Post by gas »

A dating sim where you need to AVOID fall in love with other people, but you had to interact with.
If you want to debate on a reply I gave to your posts, please QUOTE ME or i'll not be notified about. << now red so probably you'll see it.

10 ? "RENPY"
20 GOTO 10

RUN

Czero
Newbie
Posts: 23
Joined: Sun Apr 15, 2018 1:44 pm
Contact:

Re: Ideas Dump

#1527 Post by Czero »

gas wrote: Tue Jun 19, 2018 7:50 am A dating sim where you need to AVOID fall in love with other people, but you had to interact with.
Nice one lol
Visual novel lover and maker...

Works in progress: A Little Bit of Happiness viewtopic.php?f=59&t=54385

I'm looking for writing work viewtopic.php?f=63&t=50859

User avatar
Chiagirl
Regular
Posts: 45
Joined: Fri Mar 31, 2017 1:08 pm
Completed: Ellen and the Pumpkin
Projects: The Crossing
Skype: SummonerNinja
itch: Chiagirl
Location: USA
Contact:

Re: Ideas Dump

#1528 Post by Chiagirl »

Another idea I had was a game that starts with your people sacrificing you against your will to appease the goddesses. You end up in the afterlife where you're approached by three goddesses for help. One is the goddess your people worshiped, she wants you to become her champion and help those still on earth. Another is an evil goddess that offers you revenge on those that killed you. The final one is a goddess of balance that wants you to help stop the fighting between the two former goddesses, as it's causing many lives to be needlessly lost. You pick a goddess to side with, and the game goes on from there. Will you serve the good goddess as her champion and become a hero? Wreak havoc with the evil goddess and rule the world with an iron fist? Help aid the goddess of balance before accepting your death and moving quietly on to the next life? I think it could be pretty interesting.

One other idea I had was a girl gets sucked into a videogame, only to find out that she's the big bad overlord there. Her army of minions is starting to realize something is up, and they might just try and axe her to take the throne for themselves if they think they can get away with it. Oh, and the world's "heroes" are coming to kill her too. You can try and act like the evil overlord you're supposed to be, you can try confiding in a trusted adviser for help, or you can just plain surrender to the heroes if you really want; though I can't promise all the options will leave your head intact. I imagine it as kind of a juggling game between knowing when to keep your mouth shut and knowing when to ask for help.

I also have several ideas that could be turned into kinetic visual novels, but in general those seem to be a lot less popular. I think for kinetic novels the visuals, audio, and story have to be especially good, as there's not any real gameplay or decision making to help make the player feel more involved. It would certainly be easier to write though as there'd be no need for stats or branching paths.

sharanai
Newbie
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Oct 23, 2018 12:22 am
Contact:

Re: Ideas Dump

#1529 Post by sharanai »

I have an idea but I still too lazy and do not have enough English level to implement it :lol: This will be the story about a man who back to his rent room after spent some time in hospital because of a car accident and got post-traumatic amnesia. When cleaning his room, he found a burned diary that only has 5 pages remaining. Based on what written in it, it seems to belong to a girl, and she has close relationship with him, even living in same room. Although he lost memories about this time, but he quite certainly that he was living alone since he moved to this room, and he does not have any impression about the time living together. It seems like she does not exist, but he knows there is something behind all of this because he dreamed about her every night, he can not see her face, but he knows she always here, in his dream. He start dreaming about her since hospitalized but he thought it was a dream, now he knows it is truth and he need to find what's going on. He asked his friends but no one've saw him get along with any girls. Who is she ? Why does she appear in his dream ? What secret hidden behind the diary ?

The diary has 5 pages remaining, and the order of page player selected will determine the ending, so we will have maximum 120 endings. It can be a good ending, bad ending, sad ending, horror ending,...This is my idea

User avatar
Harick
Veteran
Posts: 249
Joined: Sat Aug 22, 2015 7:34 pm
Contact:

Re: Ideas Dump

#1530 Post by Harick »

I just got this idea, so much of this post will probably be me making it up as I go.

The basic concept is that the protagonist is an average guy, he's humble, he goes to school, lives with his parents. Until one day after being attacked by some hooded people and saved by a girl from his school, it's revealed he's the reincarnation of an ancient hero, after which he joins a secret magical society and is protected by three girls from his school while he learns his powers.

But plot twist! Remember when I said he was humble? I lied! He always had delusions of grandeur and secretly expected something like this to happen, and now that it did it immediately went to his head, though he still keeps the facade of being humble. He acts the part he had always fantasized being, charismatic, smart, powerful, and kind, without even realizing that he's just playing a role.

But as the story goes the facade slowly slips, and he makes decisions based on his personality rather than the role he's playing, acting like the world revolves around him and only doing things for himself. The story can either end with him realizing his mistakes or ending up as a villain in his own right.

I'm not sure how I'd go about making this as a visual novel, preferably it'd be made so that it isn't clear that that's what's happening to make the player get into the power fantasy, but I'm not too sure

Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users