Nothing new to make?

Very Old but meaningful one

Source: comp.sys.mac.programmer.games/SXjW24vP-AQ

“Nothing new to make? Nothing new to make?

The shareware archives are full of Ultima 3 knock-offs, Space Invaders knock-offs, and – for the really creative – Civilization knock-offs. What hasn’t been done before? How about a role-playing game without swords, where you construct spells out of working algorithmic parts and try to sneak around the enemy’s defenses instead of wearing them down? How about an empire-building game where logistics is more important than producing armies? How about a one-on-one fighting game where each player has the ability to travel through time, and the sneakiest move is to sneak up behind your opponent while he’s busy punching you in the stomach?

Bonus points if you can name the computer game, board game, or book that inspired each of those thoughts. So, why aren’t you reading those books and playing those games yourself? All things come to he who researches. Played RoboRally? Is the principle of pre-programming a sequence of moves applicable to multiplayer Tetris? Or that jumping-pegs thing? Or a colonize-the-galaxy game?

On the bookshelf across from me is a spiky plastic ball in a cage; the puzzle is getting it out. It’s tricky. Can that be translated to a game on a 2-D screen? What would the mouse interface be like?

Last week I sat down with a chess board and a bunch of wooden triangles, and pointed them at each other until I had some rules. I tested it tonight with some friends. It’s fun. I may code it.

Last week I bought a set of those colored one-centimeter rods that they use to teach first-grade math. I haven’t decided what to do with them yet. Maybe build a tower, or push them around the table like little trains. If it’s enough fun, it’s worth designing a game. Did you play in the mud when you were a kid? Ever turn the garden hose on a sandcastle and watch it melt? If so, is there a computer game like that? If not, what’s wrong with you?

Bryce 4 is $200 retail price. (A clever person could find a rebate.) It lets you build beautiful rendered landscape images, with objects in them. Ever wanted to write a game like Myst? It’ll be a year’s work. If ten shareware programmers write short graphical adventure games, I guarantee three of them will be more interesting and original than the crap that the big studios crank out. Are you one of those three, or would you rather give up in advance?

RPG baking game? (The Princess isn’t happy until the cookie dough comes out just right. Flour is easy, but gooseberries only grow in the vales of the Giant Goose… Later, you discover what else the skills of measuring, mixing, and precise heating can be used for.)

Hyperspace navigation? There are dozens of books that describe in florid prose how hard it is to map your way through jumpspace, and why it’s better than sex. Implement this. You can leave the sex out if you want. If you’re stuck for a mathematical underpinning, go look up that weird chemical reaction that forms spirals. Someone implemented it about ten years ago for a Siggraph paper – reaction-diffusion textures. (“Space cookies!”) Prodding that with a stick could be interesting.

Figure out rules for creating an infinite number of Chinese puzzle-boxes. Bonus points if they’re physically realizable – have an option to print out blueprints.

A multiplayer game where people all over the world can push pixels around a board, trying to create artistic and eye-catching patterns. Competitive cooperation. License the resulting designs as logos and letterhead for pretentious Internet startups. Get rich.

Core-War-style program fragments fighting in a memory space of random data. Set up a web site and let people bet money on the results. See what evolves.

Chris “Balance of Power” Crawford keeps trying to invent a system for dynamic characters to interact with each other, and the player, generating a storyline as they go. So far, he’s produced nothing coherent. Figure out what he’s doing wrong; fix it. One seminal game, and people will be writing knock-offs of your idea.

Or, you could write something with big explosions.

Everything has already been done – once, and in the least interesting way. Do it again, but get it right. If you combine two ideas you’ve seen in different places, you’re a genius. If you use commas and apostrophes correctly in the documentation, you’re a creative visionary. It’s raining soup, as the good Uncle said; don’t sit there using your soup bowl to keep your hair dry.

Have fun.“