Your ideal licensed game, sequel, or spinoff

[gekiganwing]

What's your ideal licensed video game, sequel, or spinoff?

Let's first limit this topic a bit...

1. This is a thread about games which you want, not games that you expect to be created or published. So you can mention a game which would be uncommercial, or unlikely to happen due to licensing issues.

2. This is about electronic entertainment -- in other words, any genre of video game for any console, computer, or similar device.

3. This is for any kind of fangame, fan sequel, adaptation, or game mod. It can be based on anything that already exists -- not just other video games, but also prose, comics, film, TV, toys, non-electronic games, amusement park rides, etc.

4. If your ideal licensed game / sequel / spinoff would require a huge budget and years of development, say so. If you have an ideal game in mind that could be created by a few people in a few months as freeware, say so.

[KimiYoriBaka]

a version of umineko with an ace attorney engine.

cause battler's poses and argument would so fit in a phoenix wright game.

[SusanTheCat]

A working version of 8-Bit Dr Horrible's Sing-Along-Blog game. Or, even better, a Karaoke Revolution version.

A video game version of "Armor" by John Steakley. First person mech fighting with awesome story.

On the weirder side: a magazine publishing sim. You run a publishing house and have to buy stories and artwork to put in a magazine every month.

Susan

[gekiganwing]

I've been thinking lately that it's been over a decade since Thousand Arms was created and translated. I haven't seen any indication that Red Entertainment or Atlus plans to create a sequel or spinoff.

Thousand Arms was quite flawed in many ways. It had polygon graphics that haven't aged well, and plenty of loading -- a problem that was common during the lifespan of the Playstation. The combat system seemed unintuitive and gimmicky. The controls did not make much sense and could not be changed. And I felt the game's story dragged in places. All that said, these are things that could be addressed in a sequel or a spinoff.

While I enjoyed Thousand Arms, it was not my favorite PS1 game. But I felt it was a unique, not-too-serious game that somehow got released in English. So here's some thoughts about what I am thinking about for a sequel/spinoff:

* A small but detailed game world. There were a few interesting locations in the original game, but they were surrounded by a lot of boring, empty spaces. Perhaps a sequel/spinoff would take place in a single city.

* Consider how the gameplay could work. If it's a relatively linear story, then it should have a solid structure. If it's less linear, then the player should feel there are several viable options, rather than meaningless tasks.

* A sequel or spinoff would probably benefit from including a main character with an interesting personality. Meis Triumph from the original game was perverted but also determined. Imagine what would happen if the new main character thought of him as an actual hero, or a father figure!

* The sequel/spinoff might do well to answer the question "how will the main character benefit by dating NPCs?" In the original Thousand Arms, the answer was better equipment. Perhaps the next game could provide additional reasons to date NPCs, or an entirely new reason.

* Limitations. The first game had a cap on relationship values, and I believe there was only one ending. What sort of limitations should exist in this sequel or spinoff? Perhaps the main character has only so much time to accomplish goals. Perhaps there could be multiple endings, but each ending has both a reward and a consequence.

* A dull villain is rarely a worthwhile villain, but a silly/insane villain can be memorable. If the characters are confronting a character as quirky as the side villain Bandiger from the original Thousand Arms, then the conflict could get interesting.

None of these ideas require high budgets or complex technology. They might work with a simple RPG designing program, or even Ren'py.

[Tsundere Lightning]

Apart from what I'm already working on?

Dogs in the Vineyard also deserves a good computer game adaptation, but that's very unlikely to happen. Shame - the world needs more sacred gunslingers solving mysteries.

[Flick]

Three words:

Harry. Potter. MMORPG.

You create your own character, go through Hogwarts, and live life as a wizard or witch in an online magical world. All the characters, spells, creatures, etc. from the books are available, and you can do pretty much anything that a character from the books could.