Epic Games released a free editor using their Unreal Engine 3.0. It's called Unreal Development Kit (UDK) and it's so accessible that many are making great games with varied levels of production.

Here are two WIPs of games made on UDK, each one made by a single person:
Waves:


3D Sphere Maze:


Their ideas look simple. Nevertheless, I would definitively play both.

Anyway, my purpose of starting this thread is for throwing ideas for a not-too-deep (i.e. less enphasis to plot and story) game concept.
I am not compromising myself on making whatever game this could be. However, discussing ideas is always interesting, and who knows it becomes a real game some day?

What are the basic elements for a concept that's immediately playable and fun in your opinion?

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Jul 27 2010, 8:55 pm by Adeon.

Rip off something made 30 years ago with an arbitrarily added gameplay element utilizing some element of modern technology.

Waves = Geometry Wars.

So, anyone able to make a relevant post?

Well, Unreal Engine won't let you make money off your games unless you shell out a tonne of cashe for a license, from what I hear.

What about it?
The focus of this topic is to brainstorm ideas of a fun game concept. Not to talk about money nor stealing old games

Neither of them are really new or unique at all: Wave is just Geometry Wars, and the maze one is pretty much PacMan in 3D.

There really aren't very many new gameplay ideas around any more, all the easy pickings have been done, it's just the really complex ones left - time manipulation (see that RTS that lets you go back in time) and Valve's Portal.

If the whole 3D Sphere Maze is Pacman, then I say Portal is Wolfenstein for using the first person view.

And I agree Wave is pretty similar to Geometry Wars... I didn't know that until you mentioned it TBH. But it looks like a fun game anyway.

Well, I removed the word "Unique" from the main post. I never said the focus was on designing unique games, but fun and quick ones. Too bad the first page is now filled with replies based on misinterpretations or unrelated at all

Anyone who feels like colaborating, I'd really appreciate it. Otherwise, thanks for your time.

I personally have tried the UDK. I personally hated it. It's over bloated with features I didn't need, overly complicated, and I didn't feel like buying a license.

Game ideas:
A game where the point of the game is to do as little as possible.
A game where the point is to collaborate on a hard problem -- people need to contribute thoughts and ideas to win.

Things that make a game good:
Good Controls
Good Storyline AND/OR Re-playability
The Ability to Use New Strategies

Your second game idea sounds interesting. From this I imagined something like a puzzle coop where a group of (human) players should use their head to figure what to do in a colaborative way to reach the goal.

Problem: the only (pretty common) issue I see with this kind of game is the inevitable memorization. After playing the same map two or three times, the person will more likely finish the level right away, probably leaving those who are still clueless behind (see Alien Swarn/L4D/etc). This makes the game less fun for himself and for any newbies playing at the time.
Solution: make a game engine that procedually builds the world and arranges problems randomly, making each play unique. Too bad it'd be a real challenge to program such thing.

The puzzling 3D

Someone on SEN should do this ASAP. The puzzling is awesome.

MMORPG Asteroids.

Except that these things created with the Unreal Engine 3.0 just shows the power it can create under a small team of people. It's obvious that they take inspirations from other games. There are some games using UE3 that is dedicated to tower defense, even in first person mode. A clear inspiration from UMS and custom maps from StarCraft and WarCraft III.

If I had the time, I would gladly learn to use Unreal Engine and create my own games for free. Don't be too harsh on these games, they're just made for fun.