Wandering slightly off the topic of what's best for business and what you're working on... if someone made a computer game *just for you*, what would it be like? What are you personally looking for out there when you look at games to play?

Here's my vague list:

1. Single Player. Multiplayer games can be fun, but my other half and I have very different tastes in games, and games over the net have always gone badly for me - besides, I'm not good at being very competitive. Game *must* be fun for me to play by myself. Multiplayer is just a bonus feature if it works out.

2. Coffee break sized. I want to get in and get out of my entertainment fairly quickly. Games with no save feature are going to get less play from me than things where I can store my progress and go back to them, simply because I'll get frustrated if I have to dedicate a lot of time to playing it all at once.

2a. Proper support for save and restore - not just a saved game, but some mechanism to remind me what I was doing when I saved. This is usually a problem with RPGs and the like - if the game doesn't have a good method of reminding me what quests I was doing, what clues I had found, etc, then when I get back to it I may not remember anything that was going on and will be confused. In an action game, a save should probably bring you back into the game *paused* so I have the time to get my fingers back on the controls and remember what was happening before I get blown up.

2b. If there is no real save, at least let me start at different points in the game. I don't want to always have to start at "Level 1" and fight my way straight through the same enemy waves I've played a million times before for hours in order to reach anything new. Let me earn cheat codes to jump over some worlds and start somewhere else.

3. 2D. My hatred of all things 3d is well-known here. :) Although I do play some 3d things, I would rather not. Besides, I can't afford to keep up with bleeding edge stuff to make the latest 3d games look anything other than hideous. I appreciate attractive 2d graphics.

4. I am not a puzzle gamer. Don't make me think too hard. :) Not that I want my brain completely turned off, but I am not into working my way through abstract logic puzzles. Give me riddles and moral dilemnas and (simple) strategic choices, NOT SLIDER PUZZLES.

5. Tell me a story! This isn't for all game genres, really, but I do appreciate a good story (and for the love of Pete, PROOFREAD YOUR TEXT. I have snuck into someone's download.com listing (not a person who posts here) and bitched about their terrible grammar.)

6. Make replay fun. Hide secrets and multiple solutions. This sort of goes back to 2(b) as well - if I *have* to start at Zone 1 every time I load the game, at least make several ways to run through Zone 1 so it's not too boring.

the most important thing for me is the replay-value.
make the game different each time. if it is a puzzle insert random elements, if it is a rpg make random encounter, if it is a strategy make random civilizations, etc.

the games I liked most were the one which had lot of choice.

most game nowadays keep the player busy only by showing "what's next". I can play a FPS to see the next weapon, a platform for the next level, a RPG for the next challenges and so on...

but the best games I've played had the same "CORE" rules, but different "PLAYFIELD".

Examples are Civilization, Master of Magic, UFO, etc.

Ehm, yes, I am a fan of strategy/simulation games ;)

I don't know. I've been thinking about this, and I'd say "a good story". If I make a quick list of the games I really enjoyed, you have...
Twinsen's Oddysey
No One Lives Forever
Deus Ex
The Secret of Monkey Island
Dark Sun : Shattered Lands

All of these have good stories (well, DS:SL having the least good one). There are exceptions, too :
Twilight : 2000 (repetitive, but completely addictive)
Doom (both single and multiplayer)
Duke Nukem 3D (really fun, and the multiplayer was great)
Sim Ant

I can't find a common denominator for those.

I don't like games with too much story, either - I couldn't bear Planescape : Torment for more than 30 minutes.

1. Shooting things. I like shooters. Or action at least. Not so keen on platformers, unless there's shootin'.
2. 2D. I prefer 2D for shooters.
3. No save game. I just want to shoot stuff for 15 minutes and then stop.
4. Either a linear difficulty level, or pick and choose any level I want. I like to play for scores / high level numbers / completion %'s rather than seeing tons of new content.
5. Random. I hate memory based shooters because I've got such a crap memory for irrelevant things.
6. Fast and furious. I like things to die when I shoot them once, and I like them to challenge me instead of making me feel immortal.

Most of the games I've got planned seem to be along these 5 lines :P

Cas :)

INSTANT ACTION!!!

I hate sitting through long intro animations, clicking through dozens of submenus, going through the minutiae of character creation, etc. I remember one game (I think it was Atomaders) where the player had to click through 5 levels of submenus to start the game. That's insanity!

The philosophy I subscribe to is that the player should be no more than 2 mouseclicks away from a game. That means that, even if you have an RPG with super deep character development there had better be a pre-made generic character I can use to start the game or at the very least get me into the action of the game before establishing back story or character development.

It's the same tactic they use in movies - open with a bang and then go back and fill in the details.

I don't like games with too much story, either - I couldn't bear Planescape : Torment for more than 30 minutes.

aaaaAAARGH!!! What you have done!!!!!! :D
go back and try it one more time ! hehe
Planescape : Torment is one of the greatest RPG ever created... sure isn't for everyone. But it is truly a masterpiece. The thing more similar to a book than a game I've ever played :p

Sure the best story ever seen on a pc-screen :)

*whuggles Torment* :)

My favorite games all require a certain amount of, er, dexterity to play.

At first you suck at the controls, but you slowly start to master them. The goal is to get better at it, to last as long as possible, or to finish as quickly as possible. Perfect your aiming, tune your timing, perform tricks and combinations of moves for bonus points.

These games you can play for a few minutes, or for hours at an end. There's no real story, no puzzles that require a lot of thought, just you and your skills.

Examples of recent games/demos I have enjoyed in this 'genre' are Unipong, 3D Live Pool, and Elasto Mania (ok, this one is not so recent). Other games I can think of right now that incorporate some of this are Best Friends and even Snood.

MONEY, throw me money and more money. Let me bribe the office that caught me sabotaging my adversary so his business was less profitable. let me be an investor on my adversary and control him indirectly. met me sell stuff for the lowest price and then after i got costumers, bring new expensive stuff. let me conquer cities and pilage their banks. let me deposit money on the bank and earn some as interest....


MOOONEY


ok, i think it shows i like money management of any kind :) just as long as it gives me more and more and more to do to get more money, im happy with it :)

Ever seen Macros Plus? or Macross Zero?

I want/ am going to make a game that captures the intense dog-fighting in that, in a multi-player environment.

im an old tribes & counter strike fan, i love skill based multi-player games /w team elements:D

1) 15 minute or less play sessions
2) Auto save and load of progress - don't make me push extra buttons
3) Doesn't require the CD to be in the drive (doesn't mean much here, I guess)
4) Interactive tutorials - I don't want to read help files
5) Single Player - Multiplayer is nice, but I hate playing games against people I don't know, so most of the time, I don't have anyone to play against
6) Easy to play ( this doesn't mean an easy game to beat, just that the controls are well thought out and make sense, and don't require too much thought )

Hm, I hate playing against strangers as well. If there's one thing guaranteed to ruin a game it's other people.

Cas :)

I agree its frustrating to play online (im a Counterstrike + UO vet, heh)

but I have to admit theres been a few matches when I got lucky and found some really good opponents and I had a total blast. I get bored with games pretty easily, I love multiplayer because it keeps me on my toes:D

I thought the other day that a single-player counterstrike-like game where you're hired to kill spammers would be nice. Something really realistic. We could say that the player is running www.spammerkiller.com where anyone can donate to get their favorite spammer killed, and when there is enough to cover the expenses the player would buy the needed equipment, buy his bus/train/plane ticket and go find and execute the target.
Creepy.

The best games I've played were all platform/action games, I like to explore areas. There should be lots of different ways to go through a level and lots of hidden stuff (even if you can complete a game for 100%, there should still be something interesting to find after that).

- I usually prefer 2D, but a kind of 3D side scroller would also be nice (though I haven't seen any really fun games like that yet).

- It should be mainly single player. I have played some really nice games against other people, but it's not always easy to find a good opponent.

- It should be HUGE!!! (I remember spending days to finish Sonic II the first time, wow).

- If the game is good enough, I don't mind being a little frustrated now and then.

- There should be beautiful graphics/artwork (it doesn't have to be realistic though. Somehow I usually do want to be able to see some kind of grid of tiles. I also don't mind low resolutions, seeing pixels). There should also be some kinds of special effects now and then.

- Movement (especially scrolling) should be absolutely smooth.

- It's nice if there is an interesting story, but you should be able to start playing right away. No complicated menus, or having to buy things first, etc.

- The main character should have lots of moves and be easy to control (even if that's hard to learn at first). You should learn these moves one by one throughout the game, at the first point that you really need them (but then you should be able to go back to prior levels and find new stuff with these new moves).

- There should be lots of variation in the game play (I like to see a little puzzle now and then or a 3D bonus level).

- Any unusual move that is possible should be rewarded. For example if I somehow manage to get up onto some high place by coincidence or after trying for ages, there should be something up there.

- And finally, the whole atmophere of the game should be nice (music, story/subject, colors, etc).