A character dies. A character joins. Changes. Betrays you. Turns out related. Becomes stronger. Does different things than the others. Has new talents, ones needed. Becomes good. Turns bad.
Eight enemies to defeat. Eight gems to collect. A certain amount of crystals to find. The most powerful sword.
A hidden race. A hidden castle. A hidden level. A hidden item.
Transport by flue. By pipe. By item. By air. By beast. By boat. By vehicle. By foot. By raft. By thing on ground. By vine. By moving platform. By cloud.
Bonded by responsibility. By kinship. By shared interests, responsibilities, relation, by fate, by desire.
Rescuing a princess. A friend. Another’s friend. Any who are victimized. A race of people. A mistreated being. A kingdom.
Limited time to leave an area. Limited time to beat a level. Limited time to defeat an enemy. Limited time to accomplish something. Limited time before nightfall.
Bonus given for quickness. Bonus given for defeating an enemy. Bonus given for searching more carefully. Bonus given for more fullness. Bonus given for side tasks. Bonus given for help.
Becoming quicker. Being stronger. Becoming more resistant, more immune. Jumping taller. Striking harder. Lifting heavier things. Noticing things better. Becoming more able. Reaching further with newer items.
Fishing for items. Slashing for items. Breaking for items. Finding them in book shelves and wells. Digging for items. Climbing for items. Swimming for items. Saving for items. Talking for items. Store for items. Homes for them.
The platform falls. The platform moves and twists. It hinges. It tips. Is a rainbow beam. Is on a chain. You turn on it in circles. You bounce on it. You are shot out from it. It fades away. Gets bigger, smaller.
There are stairs. There are balconies, rooftops, there are walls, there are gates, and there are tree branches. There are hills, corridors, doors, and rafts taking you over water. There are missteps and some steps are better than the others. Safe places, dangerous places, but wealthier ones.
Non playable characters that are soldiers, or friends. Helpful with advice or items. Reclusive ones, crazy ones. Defiant ones, and ones with a lot of personality that you may find throughout the game.
There are trees and herbs. Flowers and plants. Hills and mountains. Rivers and oceans. Castles and towns, cities and the moon. Dungeons and singular homes. Bridges and caves. Fields and forests. Tombs and graves. Pits. Wells. Other-worlds.
There are games that effectively turn the simple into an entertaining experience. Paper routes, the organ trail, finding San Diego. Point and click games of lesser and greater complexity. Some are very illustrious. A great idea matters a great deal.
The enemies overtake the world politically, through magic, using a powerful item, one that is mystic, or formidable. They gather crystals of power, or they defy the gods and do what was warned against by those who know. Sometimes they were just simply born to take over. Being a greatly powerful being. Sometimes they cheat their way into power. Sometimes they inherited a kingdom of great power and decide to take everything else over.
Boss enemies are often creatures of some kind: dragons, monsters, serpents, spiders. They can also be something .ore of a beast than a creature. They can even be robots. They shoot beams, spit fire, jump onto you, and attack in many different ways. They have weak spots. They are sometimes very difficult to defeat, but much easier given practice.
There are very plain areas. There are areas once plain like home, but something bad happened there. There are rainy areas, dark areas, spooky places, gloomy places, social places, mysterious places. Try not to make any one area the “plain” kind.
And there are areas that would feel risky for the player. There are some that feel sacred, some that feel safer than others. There are some that truly make the player feel as though they’ve stepped into a new world. And what once was may change.
There are boss enemies that are normal compared to others. The normal kinds are just a regular monster you could say. The others are like an evil group of dolls, a demon wall that inches forward requiring you to quickly beat it. They change forms and such too making them better than just ordinary opponents.
Items can be glamorized to an extent. They can be gotten normally, just by coming across them. Or more difficultly gotten. They may have required puzzles to be solved or things brought together that were far dispersed. And the setting behind getting them could be enchanting like a sword in the Stone in a forest kind of way.
There are countless things an item can do. Far more than just slashing it shooting. They can be used musically, they can give you further reach. They can rock and build holes, make you feather light, they can adjust your stats. And, going into things like relics from a certain game, can cause effects like protecting your comrade’s who are low on HP. Or auto cast spells throughout a battle.
There are many adjustments an emulator can provide. It is fascinating how they can make emulated 2D game run in 3D.. to an extent. And I’m sure better so soon enough. They’ve taken Mode 7 and have sharpen up the edges. And recently they’ve began work on auto translation for foreign language games.
These more non human characters come in very many forms. They can be angelic or demonic, can be monsters whose origins may not be explained, or they are. They can be things you find on Earth. And they could be things found on Earth but in a different form. There could be aliens. They could be based on old myths, stories and ideas from long ago. From more recent fantasy books like elves. Or a Grecian Goddess. They all can be presented just in the way the game maker desires. Spruced up.
Party members can be handed to the gamer all at once or gradually as the story requires them. They can be bonus characters. They can be hidden. They can be hired for a fee or item. They can be temporary, disappearing/ leaving suddenly.
One party members can know things the others don’t. They can have their own talents. They can have you interact with the gaming world in a way that the other characters can’t. So they can open the world up more being able to take more from it. Getting into new areas.
Other party members can be switched around in a way that is more suitable for the player.
Each character can have it’s own theme. While many games just gave music for every player currently being used other games will have their own music while they are being used. Each player can have it’s own areas, in which they lead you to and in which they know everyone there.
Some games are uneven from character to character.. unbalanced, being much weaker than the others and so never used. In that case space was just wasted. Some characters have that one special ability but otherwise are useless. And in such a case the player does the same thing again and again with it.
Some players may want to use a particular power and skill while other players want to do something else. And the player may be invested in one talent but for the sake of variety may turn to another player.
Some special items require a meter of some kind to use, such as a magic meter or just as a point system (like a weapon used takes one point of 20 uses.) So there are hearts or does or some such thing to collect while playing to use more. Sometimes am item can be used non stop until the player gets s hit, and so looses that item or weapon. And some items can be used more if another item is gotten. For example could initially be used, at most, 20 times, but now 30. And some items can be stolen from enemies.
The environment can shift from night to day. It can shift in weather. It can bring up things not there before. Some games are built around it such as simulation games. In them you can plant things, build your own home. The towns have very smart AI that brings it all to life. People change objectives in them. The game is adjusted according to what you do. And in games such as these ask yourself how they should be adjusted. Is it intuitive? Realistic? Predictable enough?
Racing games can let you buy car upgrades or new cars altogether. They can have you zoom around cities to greater or lesser realism. They can be based on the future, or just have a rocking and rolling theme. You can drive in cars or trucks. Go carts or tiny micro cars. They can have weapons, shooting or just throwing stuff, or dropping a banana peel. The tracks can just be a regular road or like a roller coaster ride.
In some of them you run out of gas. Or nitro power.
Some games change based on the actions you take. The player lives under some sort of karma system. To do good brings good, to do bad brings bad, but sometimes good can come from bad. Sometimes a wrong choice can be dire. It can have great consequences. And the game can be adjusted by how it is played by benefiting the player who does extra things. It is like to do so may be difficult but possibly worth it.
Some items like weapons can be enchanted or cursed, forged or blessed. Modified to be stronger. Having put together from other pieces and as strong as those pieces are is as strong as the item becomes.
Some box art is so bad that it makes the game a failure. And certain broken pieces can do the same for an otherwise great game.
Some games try to bring realism into it according to regular reality. For example you have to carry food to survive. You can only walk so far before you must rest. Like based on human limitations. You can only carry one sword, just like regular people. Two maybe. And they don’t let you walk all you want in armor. Sometimes even the food you carry in these games spoils after a few days.
Games are often created from real life activities. Simple ones. Like fishing or hunting, playing a sports game, playing poker. A paper route.
Some game money comes just from hitting a thing: a block, a pot, blades of grass. Some come after defeating enemies. Some come once a game day. Some are a salary. Sometimes the money is hidden. Some games give you a whole career to make money. And sometimes it comes from things sold. Either if you bought it earlier from the same place or another, or just found it, or earned it.
Some games have added value. Just an extra touch. And put all together they add up very well, even very well. Too much of one graphic isn’t good. Too much “sameness” isn’t Water that doesn’t at all move is just a blotch of blue. A ride that doesn’t roll up is, too. And it’s better to show the sword strike and possibly change colors and such.
As a side note it would be useful to come up with a short list of games you wish to take influence from. Like, perhaps, eight games that you’ll be best inspired from.
2D side scrolling games/ platformers can have the player riding a skate board, even a little dinosaur or a rhino. A little boot, a mini car, etc. Or the player could be on a whole moving train. Could just be moving bricks.
Gamers have certain things to escape like a prison or cage. A town or other certain area. Perhaps an evil ruler and his kingdom. Or the planet itself which is dying, and food is being brought back and forth to it. A black hole to escape into or out of. Maybe even a galaxy itself! To escape from a ship in an escape pod. Or just from a place that’s about to go ka-boom.
The player may be a victim seeking justice or restitution. May just be after saving a person. May want change. To correct the wrong. Or just may be motivated toward wealth. Or to get all of its bananas back which were stolen.
Weapons can whip, can slash, can go straightly, can be thrown, can be tossed like a curve, can shoot flame or ice, can be magic wind or a magic made quake, a lightning bolt, even an eruption for a very powerful effect. Can be called down as a meteor, and so can relinquish a few enemies or a chunk of the world, a town, in good or evil ways.
Items can freeze the rival, slow them down, speed oneself up, shift time, dimension, space, warp the rival, send them elsewhere.
Sometimes you take your enemies power just by defeating them. Sometimes by swallowing them. Sometimes you jump on a turtle and throw its shell. Sometimes you steal the rival's things.
Power ups can make you a beast of some kind (like a wolf or bear.) Or a creature of some kind (like a dragon or spider.) Or just larger. Or give you a power. The ability to fly. To move faster. They can give you an advantage. But there are power downs too. Like making you an imp-pig or reducing your abilities.
Mini games can be added. They range from the simple to the complex. From card memory games to difficult puzzles. They include card games and games based much on luck or skill. They can be a “do at the same time” thing or a fishing game where you need to catch a particular thing. They can have you digging for something or playing a long Melody on a musical instrument.
Some RPG games would have you taking notes to review your progress or just to be able to remember a certain thing you’ll be asked for later.
Some RPG games give you a larger part in improving your stats, as you wish them to be. Though some only let you improve your stats by defeating enemies in the game.
Some games will have you asking “what?!” And others may bring you tears. Some will make you angry, either with unfairness or insult. Some will give you a sense of wonder. Others will have you acting precisely, requiring your full attention. Some charm. Others are mysterious. Some are involving. Others are just plain interesting story-wise.
Flying games can be a pilot license simulation. Side scrolling or 3D. Mission based or just finish level based. Can be real life jets or alien spaceships. Can be based on popular sci fi shows or movies. Can include life within the ship. Can be a strategy game. Many power ups can be given, lasers or missiles. Can have you fighting creatures in space or be past war recreation.
Sports games include all the games humankind ever came up with. For your consideration: wrestling, golf, soccer, bowling, tennis, football, basketball, pool, gymnastics of all kind, racing, baseball. Some done more than others. There are possibly some sports games that have not been made into a game.
Likewise card games from hearts to rummy to poker and blackjack. Casino games, too, usually including slots and multiple gambling choices (usually requiring the instruction not to use the game as a real life gambling device and so not a two player game. Among the others are darts, chess and checkers, all pre designed games that are publically of free use. As long as you don’t associate them with real life teams and athletes and such.
The end of the level could have the character shooting forward in a star. Could open a door and go in.. or enter a painting. Can jump on a flag pole. Can have you touch an orb. Can be a circular flash of congratulatory graphics. Just be a finish line, sometimes with a victors ceremony.
There could be a magical herb mixture or pill you take that you don’t really know the effect of. You may be given a vague description on its effects. Enough for at least a good guess. Then it had raised one stat but reduced another. And with experimentation you find a mixture that balances it all out.
How 2D games are made from a movie they usually have a lot in them that had nothing to do with a movie. But sometimes they do it very well. Keep in mind what lends best to a game, as coming from a cartoon or movie, show or old story.
Some games not only brought characters together and bonded them together one by one, but they devastated the world, causing them to separate, making you a symbol of hope, searching put your old team to save the world from utter destruction.
Interlude: The Future of Gaming
AI is becoming developed inasmuch as it can make games itself, partially, though not yet entirely on its own. VR is on the horizon. More in depth games are being made, more and more. Games are connected through internet. The whole field is being mastered. But there is still a lot of interest in old games. In their original forms, or as remastered. As I’ve said earlier emulators and mods are able to auto improve games. Like magic they can make graphics much better, automatically.
The future should be considered to stay ahead of the curb. The people that took a chance in putting an arcade machine in a bar came into a fortune. Games were often singularly made. People were making machines of them within their garage.
Now that technology has developed and become cheaper we find people easily making clone machines. Portable ones, sometimes. And collecting tons sometimes, selling them, which is illegal. I don’t care about it’s lawful status but I do want people to earn their own money, not from the things others have invented. It is a good reason for copyright I believe. Not to digress to much but if a person worked their butt off and spent millions of their own money or more to make a good movie for others, it is just totally unright for another to sell an illegal copy of it!
So to be a part of the newest thing it helps you to know where things are headed. While AI cannot yet make it’s own games I can easily predict it someday can. 2D games to begin with, onto much more complex ones. We have AI conditioning new games. Perhaps AI can improve greatly on our old games someday. Honestly I see no reason to say why not.
To make this software that either makes games much better and different enough to not be a case of copy right infringement, or to create all new games on all it’s own, would be a good mine. Suddenly many thousands of games could be produced globally in a month.
There is software that lets you make new games, and that software is better than it ever was before. And as I’ve said before don’t worry too much about format. People are looking for new games for their old favorite systems. And it’s news worthy to some.
Apart from game making there is console mods. They change the hardware making them more diversified. And there are those that fix old hardware which isn’t that difficult, usually. Think things like soldering in new caps. Or swapping out a screen. Or unscrewing an old broken part and screwing a new one in. And these parts are available online, specifically.
Sooner or later games will be incredibly immersive, broad, and what I’d call a second reality.
Some games are just redesigns of other games. This can be tool based as a software that lets you take an old game file and remix it’s elements. For the greater talented it can be code based, having all new elements and being modified more thoroughly. And sometimes they will put a pre exiting game onto a new platform.
Re-released games- old games made new. Just like old movies made new but I think it fares better with games. Differences can include better graphics and sound at the most basic level. And sometimes includes refined cinematics. Game controls may change too. Even fit into a much different system of doing things. Like an RPG going from random based and turned based battles to a play field you can see enemies on and move around on. Sometimes a sequel is just a mi or update on an old thing. And sometimes much so: things are really just reorganized in them. The same source code may have even been used. Just differentiated. And an old game may include new things. Like from the earliest games such as pong and space invaders, or a multitude of Pac Man clones.
There could be more dazzling effects like after casting magic that the original game was void of. Or could be more illustrated. Like with character portraits. Or to take 2D and place it into 3D. Could also be a sequel a long time coming where the original entry was 2D, the subsequent 3D.
As well new levels could be added to a re-release. New areas like dungeons. The music may be orchestrated this time around. These could improve the game enough to warrant a return to its entry. Downloaded content may exist that does the same thing with or without more money spent on it.
Old is improved in the future—it’s a favorite thing of mine in the news. Any retro gaming news is awesome news. But this among it is the really neat stuff. That is to say, when old games are taken and made better. Sometimes by companies sometimes by individuals. In fact individuals often do a better job at it than companies. In Mode 7 the blocky appearance is made evened out. Mode 7 was great but blocky. And making things straighter made it much better. Or the guy that fit a 3D game into an 8 bit cart. How did he do that? Some old aged-bad 3D games were given an HD overhaul, entirely automated with a smart program. An AI one that knew just what to do. And some 8 bit ROMS were given a more 3D appearance. A game improving software that is still being developed. Old music made better, graphics made better, and more content to them makes the old game better. And there’s the old game itself many still play and enjoy. The process is becoming more automated. And what a great thing!
End of interlude
Beat-em-ups can have the player choice of the strongest, the fastest, or the one in between. One character can have a sword and the other one a bo. One could have one special attack, another a different one. One may have one spell to cast, and another a different one. Characters can be swapped out after they are defeated. And random weapons on the stage can be picked up and used, to great effect. It can be based on just a series of streets or in some time warped place. It can be a mystical place of dragons and beasts or just the streets. Vehicles can be jumped into and used, or creatures, or a horse. Enemies in them can drop items that you can take. Somethings when stricken explode while others burst out hitting your rivals.
Different play styles are common. 2D becoming 3D. Over head becoming side scrolling or platforming, becoming a shoot-em-up, throwing in a puzzle. Personally I don’t like most of them though some have done it very well.
Some games let you change the appearance of the game, the world and characters on various ways. The on screen character in some, such as in RPGs, the character getting a new suit or new color. The weapons on 2D RPG games are either seen as different from sword to sword or sometimes not seen at all. Some games let you compose the music you want to for the game you are in. Sometimes when you change something and come back it is still changed. Sometimes it isn’t, going back to it’s original form.
How a game starts there are many examples. It could start with cinematics, a visual and/or text based story. The player could wake up one day in bed and find something bad is going on. They may be entering into a place they were told not to. Some games just start you off on a level. Some find you outside and being told it is dangerous to be there so take this weapon. Some have you find that something was stolen and you need to get it back. Some have your loved one needing to be saved, as s/he is calling out to you. Some find you disagreeing with the king and the course of their kingdom. More common with new games, you are given a brief or sometimes lengthy tutorial. And some first levels are just made to give you an idea of how to play, though without instructions. Some have you building a very specifically generated character. Others just give you a choice on where to start.
One game has you grinding for greater power, defense, or whatever it may be. Another just gives you power ups sporadically. Enough to get you along. So e of these are hidden. Others in plain site. One game has you buying things for greater power and others come more freely. Some have you collecting things for it. Others require you to have skill to use them right, or knowledge of your opponents weaknesses. Some are there just for the sake of variety. While one may be better overall, more often than not, sometimes the alternative is desirable, at least.
Random battles can be very frustrating sometimes. They are sometimes reduced with certain items. If the player goes into an old area, one they left long ago and became stronger after, they may find those old and pitifully weak enemies there getting in the way, without any benefit for beating them. Each area in old 2D games may have had 4 or 5 different random battles opponents. Though in some RPGs there are areas that have dozens and dozens while elsewhere just that 4 or so. Some items stop the random battles as the player chooses. The creatures in them can appear front of you, in a sideways manner, or above you, or more vertically. They may have minimal movement of none in older games, but for older gamers that was enough. Summoning a spirit can provide a bit of animation as added value. And swords of all types, magic and things, provide animation that isn’t otherwise there.
The background of a game has countless possibilities. Among some that have been used are the places of Dracula, a land full of robots, an alien planet full of mystery, a medieval type setting full of magic, fantasy, a world of toys, the African safari, lands of the gods, a future world, space, places taken from movies and books, shows and cartoons.
A common occurrence in games are: dropping a letter, someone crashing the party, someone intervening, a challenge being presented, a trick being played, someone calling for help, saving others, gradually becoming more powerful, taking a chance, someone somehow surviving or being brought back, being betrayed, the sword in the Stone, being a part of prophesy, being underestimated, waking up in a new