Your ideal personal game

[Oilers9911]

Ok...so suddenly you have the abilty to design and program one game, your ideal game, for personal use. No worries about finances or sales numbers or anything like that. Just one game that you would love to play just for yourself and maybe share with your friends. What type of game is it? What features does it have? Text-sim or graphical? Tell me all about your ideal game.

[flere-imsaho]

American football simulation that is like Football Manager. I'd pay $100 for that.

Or World of Warcraft created for virtual reality. :D

[JonInMiddleGA]

I started to go with my usual answer, the thing I've described as The Holy Grail of gaming for me for years: a comprehensive NASCAR text-sim, with the important thing being that it meet the same sniff test that I apply to tabletop gaming, that it "feel right" when you're playing it.

And then I realized if money is no object then there's really no reason for me not to ask for the real ultimate: why not a comprehensive interactive universe for sports gaming? Where most sports at various levels (i.e. major league baseball with playable minors, pro football with playable college football at least two divisions deep, etc) are all accessible & fully functional at a solid text-sim level in a completely connected universe?
Facilities, cities, etc all exist within the same world, athletes exist in all universes (to facilitate making Kevin Greene a pro wrestler or Brock Lesnar an MMA fighter), etc.

My new Holy Grail? Maybe think of it as reading a national sports page and being able to access/influence/actively participate in anything that shows up there.

Hey, you said money was no object ;)

[Kodos]

A football game that looks like next-gen Madden 2009, plays like the best of last-gen football games, has updated ESPN 2k5 presentation, and FOF-like depth, with customizable league sizes/teams/players/etc. It would have high school / college / NFL progression for players, and keep stats on everything. It'd have HOF inductions each year. Importable draft classes based on real historical players with accurate personal information (height, weight, hometown, etc., and the players would look like their real-life counterparts).

Online leagues would be included as well, with stats that could be perused on the interwebs.

[MJ4H]

American football simulation that is like Football Manager. I'd pay $100 for that.


thisthisthisthisthsithisthsithsithis

Ideal would have both college and NFL same game. 2d/3d match view a necessity.

[Comey]

I started to go with my usual answer, the thing I've described as The Holy Grail of gaming for me for years: a comprehensive NASCAR text-sim, with the important thing being that it meet the same sniff test that I apply to tabletop gaming, that it "feel right" when you're playing it.

And then I realized if money is no object then there's really no reason for me not to ask for the real ultimate: why not a comprehensive interactive universe for sports gaming? Where most sports at various levels (i.e. major league baseball with playable minors, pro football with playable college football at least two divisions deep, etc) are all accessible & fully functional at a solid text-sim level in a completely connected universe?
Facilities, cities, etc all exist within the same world, athletes exist in all universes (to facilitate making Kevin Greene a pro wrestler or Brock Lesnar an MMA fighter), etc.

My new Holy Grail? Maybe think of it as reading a national sports page and being able to access/influence/actively participate in anything that shows up there.

Hey, you said money was no object ;)

I've had this in my head for about 6-7 years now. I still want to make it a reality in an online league. In part, it was this idea that helped spawn TotalSportsWorld.

Someday, this will happen. I just hope it's sooner, rather than later.

[st.cronin]

thisthisthisthisthsithisthsithsithis

Ideal would have both college and NFL same game. 2d/3d match view a necessity.

+ infinity

$100 would be cheap imo

[AgustusM]

A football game that looks like next-gen Madden 2009, plays like the best of last-gen football games, has updated ESPN 2k5 presentation, and FOF-like depth, with customizable league sizes/teams/players/etc. It would have high school / college / NFL progression for players, and keep stats on everything. It'd have HOF inductions each year. Importable draft classes based on real historical players with accurate personal information (height, weight, hometown, etc., and the players would look like their real-life counterparts).

Online leagues would be included as well, with stats that could be perused on the interwebs.

I would pay $1,000 easily for this game and it would be worth every penny. God knows I have spent far more than that over the years on games that didn't even come close.

While we are at it, make one just like it for baseball, basketball and hockey as well.

[GrantDawg]

+ infinity

$100 would be cheap imo


+ infinity +1

I always thought if I had one of the huge lottery pots fall into my lap, I'd trie to put huge money into trying to make this happen. I wonder what the price tag would be? 5 million? 15?

[Oilers9911]

I started to go with my usual answer, the thing I've described as The Holy Grail of gaming for me for years: a comprehensive NASCAR text-sim, with the important thing being that it meet the same sniff test that I apply to tabletop gaming, that it "feel right" when you're playing it.

And then I realized if money is no object then there's really no reason for me not to ask for the real ultimate: why not a comprehensive interactive universe for sports gaming? Where most sports at various levels (i.e. major league baseball with playable minors, pro football with playable college football at least two divisions deep, etc) are all accessible & fully functional at a solid text-sim level in a completely connected universe?
Facilities, cities, etc all exist within the same world, athletes exist in all universes (to facilitate making Kevin Greene a pro wrestler or Brock Lesnar an MMA fighter), etc.

My new Holy Grail? Maybe think of it as reading a national sports page and being able to access/influence/actively participate in anything that shows up there.

Hey, you said money was no object ;)

Well get working on that will ya Jon? :) I like your idea. I can just see it now. Download Now, file size 5 Terrabytes. :) But you're right, money is no object. :)

[Scholes]

I started to go with my usual answer, the thing I've described as The Holy Grail of gaming for me for years: a comprehensive NASCAR text-sim, with the important thing being that it meet the same sniff test that I apply to tabletop gaming, that it "feel right" when you're playing it.

And then I realized if money is no object then there's really no reason for me not to ask for the real ultimate: why not a comprehensive interactive universe for sports gaming? Where most sports at various levels (i.e. major league baseball with playable minors, pro football with playable college football at least two divisions deep, etc) are all accessible & fully functional at a solid text-sim level in a completely connected universe?
Facilities, cities, etc all exist within the same world, athletes exist in all universes (to facilitate making Kevin Greene a pro wrestler or Brock Lesnar an MMA fighter), etc.

My new Holy Grail? Maybe think of it as reading a national sports page and being able to access/influence/actively participate in anything that shows up there.

Hey, you said money was no object ;)


This is exactly what popped into my head as well.

[NoSkillz]

If I had infinite resources, I'd love to have a comprehensive world golf simulation.

You would obviously have the choice to start where you wanted and can choose just to play in a 'sandlot' mode if you prefer, playing all the top courses of the world either in sim mode or in arcade mode (a la Tiger Woods golf)...of course, all the top courses and all tourney courses would be modelled in the game.

But the heart of the game would be a role playing career sim, where you can start out at the bottom as a junior golfer, playing the junior circuit at the local, state and even national level. You would battle for scholarships to top schools then play the college circuit, looking to improve your game under the tutelege of top teachers. You would have the opportunity to qualify for the top amateur tournaments (state ams, the US Amateur, US Mid-Amateur, Pub Links, Porter Cup, etc) and of course you can decide whether to stay an amateur or go for the holy grail and attempt to qualify for a professional tour.

There would have to be an element similar to 'The Sims', where you have to make a decision how much time you spend practicing or playing the game while also balancing that out with personal life stuff, like sustaining relationships with family or potential sponsors. This will be important later on to develop your 'charisma' rating, which will be the key thing to generate sponsors and in turn, generate money to fuel your goals of becoming a pro. Down the line, a high charisma rating would get you commercials if you're a pro, put you in higher demand around the world for tournament directors, who might offer you appearance fees for either European events, skins games, charity outings, etc.

It will also help you make friends with other players and coaches in the gaming world, which will also help your skill level just as much, as you can play practice rounds with guys you've developed relationships with and learn some of their skills as opposed to just beating balls on the range.

So a guy like Vijay Singh, who practices till all hours of the day, would be a good golfer, obviously, but not really catch the imagination of the viewing public or be necessarily popular with his fellow players. Because he doesn't care too much about social stuff, he plays a lot more tournaments than his peers and makes boatloads of cash.

Meanwhile, you have the ultimate animal in Tiger, who balances his personal life with his wife and kids, practices a lot, does a lot of commercials and social events and keeps a tight playing schedule, all the while improving on his other business ventures, like his charity organization and his golf course design business, or even if he wanted to get into the wine making business, all of which would be modelled in the game as options to spend your time to build your 'character'.

The heart of the game, of course, would be the tournament engine and you'd be able to play at any level of golf in the world, both professional and amateur.

But hey, it would HAVE to be a personal game because I'm likely the only guy who would get a kick out of such a thing! ;)

[lungs]

Holodeck porn

[LloydLungs]

My ideal game is pretty close to existing already, and in fact has been around for five years. I'd say my ideal is Fast Break College B-Ball with a credible transfer/attrition mechanism.

[Big Fo]

A few posters have beaten me to my dream Madden 09 graphics + best of Head Coach 09/FOF/Football Manager/OOTP/other management sims game that handles both NFL and college football at once.

My second choice would be to get hired by EAD Tokyo to help direct a sequel to Super Mario Galaxy. More of the 2D levels, less of the easier stages in the beginning, a better hub world, etc. With minor improvements here and there the sequel to my all time favorite game would become my new favorite.

I'm also willing to take charge of Civilization V if anyone in power is out there reading this.

[DanGarion]

Holodeck porn

Damn took someone long enough.

[SportsDino]

Any game that uses my design for an artificial intelligence (lots of agents all capable of indepdent and non-scripted behaviors, all with some rational motives and plans). Probably either a big sim style game, along the lines of a military strategy game or economy simulation. I'm a big fan of the Total War style games, or the Railroad Tycoon and friends type.

Would also be useful for a good RPG, although to me that needs a good story telling element as well.

But yep, feel graphics and capabilities of games have grown tremendously, but AI is still only a couple steps removed from stuff floating around since the early 90's. Since multiplayer games have shown that humans, while interest and amusing opponents, have a high rate of douchbaggery, I think clever artificial opponents are vital to moving to the next great era of gaming (right now I'd say we are in the massively multiplayer monster grind era of games, in everything from shooters to rpgs [or Madden football with its roster update], with the occaisonal gem that breaks the mold).

[Raiders Army]

I'd make a game where everything that I do in it comes true....and then I'd wish for a million more wishes.

[sabotai]

EU style game starting in 10,000 BC and continuing forever (including morphing into a space 4x game at some point).

[johneh]

Can't you just customized Maximum Football to be whatever game you could ever want?

[JediKooter]

Leasure Suit Larry meets Quagmire

[GrantDawg]

I thought even more about this today. How about this for a feature. The level of difficulty in the game comes from your choice of "backgrounds." You can start in "easy" mode (Winning coach with good track record), which will allow you your choice of teams, easier selection of assistant/positional coaches, players want to play for you etc. Or you can start in medium mode where you have some head coaching experience. Or, you can start as a relatively unknown coordinator. There could actually be lots of levels (like "former player" that gives plus or minuses on certain factors, etc).

Another interesting twist would be that you could start as a coordinator. You only call plays and handle one side of the ball. You build relationships with other coaches, and if you do well you can get noticed to move to a starting job.

Anyway, maybe that would only interest me.

[path12]

The Life of path12 game, except that I'd be rich, good looking and have at least some social ability.

[Icy]

Online sports RPG with humans acting as owners, agents and players. From macro to micro levels, owners deal with everything team related like when you play a text sim, players just play and develop their characters as in any RPG.

Sports RPG is my favorite genre and it's just starting (NHL09 comes to mind for online, MLB the show or Madden/NCAA superstar modes for offline). Of course all those games are too basic and have just an small RPG touch, but at least it's an starting point.

[flere-imsaho]

You know, a MMO of the Discworld would be pretty cool.

[gstelmack]

My ideal game started out life as Rainbow Six and then morphed into Rogue Spear with the Urban Operations mission pack ;)

(No, seriously, when I described my ideal game during the job interview, I shocked the guy interviewing me because I pretty much described Rainbow Six, which Red Storm had just started working on, except that I was going to do paintball instead of hostage rescue / CQB, but the gameplay itself was pretty close with one-shot "kills" and a pre-planning phase so you weren't doing an orders-giving clickfest when the round started).

[Critch]

SimCountry.

SimCity within the framework of a country-wide economic/political simulation.

[DanGarion]

SimCountry.

SimCity within the framework of a country-wide economic/political simulation.

Isn't it bad enough we had to deal with them causing the housing collapse in real life...

[Young Drachma]

SimCountry.

SimCity within the framework of a country-wide economic/political simulation.

Hmmm...I like.

I also like Jon's idea.

[st.cronin]

American football simulation that is like Football Manager. I'd pay $100 for that.


Let me go into a little more detail here.

The game would flow more or less like FM. Media interaction, player management, scouting - all mostly like FM.

Playable leagues would include NFL, NCAA, high schools, junior colleges, etc.

There would be a "dungeon master" mode which could be entered into at any time to modify the structure in whatever way possible - expand the NFL, change the bowl setups, change the overtime rules, etc.

Playing at the high school level the emphasis would be on man-management and strategy. You would have great flexibility in playing players at multiple positions. Additionally you would have the option to get involved in the budget, prioritizing funds for equipment and facilities and staff.

Playing at the college level there would obviously be an extensive recruiting model. This would be multiple level - scouting, camps, interaction with high school and JC coaches, etc.

More thoughts will come as I have them.

[ColtCrazy]

I think I would want the ultimate marathon Civ game. Something where you can spend days just playing an a particular era, with huge maps, individual troops sets from some good operational war gaming. I love Civ, but get annoyed that once a war gets going people have jumped into another era.

Critch's Sim Country or a Football Manager equiv. of Madden would be nice too.

[BYU 14]

Let me go into a little more detail here.

The game would flow more or less like FM. Media interaction, player management, scouting - all mostly like FM.

Playable leagues would include NFL, NCAA, high schools, junior colleges, etc.

There would be a "dungeon master" mode which could be entered into at any time to modify the structure in whatever way possible - expand the NFL, change the bowl setups, change the overtime rules, etc.

Playing at the high school level the emphasis would be on man-management and strategy. You would have great flexibility in playing players at multiple positions. Additionally you would have the option to get involved in the budget, prioritizing funds for equipment and facilities and staff.

Playing at the college level there would obviously be an extensive recruiting model. This would be multiple level - scouting, camps, interaction with high school and JC coaches, etc.

More thoughts will come as I have them.


Totally with you here, though I would be happy with NFL, D-1, D-2 and D-3 all in one big happy Football universe that had a year round flow and all the bells and whistles of WWSM, combined with the fun factor I still get from TCY after all these years. In addtion to the combine add Pro days at different colleges before the draft and also post season all-star games (Senior Bowl, Shrine Game etc)

For the Colleges spring practice and a spring game, recruiting from the JC ranks and ability for schools to join D-1 on rare occasions as they grow.

For the entire world I would love personalities to have a bigger influence on chemistry as well as off field issues. Do you recruit or draft the stud who is selfish and prone to trouble or go with a more stable player that has less talent. The ability to be either a Coach or GM/AD at any level (similar to DDS:PB) were you don't can't have total control over everything.

Lastly a robust almanac that could track your Football history like OOTP does, without eating up huge amounts of hard drive space.

[MJ4H]

Do you guys know how many lives this would ruin?

[st.cronin]

Do you guys know how many lives this would ruin?

Mine, for one.

[EagleFan]

There is not really one game that fits the bill so I will break it into a few categories:

As already mentioned, a football game with topend graphics as well as depth and realistic results which includes several levels of play down to high school.

See above but also for baseball. Combine RPG elements with online play as well to create a fully functioning league with players playing on the field and other players in coach and GM roles.

A WW2 FPS hybred game which covers the entire war and allows you to play as a any of the participants (a foot soldier on the front, a fighter pilot, a bomber pilot, airborne, sub commander, general making the battle plans, etc...). Allow you to play as any one of the countries involved as well so you can see it from both sides.

Alpha Centauri 2

[Marc Vaughan]

I'd love a turn based strategy war game where you don't actually directly control the units.

Instead you're the commander and have to issue commands to units within communication range which they may or may not obey (depending on their personalities etc.).

You'd have to contend with:
* Communication delays (depending upon your communication method/current tech)
* Unit personalities/betrayals/etc.
* Lines of communication breaking (in which case people out of communication would decide actions on their own and might even surprise you in their success).

This would preferably be in a fantasy setup where you're founding a new empire so that you could communicate with people you come across and try and recruit them instead of just always fighting them (in such situations the personalities of the people involved, your prior actions etc. would all affect how they react) and victory would either be taking down the grand 'bad guy' or the entire world ...

[Crim]

I was thinking of inventing a game.

It's called "BOX", because it's played on a diagram shaped like a box, made up of nine other boxes, in a three box-by-three box grid.

Anyway, so one player makes a mark in one of the boxes. Like a check mark, say, or his initials. Or maybe he marks one of the letters in the word "box". Not B, though, because a B would look stupid. So let's say the first player draws like an X in one of the boxes. Then the second player draws a different letter, like maybe O, in another box. And they take turns. And the first player to get, say, three of his marks in a row, horizontally, vertically, heck, maybe even diagonally, well, he'd win.

I haven't really play tested it yet, but there might be times when neither player can get three boxes in a row, so noone would win. In that case, to make it even more fun, we'd say, "the Squirrel got that game", and draw a big "S" over the grid.

I don't know, seems like it needs to be fleshed out a little, but what would you guys think? Is this marketable?

[DanGarion]

I was thinking of inventing a game.

It's called "BOX", because it's played on a diagram shaped like a box, made up of nine other boxes, in a three box-by-three box grid.

Anyway, so one player makes a mark in one of the boxes. Like a check mark, say, or his initials. Or maybe he marks one of the letters in the word "box". Not B, though, because a B would look stupid. So let's say the first player draws like an X in one of the boxes. Then the second player draws a different letter, like maybe O, in another box. And they take turns. And the first player to get, say, three of his marks in a row, horizontally, vertically, heck, maybe even diagonally, well, he'd win.

I haven't really play tested it yet, but there might be times when neither player can get three boxes in a row, so noone would win. In that case, to make it even more fun, we'd say, "the Squirrel got that game", and draw a big "S" over the grid.

I don't know, seems like it needs to be fleshed out a little, but what would you guys think? Is this marketable?

Sounds pretty ghey to me.

[Crim]

Don't shit on my dreams, Dan, they're all I've got.

[Comey]

I was thinking of inventing a game.

It's called "BOX", because it's played on a diagram shaped like a box, made up of nine other boxes, in a three box-by-three box grid.

Anyway, so one player makes a mark in one of the boxes. Like a check mark, say, or his initials. Or maybe he marks one of the letters in the word "box". Not B, though, because a B would look stupid. So let's say the first player draws like an X in one of the boxes. Then the second player draws a different letter, like maybe O, in another box. And they take turns. And the first player to get, say, three of his marks in a row, horizontally, vertically, heck, maybe even diagonally, well, he'd win.

I haven't really play tested it yet, but there might be times when neither player can get three boxes in a row, so noone would win. In that case, to make it even more fun, we'd say, "the Squirrel got that game", and draw a big "S" over the grid.

I don't know, seems like it needs to be fleshed out a little, but what would you guys think? Is this marketable?

Dude, that game already exists.

[Comey]

Er, wait...no. Sorry, I was thinking of Candyland. My apologies. I think this may work. I like the O idea...though, you would need the natural enemy of the O. What's the opposite of that? Probably I.

[SportsDino]

I've thought up a game before similar to Marc Vaughn's turn based strategy. You play as a captain/general/supreme commander above the tactical level, so you don't control direct unit placement and orders, instead you have single and multi-unit tactics that you can stack onto the unit and are interpreted by the unit's officers.

I think the general idea is pretty cool, a more laid back military sim in that you don't have to care whether you precisely clicked the movement correctly and at the right time (I'm thinking Medieval Total War for instance). It could work in turn-based or real-time.

[JW]

This has been done to some extent with the Matrix Games Airborne Assault series like Conquest of the Aegean.

I'd love a turn based strategy war game where you don't actually directly control the units.

Instead you're the commander and have to issue commands to units within communication range which they may or may not obey (depending on their personalities etc.).

You'd have to contend with:
* Communication delays (depending upon your communication method/current tech)
* Unit personalities/betrayals/etc.
* Lines of communication breaking (in which case people out of communication would decide actions on their own and might even surprise you in their success).

This would preferably be in a fantasy setup where you're founding a new empire so that you could communicate with people you come across and try and recruit them instead of just always fighting them (in such situations the personalities of the people involved, your prior actions etc. would all affect how they react) and victory would either be taking down the grand 'bad guy' or the entire world ...

[Mustang]

An epic space game like Eve Online, but turn based. Would have character development like an RPG, Space combat, economy, tech trees and combats to assault planets would be done by turn based combat also (just on a planetary surface level)