I’ve recently been having some trouble being able to come up with a good game concept, I’m usually able to come up with a few cool ideas for things outside of the core gameplay but when it comes to the actual game itself I fall short of being able to come up with something original.
So I’m making this topic to ask what are some tips for being able to flesh out a good game concept?
Try throwing stuff on the wall, and see what sticks. After some time of trial and error, something will grab you during play-testing, and keep you there.
If you’re out of ideas, try going to some of your favorite games, and analyze the way that things like currency, movement, or whatever is all tied together.
Oh, and write little ideas on paper: you will forget it before you know it!
I would go and play some games that you enjoy and get an idea from that. When you are playing the games think about what they are doing well, what could be improved and why you enjoy playing this game. This will help when making your game because it is easier to make a game that you will enjoy to play rather than a game that you don’t really want to play. You may also want to look at the top games currently, even if you don’t enjoy them, to see why they are doing so well, what makes them the top game currently. Another way you could get an idea for a game is by asking your friends and getting them to give you some ideas.
When you have an idea for a game:
When you start to make your game:
In my case: What do I wish my favourite games had? How can I improve the gameplay? What can I do to make it my own?
This is a topic for the professionals to address, so you’ll have a lot of research to do. Here’s my recommendation to start off with.
There’s a similar thread to this that could be very helpful:
I think a good game have steps.
First of all, what players will do in your game, for exemples: will they swims with sharks?, or will they manage a restaurant? For I the first idea don’t have to be complicated, if you have too many ideas, those ideas will goes too far, there will be too many things to do and your first idea will be lost step by step, for exemple if you want to make an hotel don’t start by making trees, make the rooms or the front of the hotel.If you have things great to add with your hotel, focus first on the primary of your game, write the others ideas on a paper, keep in mind there is no really good concept. Sometimes the most simple games are sometimes the better games and they could also be really complicated and fun, the second part explain more about what is a good concept.
In second, think about why players would play your game?
Players play games they like, if your game is fun, players will like it, for make a fun game, the game concept have to be understanable and fun, for exemple if the game concept is a pizzeria, you could add funny toppings to put in your pizzas. Depending the type of game your make you could add fun thing
For the third and last, Create and test the game, after have created everythings you wanted in the game, share it and make it test to the other players, if there are things to imrpove they will help you. if there is nothing to improve when they’ve test it, you’ve just created a good game.
In overall, there is no real good game concept, only concept, Depending the type of game you make you will have players who like and others who dislike, if there are always at least one player who like play your game, I think we can consider the game as a good game.
To get the idea for a game, I suggest trying to recreate childhood games or anything across those lines, to make the game, I suggest sketching your plans, reading it over, then add details to the sketch, finally, try to re-create in studio. This works for me, but may not for you, Hope fully it does, good luck!
Think about games that you would of enjoyed as a child, as ROBLOX is mainly a kid’s platform. When you obtain an idea, perhaps ask other people to see if it is a decent idea, and ask for their opinions on it. Also, an important thing to keep note is, stray away from already-created games on the front page, as you would be competing against them- which will bring down your odds of your game being successful.
Originality is rather stressful, for a beginner developer or as your first project I advise against this. It’s better to slowly ease into originality by first gaining experience. The best way to gain experience is by following trends,parodying games, or remastering a outdated game.
You could also attempt to make a fan game yet after seeing what happened with Pokémon brickbronze I wouldn’t recommend this alternative.
Example of parody: Parody of Pokémon
Example of trends: Simulators are trendy.
Example of remastering: Madcity vs jailbreak
My best way to go is to be highly inspired by nostalgic games for a game concept, but with more originality. In my opinion, nostalgic games are the best 
, there are some 2009 games that are still played by 200 or less players daily. Making a new game with the nostalgic feeling would surely attract a lot of people and would be fun. In addition, I have heard from many people that they miss the old games / ROBLOX.
Also, many games today are not based on nostalgic games/ideas, so this would make it a fun mix.
My advice is that the idea isn’t much. What you do with the idea, however, is the bulk of the “good” in a game. Anything can be fun if done correctly.
I couldn’t agree more. Nostalgic games are very fun to re-create and you would enjoy every moment of it when you’re in studio. When you get that “oh my god, i miss this” feeling, it’s just very pleasurable. Childhoods were the best.
But ofcourse, everyone grows up and everyone growed up playing different kind of games, so it’s not the same for everyone.
edit: now that we’re talking about nostalgia, i’m really thinking back and missing my old days. haha.
You say you usually come up with a few cool ideas. I recommend building those few cool ideas, and a game will spark from that.
Theres so much advice you can get about recreating nostalgic games, or different websites you can look at to help with game design, but at the end of the day the best advice I can give you is to build a world out of pure imagination.
The best game you will make is something you are passionate about, think less about what other people will think, because if you are into your idea its very likely that people in the community are as well.
I absolutely agree, I get that feeling too. I love playing those old games that are half broken to this day that are riding a rocket ship from 2009, and even those laboratory games from 2008. I wish to recreate a rocket launch game, like the old ones from my childhood, and make it into a moon mission in a low poly Saturn V rocket with stages and all that awesome fun. I miss the old days.