The Game Maker’s Bible

An all you need book to

create a great game

By Adam Jeremy Capps

The Game Maker’s Bible: An All You Need Book to Create a Great Game
By Adam Jeremy Capps
San Francisco, 2021.

PUBLIC DOMAIN
 This book will contain a sort of game making philosophy covering how a good game is
made, what makes a game bad, and a ton of ideas for anyone wanting to make their own video
game. New ideas are included, too. My approach was to:
1. Make a book that expands the imagination of the game maker.
2. To go through the best things about any given game.
3. To provide a large amount of good ideas.
4. To elaborate on things that have been done before, for better or worse.
5. To provide a useful understanding of how a good game is made and what makes
bad games bad.
6. And just anything else that can help the reader make the best game they can.

I made this book where it is easy to reference, almost like a dictionary or thesaurus of
ideas. As such you can quickly find information on just about any game making thing you want
to work on. This book doesn’t at all have to be read from start to finish but it will only help.

And this book may be used freely. It is entirely in the public domain just as I want it to be.

My background is that I love video games. I love learning about them, playing them,
even just hearing about them and what people think of them. They have been absorbed into my
thinking for a long time now. I always loved video games but in the past years I have had the
opportunity to learn about them online. I’ve watched video game videos just about all day for the
last few years. Videos such as reviews, criticism, top tens, retrospectives, what people deem
hidden gems, news, playthroughs, speedruns, you name it. As a kid I sent in an idea to Sega.
They wrote back and told me that they felt interested but first I had to sign some papers to
accept it, with my idea expressed more. Only I’d change the idea completely and was sent back
a letter saying they weren’t interested. The first idea was called Skull Brothers. A skeleton with
two heads and two powers, one of ice and the other of fire. The second was just some crap
about “Dragon Slayer.” The movie got the best of me. I think I was ten years old at the time.
Like any kid I wanted to make a video game. I’d make levels on paper for a new
Mario game so strongly inspired by Super Mario Bros. 3. For a lifetime I wanted to make a video
game, from time to time. I had tried Python for a while as far as coding goes. I have at least a
general knowledge of it but gave up on it. The one thing that stuck with me was writing. Second,
I wrote music which I did for years and years. But the one thing I was always good at was
writing. So I decided to write a book that helps game makers make great games. That’s my
contribution. I hadn’t found any such books online.

One excellently done thing in making a game can make every difference. One very bad
thing can make it altogether bad. Bad music for example can completely ruin a game. Could
make it great, conversely. Frustrating controls are one of the worst things. Some things are so
important that if you just focus on them you will make a great game. Maybe not perfect, but a joy
to experience nonetheless.

Be aware that what is on paper may not be good in the game in actuality. A ready example is
realism implemented into a game. Things such as easily broken swords and the need to eat
food periodically. Things such as that may be real world like but frustrating. People aren’t
playing games as a real world type of experience. In fact games should be a pleasant escape.
Things in fact may not make sense at all. Take Mario Bros. for an example. Think cartoons. Not
real life movies.

Pulling from inspiration is greatly valuable. How you translate that into a game is important. But
every idea can be made into a game to greater or lesser effect. That includes every aspect of a
game. Like the music, which may have been inspired from some obscure composition or beat.

Some things must be focused and worked on more than others. They involve the core of the
game: the music, graphics, control.

Copy cat games are never a good way to go. They just produce an ugly twin of its former
embodiment. It isn’t a one to one copy. In other words you can take all ideas of a previous
game, doing them all differently, but collectively they come together in an awful way. So in other
words all ingredients must go well together in order for it to taste good. Consider a person
making a whole different recipe of a stu. Instead of having beef it has chicken. Instead of
noodles it has dumplings. Instead of carrots, celery. All of the ingredients are both better and
mix together in choice ways.

As for inspiration: if you are going to make a game you love, if you are going to love making it,
then it should come from the things you love. Think like this, ‘If I did (this) it would be done (this)
way instead. Star Wars did the Death Star. Star Trek, later, did the BORG Cube. And a favorite
lesser known Sci Fi show (LEXX) used the same concept to create “Mantrid Drones.”

Some good ideas are good ideas forever as are and cannot be done differently while staying as
such. Some things cannot be done differently. In fact they should stay as are and as long as you
are not plagiarizing, that’s no problem. For example “HP” in an RPG game. Some plot lines too
are the best, like the-villian-was-your-father. Or energy bars, in-game money, leveling up, and so
on. They are the basis of great games. Feel free to use them. Don’t feel like you are copying
other games when you do so.

For the formula simply look back on the things you’ve always loved. Those things that stood out,
implement them into your game. As such, paint a beautiful picture. If in the meantime something
just doesn't work as you thought it would, then focus on something else for a while. If after
returning to it and it just doesn't work well, simply abandon it.
Overall “the proof is in the pudding.” What is fun, what is engaging, what is addictive, are the
best priorities of a game maker.
The mood you set is important as well. The “impressions” made should come across
effectively. Whatever they are: such as strangeness, darkness, or fun, otherworldly or whatever
they may be.
Polishing a game may be the best time spent on making a game. To go from what was
thought was done yet to make it better and better, that even the finishing of it turned out to just
be the beginning. You don’t want to “overpaint.” I mean what is done well might be well enough.
The important thing is that you don’t change singular parts so much that it no longer blends in
with the rest of it. So keep things well together while you are improving on certain elements.
Don’t treat them so much as singular. Consider if a jump could be a little better. Consider if the
story could be tweaked just a little more. Improve the sound if you feel you should. And if
anything just feels hopeless- that you thought could be good but just isn't, don’t be too steadfast
in keeping it.
Avoid (our version of) mentalites because it is much more fun to create what you want to
instead of adding to the tiers of prior fame.
To go over the most important elements:

Game control-
1- Jumping. If a player can’t control their player well then the game will be impossible to enjoy
despite all else. On the other hand if the game lets you practically do dances on screen with
little effort then the controls will make all action in the game more natural. There are many
different ways that a character can jump. To cross on one platform to another should be doable
enough that it is fair- more than fair. Many games had been ruined by requiring precise jumping.
Some jumps are heavy- have a lot of weight to them like in Castlevania. Some don’t let you
switch directions mid jump- also like in older Castlevania games. Some do, like Mario in Mario
Bros. Some just have you soar super high. Then there are weapon uses during jumps to
consider. Personally I like how that is done in Ninja Gaiden. Sometimes when you are hit it
throws you backward like in Ninja Gaiden and Mega Man. Or at least stops you in your tracks. It
is best to match the jumping mechanic with the actual gameplay (the platforming or whatever
else.)

2- Power Ups- Some weapons in Mega Man have a poor effect. The usual reason is that it is
hard to hit a target with that particular weapon. For example, stones that go around in a twirl and
if you are to hit your enemy with it you’ll need luck. A good weapon gives you control over where
you want it to go. Such as one that goes in a north eastern direction, others above, some all
around. Some stop time. Some pull all enemies above and away. I personally love the
gain-the-enemies-power idea. Like in a metroidvania game, after you defeat so many enemies
you gain their power or the ability to summon them. Some games let you charge a weapon
before unleashing a greater blow. Some weapons have a special power when you are at full
health. Some weapons themselves can lose some power if you are hit, such as in Castlevania
when your whip loses length that was gained.
3- Capabilities- Meaning the power you have over the environment such as being able to fly or
climb. I never did like the trope of being unable to jump over a fence. Once Mario learned to fly,
the whole world marveled. He didn’t simply fly, he had to gain speed first. That prevented the
gamer from just skipping all of the levels by flying over them at any time. Some nice touches in
games have been anti gravity, super jumps, balancing, dashing, sliding, super powering
weapons, freezing enemies to create platforms, grappling, and speeding forth, to name a few. If
you need any examples or ideas then you don’t need to look any further than Zelda and
Metroid. Just bringing them to mind gives you a ton of ideas. There are so many ideas out there
that one person alone could never think of them all on their own. For that reason it is fair to go
through games to see what is possible. For example the relic system in Final Fantasy 6 or the
list of abilities garnered in newer RPG games. It is your task to pick, choose, change, and bring
them together as well as you can. Some things that are staples among games, have become
mainstays. To be able to travel faster in a large 3D world for example.

4-Resources- Meaning things you can get and use in the game. Some games have incredibly
useful resources such as The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. You can “harvest” certain
things like different gems, food from trees including various fruits, the weapons of enemies,
branches from trees, all sorts of things. Some games only let you get certain things if it is day,
other things during the night, which does well to contrast day and night instead of them being
there without meaning. For most part the more difficult a chest is to find the better its contents..
Though I’ve gone out of my way before for a chest that contained crap. A very good element in
a game is to allow you to make new things from various things collected whether that be new
armor or swords, or whatever else. It helps an RPG to get you things far beyond chests and gil.
Some have you digging for it. Others have you whacking bushes or burning them. Some are
hidden in the deep blue sea. Others in an entirely different world.

5-Game music- Many great composers just pull inspiration from their favorite obscure music. In
other words, they slightly rip it off. I had spent all of my youth and young adulthood composing
classical music. The most important things I learned were tonality, repetition without minimalism,
quality of a melody is significant, and making music that is comprehensible. As for tonality all
you need to do is emphasize the notes of the triad in the scale. The first note of the scale, the
major or minor third above it depending on if you are in a major or minor scale, and the third
above that to the fifth. Those notes in any octave should be emphasized the most with
repetition, duration, and frequency. Thanks to some really good notation software anyone can
fully write and orchestrate music without an orchestra, knowing then and there how their music
sounds. Every era in music had its own distinct style. Such as medieval music. Whenever
people hear it they know just what it is. That music had a lot of dorian and organum. Had a lot of
fifth tone use. It placed a lot of importance on counterpoint as well. Music like that is good for
certain RPG games. It’s valuable to know how each era of compositions were made, from
Baroque to Romantic music and into the modern era. Some listening to this music can be
helpful.

6-Game Graphics- Early paintings were made to just be as realistically done as could be. That
was so for a very long time until the advent of modern art which introduced things like abstract
and impressionist art. We are in such a time, only for video game graphics. So many new art
styles are introduced. Call them “modern pixel art” or “cell shading.” Some programmers go for
an animated look, others for clay animation such as “The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker,” and
“The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening,” the switch remake, that is. I’m an old duddy. I prefer
realism and nothing more. But I can’t discount the newer generation. If it works and they like it,
that’s what matters. 8 bit and 16 bit graphics haven’t been thrown out yet. While early days of
3D focused on 3D as much as possible, it wasn’t long after that when the old styles were
returned to. It’s like comparing a cartoon to a movie. People still like cartoons, they don’t need
them to be realistic either. In fact CGI began to take over animation, never fully able to. It is
quite a formula: to mix 2D and 3D. To make the best looking 2D game ever. Or to add subtle 3D
touches to it. If you know there is an audience for something then give them a show. Some
things are timeless, such as pac man, and we still find people playing games with the simplest
of graphics, such as on modern smartphones.

7-Game engagement/ involvement of a player- One way to cause it is simply by rewarding

the player. As such the player becomes more powerful, more refined. Always have an option B,
an option C, etc., “where there’s a will there’s a way.” Or “there’s more than one way to skin a
cat.” Make the game where it isn’t hopeless, there’s always another way to beat that terribly
powerful boss or utterly confusing area. Give the game an interesting depth. Spin an amazing
story for them. Don’t bore them. Do entertain them.The game should be eased into. The start of
the game should not bury the player in texts and objectives. Some games make you think that
the programmers really did feel like every last thing should be explained via story dialogue or
tutorials.

8-Character and enemy design- Take a pre existing thing and change it up. It’s very simple.
Take a frog, give it a crown, take a cactus, give it legs and arms. Take that cactus, make some
of them metallic. Some enemies just may be pallet swaps like a red hood instead of a blue.
People appreciate Sub Zero and Scorpion just the same. Make the most regal knight you can,
or the most cowardly, or the most moronic. Give them awesome looking hair. Take a shield and
make it a mirror shield. Take a sword and make it glow red. Make the most monstrous thing you
can like an alien or a thing in demonic form. Have a massive enemy that towers high. There are
so many different ways that a character jumps. Some raise one of their hands, shooting with the
other, some bust up bricks with a fist, others raise their knees when they jump and still others
flip- and even flipping jumps differ from game to game. The way the character walks differs from
game to game. That is so broad itself ranging from the robotic walk of Robocop to the realistic
maneuvers of The Prince of Persia. Some run like Ryu from Ninja Gaiden. Some games
naturally need smaller sprites than others, as more of the screen is needed to be seen. A beat
em up game however calls for larger sprites. Of course the personality of a character should be
developed as well. The developers of Final Fantasy 6 assigned about two characters to different
people and then interconnected them afterwards. What a good idea! Some games will require
that you build upon their personality and to interconnect everything with the other characters
accordingly. Other games require very little explanation or sense, such as pac man. Or even
Donkey Kong really, who just wants his bananas back.
9-Game Moods- This matters a lot. It can define a game more than anything else. To list games
that illustrate that point: Ghosts and Ghouls, Super Metroid, Final Fantasy 6, Super Mario Bros.
3, Castlevania, Zelda, they have all set a certain mood. For Ghosts and Ghouls it was gothic.
For Super Metroid it was an alien hellscape. For Final Fantasy 6 it was a wrecked world that
needed to be saved, full of victims that deserved to be fought for. Super Mario 3 was a much
happier game. A Link to the Past began in heavy rain and later one wandering through the lost
woods with its mystifying music. In that game as well was the ocarina player that disappeared
on a trunk of a tree. These are magical moments that the game makers made. They are dark,
scary sometimes, strange, and compelling. They can be very brief moments yet have such a
strong effect. Like Mario falling from Bowser’s airship with a wand in Super Mario Bros. 3. Or the
skeletons that meet you with food at a table in 8 Eyes. My favorite example is Mortal Kombat,
from the sound of the Gong to the brutal and uncompromising wickedness of it. Make it a
wonderful world to behold. Make it feel magical. Set up alien monsters that fill the whole screen.
Bring about tense moments. Make relief relief in full. That is perhaps the best thing you can do
while making a game.

10-Game fun- The best game makers have it as the utmost thing. “Is the game fun?” If it is then
the game has been made right. I will go over that topic later.

11-Extra touches/enhancement- It’s like taking a goomba and giving it wings. Extra touches
can make a big difference. Some people can tell when things are highly polished. It is a thing
some point out in any game, that they feel it has been highly polished. It is present in games
that you could see things were placed just right. When a game making team goes through
everything and looks for things that could and should be adjusted then it is a polished game.
That could be a simple change or a large one. It could mean a more identifiable place or a less
confusing corridor overall. Could even be a bit better of a title screen or the expression of a
story. They may find that an area is too difficult so they place a needed power up right there.
They may determine something would be more fun “if only.” Having variety: The way things
change in the game from the weather to the trees. The way the rivers and oceans allude to
wonder in the distance. Having things shift sometimes. Differing the character’s appearance and
seeing weapons in hand according to what you have equipped. In Zelda, Link can bump
graveyards to bring up ghosts. It could have been left as a kind of meaningless thing but
Nintendo created a kind of secret to it. That is if you raise a bunch of other ghosts then kill the
first one (which you have to keep an eye on while they all look the same and move around a lot)
you will get a ton of rupees.

12-Weapons- In a video game anything and everything can be a weapon, and probably has
been at some point. Like a bouncy ball in super mario land. If you are making an RPG these
days you probably have a lot to include, from crossbows to everything else. I will not go over
what can be a weapon so much, anything can be. It’s more important to consider different
versions of the same thing. Like a fire whip, longer whip, chain whip, etc. Let the player feel like
they really are learning how to fight with various weapons, from a light sword to a heavy axe, a
thrusting spear, etc. Arrows are very direct and powerful, but are balanced out with aim. Heavy
swords are powerful but prevent you from carrying a shield. Magicians are magically powerful
but inept at weapons.
Before that last boss is defeated the character is granted the best weapon in the game
like The Golden Sword.

13-Depth of game- More than ever games give you more to do. There are things like side
quests, branching stories and branching levels. The game transitions itself from day to night. A
great deal more items and weapons are present. There are multiple endings to the game. There
is more interactivity in the game between you, other characters, and within the world itself.
Maybe the most important thing is that there are no wrong choices. The gamer can play as they
like without any real consequences. Some things are harder to accomplish than others but are
more rewarding, and doable. Minimalism should be avoided. An abundant amount of game
there in as many good ways as possible. At the same time having too many of any given thing
will cause the gamer to not know where to turn, or what to use and when. There would be too
much to learn, there would be indecisiveness because of it. Worst of all things would lose their
meaning and the player will never become familiar with any given thing. That is so in some ways
more than others, such as having too many weapons and never the means to get them all or
learn any given one well. Other things always do well with constant change such as the
environment of the game: warm places, cold places, plains, rain, snow, fair weather, night and
day.

14-Options- That is, to not only walk but to ride, to not only ride but sail, to not only sail but to
fly. Like job classes and the abilities they bring you. Like having money to buy precisely what
you want or need. Maybe more of a focus on big spending in a game. To swim, to climb, to
glide, to crawl, to ascend, to descend. Also to be able to upgrade your current items or
equipment. To go on a sidequest if you want. To follow different story lines. To do good or to do
evil, your choice. To play the same game in 2D or 3D. To fight a wide variety of enemies while
you endlessly level up. At increasing levels you can choose among various new abilities to
have. Traversing a basic game can either have you on a dinosaur or a skateboard. Some
games give you a multitude of animals to ride. Zelda: The Breath of the Wild even let you ride a
bear. The benefits have you able to go other places, fly, speed through things quicker, or offer
protection. In Golden Axe you can ride a lizard that spits fire. Then, that’s the least that Yoshi
can do. There may have been only one thing to ride in Mario World but he could do just about
anything a multitude of counterparts could do.

If you are making a rudimentary game you may be able to do it all by yourself. You may
want to bring together a team. That team should include the best people that you can find. You
may like to keep control over the overall design, approving and rejecting ideas for example. It
may be difficult to say such things as the composer's music isn’t good enough. But for the sake
of the game it may be necessary. A decision on what tools you will use must be made. If you are
competent at programming code, then all the better. A fun part of the process may be to collect
the materials you will need such as pencils, markers, graph paper, perhaps notation software
and other various things. A process of study may be to examine old games to collect useful
ideas from. Notes should be taken and honed to perfection. You may wish to create a lot of
notes, write down ideas, and brainstorm before you begin programming the game. A point A to
Z approach may not work very well. And you should make an overall draft then work and
improve as you go along. You might implement it into a routine such as working on it 2 hours
every day at a certain time.
Consider this being like an “open source book.” With open source games anyone can
use the code to improve upon it. Likewise this public domain book is in the public domain so that
people can add to it and improve upon it. It is a Game Maker’s Bible meant to be made much
better and widely shared.

The Best Ideas I’ve Seen Used in Video Games. They may be ideas already
known but it helps a game maker to know as many ideas as they can in order to
have a lot to draw from. These help a game maker know their options.

1: The game turns from night to day. During the night worse enemies are about. During the day
more doors are open.
2: Gathering materials to create something.
3: Stealing an enemy's power and abilities.
4: Cash to buy things.
5: Ability to fly.
6: A very resourceful world in which to collect things.
7: Job systems with their abilities such as Mages, Knights, and Thieves.
8: A map that tells you where to go.
9: New abilities open up new paths/ routes.
10: Weaker enemies will run away from you so you don’t have to be bothered by them in RPG
games.
11: A platformer with a world map that gradually opens up over time.
12: Popular metal music in a fighting game.
13: Ability to upgrade your car in a racing game.
14: Being able to skip long dialogue.
15. Weapons in a racing game to make racing more fun.
16. Riding on animals, dragons, ships, airships, monsters.
17. Picking up weapons on beat em ups.
18. Throwing enemies toward the screen in a beat 'em up.
19. Summoning old gods like Shiva and even Quetzalcoatl.
20. Incorporating myths in games like the sword in the stone or Icarus.
21. Guns of a different bullet from honing in on the enemy to a multi shot, or a powerful laser, or
a circular shot.
22. A time limit to beat the level or a countdown to disaster.
23. Bombs blow up walls.
24. Powering up your weapon by holding down a button.
25. Pick up a thing and throw it.
26. Spying on your enemy in the game.
27. The game world map opens up like it did in Super Mario World.
28. Setting the mood from the start. One powerful, like a storm and venture into the castle as
was done in A Link to The Past.
29. Combos in a fighting game like Killer Instinct.
30. So many different ways to fly from like an airplane taking off to bunny ears that let you glide
downward, flying like a thrust upward (oppositely) or simply like a superhero
31. Terrain changing while you play like in Super Ghouls and Ghosts.
32. Summons/espers etc also give you the ability to learn things through a separate point
system, such as new spells you can only learn by keeping them equipped.
33. Having easter eggs in the game.
34. A highly elaborate spell from a super boss such as Sepheroth’s “Super Nova.”
35. The map only opens up according to where you have been or by climbing a place high, or
accessed in a map room.
36. Nice parallax scrolling. Nice mode 7. Pre rendered graphics, along with so many other game
making tricks.
37. Sticking to and climbing walls like in Ninja Gaiden. Bouncing off of walls like in Batman NES.
38. Highly versatile enemies that require a variety of attacks against them. Some enemies
bounce around, some have shields and can only be struck from behind. In other words enemy
by enemy there are different ways they must be defeated.
39. Pick just what area or level you want to play first like was done in Super Mario Land 2.
40. You are a part of a rebel team, complete with fake IDs, disguises, and passwords.
41. Hitting a thing gives you an item, be it a brick, orb, or lantern- but to do so uniquely.
42. 100 of an item gets you something- an extra life, a level up in a platformer. Or five of
something else gets you something else.
43. Mortal Kombat where you freeze your enemy solid with Sub Zero or pull forth your enemy
with a “get over here!”
43. The enemy changes into his or her true form, that of a demon.
44. Being able to do what you want when you want in an adventure open world game such as in
Zelda 1 and Breath of the Wild. The more you do the more you are rewarded. If you choose to
help the people in the game then they will help you defeat the final boss.
45. A puzzling way to enter into an area. Or just a simple thing required that just isn’t so simply
known. For example holding down D will clear a body before you, and reveal a hole to enter. Or
circling around a stone before bombing it will only blow up then. Or a pattern through a forest
like in The Legend of Zelda’s Lost Woods.

Obscure But Good Ideas For Video Games. These are ideas that have been
used in video games before. Here I will list ideas that are less commonly known
as opposed to more commonly known as in the list above. They may be
commonly known but if they are rarely used then they will be included here.

1: Once in a blue moon all of the old enemies you defeated return, as on the playfield.
2. Instead of jumping you grapple from ledge to ledge like in Bionic Commando.
3. The enemy takes your power to use anything metallic.
4. Being a merchant job class gets you in store discounts or helps you find valuable things out in
the rough.
5. Jumping off of a clif on a hang glider and slowly gliding down.
6. A mini game that can be pulled up and beaten at any time to gain extra money in an RPG.
7. Defeat all of the strange looking spiders in the game to gain a great thing.
8. Freezing your enemy to use them as platforms.
9. You are a part of an enslaved race or people that escapes and gains the needed power to
free your people.
10. Right before you hit an enemy you press a button and the attack is more powerful.
11, Fighting against an evil form of your own self. Sometimes to undo your evil side, other times
just a shadow of yourself.
12. Harder platforming at the end of a level, like simple but tricky, gives you the bonus room.
13. An RPG in a non-traditional setting. Most are medieval fantasy or some kind of future world
its own. Few to none are like Earthbound.
14. A code imputed before a game lets you play an old Atari 2600 game. Something like
Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 did.
15. If the moment you see something and quickly put in a code then something special will
happen.
16. After meeting criteria in a level a special thing opens up, For example, get all of the coins in
a level then something special will happen.
17. Hitting your enemies projectile sends it back at them. Something like a Jedi or Sith can only
do but in a video game.
18. Book shelves sometimes give you new recipes from which to create things. All you need are
the ingredients after that.
19. Being able to steal an enemy's magic by drawing it out.
20. Exploring the sea in a submarine.
21. Undead enemies are easily beaten with curative items or the life spell.
22. A certain enemy in an obscure place can suck you into an underworld.
23. You have a choice: take a summoner’s stone or have that stone placed into a sword.
24. Gain lock picking skills.
25. Avoid dead bodies, they have The Plague.
26. A shadow of yourself that helps you fight.
27. A mix of a god game simulation and a side scroller like was done in Act Raiser.
28. A personality test determines your race, if you want it. For example “Dark Elf” or “Warrior.”
29. The enemy sends you back in time.
30. The main enemy is a freak of science made more powerful by it, and now is against his
creators.
31. A hover board to ride on.
32. Taking the sword of your fallen father to avenge him. Like Ryu Hyabusa did.
33. At the end of a beat 'em up two player game you have the choice to go against the second
player, as the last boss tells you if you defeat your brother and join him you’ll be greatly
rewarded.
34. The game challenges you with what seems suicidal yet pays off greatly. Such as by being at
the edge of a clif you are asked “jump down?” Or you have just 10 seconds left before
everything blows up and the game asks “wait a little longer?” Like in Final Fantasy 6 where you
don’t leave Shadow behind.
35. The people made powerful machines to fend off an evil returning to the world, only when he
returned he magically turned those machines against them.
36. Street Fighter 2 like button presses to perform an attack in an RPG. For example the code
pressing of A then B then down towards right causes a special attack.

Special Section: The Basis for a Whole New Game in Many Possible Forms:
This is a section for those who want to make a new game. A lot of ideas are
here, so many that numerous different games can be made from them. It is a
broad series of ideas to use in making any number of different games and don’t
be afraid to go off the beaten path.

The difference between this section and the others is that this one will only include all
new ideas. The rest of the book mostly contains previously used ideas.

Remember: as a public domain book you may use it however you want to.

Ideas For Video Games (New) These ideas may have been present in video
games before. There are a lot of games out there! But as far as I know they
haven’t been used before.

1: Take the fireball idea obtained from the flower only if you get a mushroom after that it’ll make
the fireball larger. A “mushroom for the fireball.”
2. Finding the scattered pieces of an idol to restore the great church.
3. Different color coins buy different things each and the ability to control what color you harvest.
4. White, black, and gray magic have their own MP bar. HP has its own bars based on what way
you are attacked, and the ability to raise which HP set you want to.
5: An HP bar based on how many gold coins you have, if you want to use it. For example 1,000
coins equals as much HP (GHP- Gold HP.)
6. You can only skip certain battles by bribing your enemy. Such as “give them the ( )” and if
they accept it then they will let you flee.
7. The music shifts according to how you play the game, what characters you have, etc.,
causing new themes.
8. Slight music changes indicate things. The music suggests what is going on around you or
that certain things are close.
9. There are buttons assigned to colors. Such as L being green and R being red. By pressing
them those colors around you in the game are affected someway.
10. There is a line up of enemies “weak to” either fire, wind, or ice, and certain abilities bring out
the combination you need to beat them one by one.
11. In an RPG stormy weather makes for better lightning attacks, even free lightning attacks.
12. Protection lanterns to make a safe path with.
13. Buying instruments for the game music. Such as buying a harp will add that sound.
14. An enemy in the game makes the most annoying sounds, defeating it removes that sound.
Also- if you defeat all of those enemies you’ll know you have beaten the stage.
15. Collecting idols to create a doorway, each leading to its own special place.
16. Getting a by-percentage discount for giving the shopkeeper certain things. For example a
special branch will get you a 20% discount.
17. Creating exactly what potion you want. By mixing a multitude of ingredients together in the
right proportion has an exact effect. Less focus on swords and armors, more on alchemy.
18. Less equipment equals more experience points per victory.
19. Alphabetic letters of an unknown language are obtained one by one until you can fully
understand what some say. Or those letters equate to a magical language of new spells.
20. Two great temples to tackle in order to gain two wings. Once you’ve gotten both wings you
can fly, like an angel.
21: Once you pray to an idol of a god you have its powers to summon it.
22. Bank system in the game is more complex than just putting money in. You have the choice
to save a percentage of your gains (like per battle in an RPG),you can borrow money that
automatically goes back to them when you get more. You can study and make investments.
23: Shops let you auto buy. When you’ve gained enough money it is purchased without having
to return to the shop.
24. You can post a camera to spot a rare creature to capture or fight. When the camera sees it
you are alerted. Or having cameras to post that let you see any area whenever you want to.
25. There are puzzle bricks to hit. When you hit them a puzzle comes overhead to play and
beat, if you win you get something nice. Could be tic tac toe, a number guessing game, black
jack, or whatever else.
26. A side scrolling game where the game is played in a vehicle. Instead of person powerups,
vehicular ones (different shooting, different speed, larger tires, flying abilities, etc., There are
things like speed boosts on the ground. The car can grapple onto things and stick to walls.
27.The second player character gets entirely different power ups. The game is much different
just by playing a different character, has different enemies and all kinds of different things.
28. There are three or so different dimensions constantly shifting in the game, automatically. So
every ten minutes you enter into a different dimension.
29. Game has invincible stairs. Just by pressing up right at the base you climb up them.
30. The greener the grass is, the better items it will have by chopping it down.
31. Old dead trees are easier to cut down. Trees age quickly in the game.
32. Glasses as a kind of item to find or buy. They each let you see things you otherwise
wouldn't, from enemy stats to treasure, things invisible or the right path you should take.
33. The quicker you act the higher your spirit goes and the more power you obtain.
34. An area where everything transforms as a character becomes a super power. When the
player reaches that place all of their inventory and appearances change into a more powerful
form. Some of the items they carried may have been useless before entering while a sword
becomes a magical one and they don an honored robe.
35. An option to buy an auto use potion. Those purchased are auto used during battle when HP
gets low.
36. Buying a subscription that comes once an in-game month which teaches new spells, offers
traveling advice, reveals in-game secrets. Just like Mario gets coins to continue a game (credits)
the magazine is like within the game itself offering maps and things via subscription or issue
purchase.
37. Having a spirit sword. They may be the most powerful among swords. The more energy or
spirit you have yourself the more powerful the sword. A sword that can fly and spin around.
38. For summons you can obtain idols that increase their power. Such as if you can summon
Shiva, getting a Shiva Idol increases her power.
39. You can combine two jobs into one after you’ve learned both. Like “red mage” but a mix of
all the other jobs too. Could be any two combinations: monk and knight, or knight and thief, etc.,
they each create an all new job as you choose to mix any two.
40. You can fuse any two characters together. Like a fusion earring in Dragon Ball Z only in an
RPG.
41. Getting the same power up increases its power. Or getting a set of different power up
combines them. There are power up enhancements as well, that add a kind of effect to any
owned powerups.
42. A switch that turns helpful lights on- a light switch for multiple lights each telling you where
things are, specifically, instead of guessing.
43. Button pressing mechanics like holding down the attack button and twirling the thumb stick
makes a spinning sword attack. Holding down the attack button and pressing up on the D pad
raises your weapon above you so that it can fly around, or doing that either releases your spirit
or makes you larger. While holding a button and pressing down shrinks you.
44. Magical keychains determine what doors or locks they can unlock.
45. Magical keychains determine what’s beyond a door. 20 different keychains 20 different
rooms with just one door. This idea has a lot of other uses too such as one water different
potions per magic bottle. The magic bottle determines what the water will become. Kind of
similarly placing a fire gem on a sword adds firepower to it, or wind power with a wind gem.
46. Staircases gradually build during the game quest by quest. “Honoring the gods” makes a
new staircase build, step by step until you can enter the heavenly realm. Whatever realm it
leads to or the way the new step appears depends on you. There can even be a number of
different staircases to build. Also it can be by leveling up and along the way there are rooms to
enter into while going further and further up.
47. Finding a way to make second quests better. To have it be more than just a character swap
with minimal differences. To change one thing among it all makes a great overall difference. It
could be you are given a bundle of older games upon completion or living free in the world
afterwards doing nothing but playing games. Or the purpose never ends, there are always
things left to do in the game after you have restored its peace.
48. A never ending game. Games that are never completed like a racing or casino game can be
placed into an RPG in order to give the player something to do far beyond its quest. It retains
value of play after everything else has been done. No longer helping the King but instead
playing golf.
49. The music is auto generated this way: there are a set of melodies, chords, percussion, etc
that are randomly played yet all fit together well. So say there are ten sets of 3 measure
melodies, those are randomly played while the other music is being randomly played.
50. A large message that you find the letters for. If it has a few A’s, some other vowels, whatever
else then the objective is to complete the message. Or whatever word you complete you get.
Such as fire spell or whatever, while other words are far more complicated.
51. Scratchers and lotto in the game- the player can get a lotto ticket in an RPG and possibly
win an enormous amount of money. Not with astronomical odds but perhaps 1 in 2000.
52. You can get dice in the game as found hidden or earned and every roll gives you better and
better items. They can be used as points to buy things. Or instead of numbers on them there
are power ups on them.
53. Choosing who will get the experience points and who won’t instead of having to kill them off
to do the same. Or proportioning out experience points as you want to.
54. An educational open world game. It teaches anything you could want to learn just by
wandering around a simulated earth- from bird watching to parking lots, they contain real world
things to educate you about them.
55. “College Professor,” a game of a simulated school where you can learn about any number of
subjects, be graded and things like that as found in real schools.
56. Tasked with bringing the prince, the son of a King, back to life.
57. Monsters drop things after their defeat that you can combine into a monster pet or
something. Different combinations can be made. One the horn of a certain enemy, another the
tail, etc. Like a frankenstein of monsters.
58. A Soul Necklace to grab from an idol in order to become it. They are hard to reach and find
but when you do you can become that being at any time.
59: Ways to improve the old Pac Man idea: gold/ different color pellets scare ghosts longer.
Basic things like an item that freezes ghosts in place. More than just four ghosts. Jump item for
Pac Man.
60. You are the only one on a planet that is an alien whose race was blocked technologically
from coming there, and you must open that gate.
61. You can design the look of things such as a weapon or decide on different designs of the
same thing. For example “sword style 2.”
62. As a funny effect some enemies make your weapon too large and heavy to use. You might
have to cast a shrink spell on it!
63. Choose the level power of local enemies for gaining more experience per battle. Selecting
higher difficulty results in more experience.
64. Randomly call on an enemy from a “foriegn land” to come fight you, They are enemies from
different parts of the world you haven't ventured into yet. Or a little differently, using a special
stone that brings up enemies that are otherwise unplayable in the game.
65. You set the power of your abilities this way: you are given nine rows and numbers 1-9. You
assign a number to 9 different things. All nine numbers are used and only once, so 9 is assigned
to what you want to be the most powerful, and 1 the weakest.
66. There is a tunnel that most often goes nowhere but if you see that same tunnel with a light
coming out and go through it, you enter into an awesome place.
67. The more bad you do the blacker your wings become. The more good, the more white, This
eventually allows you to enter into either heaven or hell. If you are balanced you may become
gray, and more powerful on earth without access to either heaven or hell.
68. Certain fish have swallowed treasure which is revealed when you try to cook them.
69. Throwing and breaking a pot that has slime monsters inside. They may help you, too. Or
pottery has acid inside that dissolves a door or a weak wooden floor.
70. A highly powerful item that sucks up everything around it for your use. It may take all the
fruit from the trees, all the coins of an area, or clear all forms of monsters around you. It can
clear a small pond for you and things like that.
71. In graves there are souls that may reenter into life by receiving payment from the gods.
They can’t pay the price themselves but you can. So going up to the tombstone they may say
“”pay me two diamonds and I may return to life and help you.” Insert here what you want the
help to be. They may join your team of fighters for a while, show you where a great treasure is,
or give you something they had during their lifetime.
72. Cutting a tree with a special sword or axe imparts power/magic into it. You can collect spell
branches that way, giving you spells you couldn't have otherwise. They may require the right
tree, one white for white magic, one for black magic. Or if cut during high winds, a wind spell, if
in the snow, an ice spell.
73. Upon leveling up or some other way you get points that can be used to change the
environment. It may open up new areas, add a moon above, grow new trees, add more of a
kind of thing, birds or treasure, or even to change the in-game music to some extent. You have
a list of options to spend points with which you earn,
74. Some games let you spend energy on a more powerful attack. This game will let you spend
energy on other things like super jumps, flying, swimming longer, and your energy bar gets
higher over time.
75. Like Mega Man weapons use seperate energy bars however the weapons in this game uses
your regular energy bar and the more powerful the weapon the more life energy it will cost you.
76. When your enemy dies, there is their grave. A tombstone appears telling you what they
need to return to life with, such as Holy Water. Bring them back to life and they are at your
service.
77. The great day of refinement occurs in a sacred area during a total eclipse. For a fee you can
buy an area to place your things then when that day comes all of the items you placed there will
be greatly improved. .
78. The game offers real world sage advice from great philosophers/ Buddha and such figures.
78. Perhaps controversially you play the game as Christian, Muslim, Budhist, or other major
religions (or go renegade in making your own) with the objective to make your religion the one
globaly followed. Different difficulty- from 50 % followed to 100%. Think ``The SimCIty of
Religion.``
79. A job that has race classes and job classes- the race class brings difference to the job class
(e.g., an elf can be a scout or an archer.)
80. Learn a race instead of a job. The race brings with them their kinds of jobs. Play as the race
you wish to become.
81. A certain block turns the level dark revealing different things.
82. The special effect of one side scrolling level is that you run much faster in it. Maybe an
enemy character dosed you with speed powder at the start making you move too fast. It
happens if you hit a block with a sideways arrow on it pointing forward. As a result a character
runs faster which can be either good or bad.
83. Speed running options before you start the game. Such as no damage allowed for zero
damage runs. Setting a time limit to win the whole game based on the newest world record.
Level select that lets you practice. Comparative videos of levels. Options for certain kinds of
gameplay too not necessarily for speed runs but things like no powerup playthroughs for online
videos taking that challenge.
84. You get a gardening shovel in the game. With it you can dig up valuable plants or plant new
things. Also, there is a special flower that asks you to plant it in the sun with the other plants and
if you do then it gives you some of its seeds so you can make many more of it. They create
something good for you or have a good effect on something.
85. Like in a lot of games you can get fruit as energy boosters and things but the ones in this
game ripen and mature into better things. Maybe you can tell by its color, going from green to
red. Fully ripened is more powerful and sometimes the fruit starts to grow useful things on them.
86. The beat ‘em up is based on Earth, Air, Wind, and Fire. Fire characters have fire powers, air
has wind powers, etc. Each has a color, like Earth is brown. Each makes fighting equal with the
other. Each is more powerful than one but weaker than the other. In two player games this
brings some strategy.
87. There are three different kinds of coins to collect. One a gold coin, another crystal, and the
other like a gem. The gold one lets you buy things. The crystal one gives you an extra life- at
100, and the gem gives you 5 gold coins or 20 crystal coins, randomly.
88. SimCity Online- with which a whole world of cities are made, each sharing resources and
helping the others. Added to that might be the civilians of SimCity.
89. In an RPG you can monstrify creatures, spirits, and beasts, for different reasons. You may
during a random battle to have a better opponent in helping with leveling up, or to use them as
summons in other battles. So things like a turtle can become a dragon.
90. The player can select between different elements to level up (Earth, Wind, Fire, and Air
elements) each gaining power over them. With Fire spells you are better. With Earth potions you
are more benefited, Air stuff pertaining to the spirit and life, etc.
91. Throughout the game you can send things to the upcoming Dark World and once there you
will be more benefited.
92. Looking for all four chapters of a book teaching spells. If you find all four chapters per spell
then it’s yours.
93. Effects like gaining four arms, a centaur body, angel wings, you can really customize your
player beyond humanoid form.
94. By helping others you get an honor gem. After helping any five people a spirit comes to you
and says “I have seen you help 5 people, I will give you an honor gem.” And the more of them
you have, the more giving others are towards you, because they see them and know what they
are.
95. The special whip pulls your enemy toward you whom you then become.
96. In a game you have a power to fall through things- just about anything from a two story
home (getting below quicker instead of annoying stairs) or into a buried tomb. Could be 7
Layers of Hell which the player can gradually go further and further down into.
97. A very multipath side scroller, one customizable. There are six doors at the end of every
level. One may be for a more-coin level, another that is “easiest.” One “different” one “simular.”
And one “All” if you want the game set up where you play all levels.
98. You get one wish among three after a game over. A wish to continue, to have enemies
reduced, or to have power ups increase.

II. Character Ideas:

1. Instead of a bard, a scot with a bagpipe.
2. You have a large goat with wings to ride on.
3. Feed the giant lazy bear and he will help you.

III. The Possible Setting/ Story:

Here are some ideas for the possible setting/ story of your game.

1: It was a dark and stormy night…

2. You, a prisoner in a small prison world, have escaped.
3. Your friends of the resistance have broken through the defences to free you, a person of
royalty, and now you are on the run more than ever.
4.The King has at last awoken from his long slumber.
5. The human race is imprisoned. You and your cellmates have stolen a shapeshifting potion
that makes you appear like the race that imprisoned you. Taking it at just the right time you are
able to escape and now seek to free the human race.
6. Instead of the crystals in the game being good (like the old idea that the crystals are fading
and the world with it) the crystals are evil and must be destroyed.
7. You are a treasure hunter that comes across a strange stone…
8. You seek to resurrect a former King slain by the new King.
9. An evil magician cursed you with an evil eye between your eyebrows. You must find the
magic needle to pierce it. In the meantime people are disgusted at you, even hunting you down.
10. A plane crashes down into a bermuda triangle kind of thing and the survivors find
themselves in a new dimension, trying to get home.
11. You search for the four ingredients that will make the potion that saves your loved one.
12. The sacred dragons are being hunted down for their medicinally powerful blood. Or maybe
their blood is gold-like. They guard the world though- when they are gone so is their protection.
13. A fisher caught a golden fish that spoke to him, telling him to find you and bring you to him.
He then tells him his quest and says “Cut me open,” they aren’t sure if they should. “ And kill
you?” they ask. “I’ll live on.” It says. So they cut the fish open and find a magic ring inside him.

IV. Possible Power Ups and Items:

1. Book of monsters you can fight also citing rewards for defeating them.
2. A wishing lamp obtained during the level will let you make a wish before the next level. One
of three wishes can be made. Different lamps, different genies, perhaps.
3. A fireball attack turns into an ice attack by holding down L.
4. Freezing the whole screen with an ice power with a charge technique.
5. Plus square/brick increases any power to a power up you currently have. Divide square/ brick
makes two of yourself doubling all you do.
6. Along with coins, pogs. Pogs are disks with neat images on them. In the game you could get
them from villagers, in a temple perhaps, which could be used to summon. Better than that in a
side scrolling game hidden in a brick. Once gotten could be used to summon a thing to ride on
or defend you.
7. A magic fair where magicians show off their stuff and you can learn new spells and potions
there.
8. Waterfalls are where you get Holy water. Sewer water has poison. Salty water protects. Cold
water heals. Hot water from springs cure ailments. You can have a certain amount of bottles to
collect it.

V. Tools
1. Can be any real world thing given magic powers in the game.
2. Special pans- to cook with, to uncover gold with.

VI. Weapons and Similar Things:

1. Staff that shoots a throwing star.
2. Shuriken of different poisons.
3. Ghostly hand, a hand on the screen called on to lift heavy things or grab something out of
reach. Give it a magic ring to make it capable of more.
4. A staff with a razor sharp disk on the tip. It can saw through things, the disk can leave the
staff and fly around.
5. A disassemble item option within a shop. After you disassemble you have materials you can
use for other things.

VII. Powers and Magic:

1. Poison level two makes poison more likely to work against enemies (which commonly it
doesn’t.) Might be called “Poison 2” or “Toxin.” And other spells like Toad 2 make it’s casting
more likely successful..
2. “Give” spell. Makes the enemies give you things like those in a random battle.
3. “Treasurize” spell, turn your enemy into a treasure.
4. “Use to Defend” command that lets you choose a magic to defend yourself with. So select it,
select “fire” then you are defended with fire, which is best against enemies attacking with ice.
5. A free cast option for magic based on level. Once at a high level lower spells become free.
6. Magic Point Stones can be used instead of MP. Your choice.
7. Mega Magic Stones increase the spells of their element- such as a fire stone making all fire
spells more powerful, until your stones run out. You can tell if that is active by a glowing of the
word “fire.”
8. Mages in the game can only use weapons like swords based on magic- a spell controls its
execution.

VIII: Abilities:
1. Instinct lets you auto dodge attacks or prevents the players from making mistakes. The higher
it is the more likely a player is to automatically dodge what would have been a landed attack.
Instinct can also reveal hidden areas or items. It can give you ideas of how you should act and
proceed.
2. Calling out four different fairies. One reaches things you can’t get to. One finds secrets. One
translates things. The other defends you.
3. In a fighting game a fighter can make harmful evil spirits fly around the gaming area.
4. In a fighting game you can pound onto the ground and if you do so enough a hole is made
into the bottom floor.
5. Schools paid for to learn things like blacksmithing or foriegn language understanding. Buy
your own supplies as required such as a hammer.
6. A coin capture ability. Turn a monster into a coin. That coin is more valuable than regular
ones.
7. You can enter into soul mode. You can leave your body to wander around.
8. After your physical body is defeated in a fighting game your soul has to be.
9. You can possess things, only you are half and and half yourself still. So possessing a brick
gives it arms and legs. Possessing a turtle makes you half turtle half man. After that you can
possess yet another thing, adding parts of itself to you.
10. You can sell your level in an RPG for gold or a nice item. The higher your current level the
better the thing you get. Your level then goes down by one.

IX. Other Things:

1. A hidden rainbow in a brick/square bridges you to a secret magical door.
2. Music block with a twist. Like a set of four playing different sounds and if you play the right
motif then something special happens. Above the screen appears a face and hands playing a
flute then the character gets powered up.
3. You can buy pets at a pet store. Such as a falcon that lets you see things from further above,
a dog that locates things for you, an animal to ride/ fly with, or an animal to protect you.

X. Nice Touches:
1. Instead of breaking bricks, shattering crystal squares/cubes.
2. A fastly spinning circle throwing out coins. You hit a brick, a circle goes above it, spins fast
and coins come out. It makes getting coins feel like a nice surprise.
3. Ghosts come out of more slightly looking crystal bricks. A rainbow colored brick makes a
rainbow bridging you to a secret door. The ghost one might make you into a ghost and let you
go through things after you make contact with it.
4. In a fighting game the walls are closing in. If they crush both areas both lose the game.
5. A quick sand area in a fighting game. If you make contact with it you are more vulnerable.
There is a special technique for every player to get out of it, such as a strong uppercut.
6. Money system in a fighting game. Buy abilities and things. Maybe based on how much time
was left on the time limit after you win.
7. An enemy can throw your soul out of your body.
8. A waterfall is where you get potions for your bottles. There may be red, blue, and green
waterfalls according to the potion you want.
9. Instead of torches lighting the way, Jack ‘O Lanterns do.

XI. Possible Enemies:

1. Stars that fall from above and lunge into the ground.
2. A jack in the box instead of a plant in a pipe. The head suddenly comes out bobbing around
to hit you.
3. Little green army men come out to attack you.
4. The evil of mankind created a beast of all beasts, part man, part pig, part bear.
5. The last opponent in a fighting game is a brain in a mech suit.
6. An evil Goat King with a friend snake.
7. Pig with bat wings and a spear.

Good Ideas for Games:

1: A map that tells you just where you should go.
2: The more friends you make during the game (or like the more people you help) the more help
you’ll get at the end of the game.
3: It sets just the mood you want it to.
4: Control is smooth and intuitive.
5: Graphics are good to look at.
6: The music and sounds are excellent.
7: It is a great escape to play it.
8: It keeps you wanting more.
9: It gives you what other games do not.
10: The game mixes things up well (like the same ideas within it, only done differently) for
example one level has giant enemies instead of small enemies.
11: Having weapons that are varied and fun to use.
12. Having variety
13. Personalization. Having what you want, being what you want.
14. A challenging game maybe but beatable. No brick walls stop you from winning.
15. Good things to focus on in the game, It grabs your attention.
16. Learning precision. This is usually so with a game with repeating patterns like Ninja Gaiden.
Maybe a hard game but a predictable one over time. Then before you know it you are slashing
your sword in just the right places.
17. Having an overall theme. Creating a whole new world as has been done with the Mushroom
Kingdom or DisneyLand.
18. It is easy to pick up and play. The player doesn’t have to come to too great an understanding
in order to do well.
19. For some games: it is amusing. It takes real world things like a ball and chain and makes it
into an enemy.
20. Using as many different colors as possible in the game, just because you can do so.
21. Creating a story remembered for a lifetime.
22. Humor in the game that is truly funny.
23. If graphics and all else is limited then you’ll need the ability to take simple things and make
them fun- like the best Atari 2600 games did.
24. Having a variety of ways to do the same thing.
25. Different ways to play: such as 2D or 3D, having a timed solo race in a racing game, or a
two player battle mode, along with regular racing.
26. Not being afraid to go away from the typical definition of a game. Like making a Casino
game that has non casino elements. Just making a game in that case which is more defined as
a money-making game.
27. Making some levels special. Having them contain things that other levels do not, such as a
frog suit to swim in.
28. Giving medals to the player to let them know what they’ve accomplished and what they have
done so far in the game. I saw that in Dragon Quest 11 recently. Such as after defeating a
certain amount of enemies, forging a certain amount of items, and gaining a certain amount of
money, the game awarded me with a medal and gave me an idea of what I have done so far.
29. Simplification and greater simplification. Taking a thing that is just too complex and
simplifying it while retaining its substance.
30. Adding that extra touch that makes an ordinary or plain thing much better.
31. Even though a game is difficult it is predictable as it is pattern based like in Ninja Gaiden or
you fare better after learning their weaknesses.
32. Having solutions to any given problem. Making a bad thing good. Giving the player a second
option. For example Breath of the Wild had swords that would quickly break except for one: The
Master Sword. As such came as a great prize for any gamer that would obtain it.
33.Passwords when the game is simple enough anyways to keep them short. Why not? No
limited life flash or battery saves.

Bad Ideas for Games:

1: Your weapons break.

2: Too many of the same enemies, and those such as only being a pallet swap.
3: Highly unrealistic difficulty levels you can do nothing about.
4: Confusing corridors.
5: Bulbous heads in character design.
6: A convoluted amount of items.
7: Overly drawn out stories/ narration/ explanations.
8: The music doesn’t fit the mood.
9: Easily getting lost.
10: Too many different buttons needed to control the overall game.
11: If you don’t regularly eat food you will die.
12: Things unfair: such as being thrown off the screen when you are hit, requiring expertise in
dodging attacks, unrealistic expectations.
13: Platforms that are very difficult to jump past without dying.
14: Things that create compulsions that deter from the basic game.
15: The game doesn’t feel like you are accomplishing anything.
16: An out of the way treasure chest that’s worth nothing.
17. Far too many random battles.
18. Not enough different enemies, many are just pallet swaps.
19. Systems that are too difficult to learn.
20: Glitchy behavior in the game.
21: Not only strange, but very weird.
22: Too much to do at any given time.
23: Pointless gameplay.
24: Hits don’t make the target, it has to be too precise.
25: Graphics of awful 3D.
26: Based on a simple thing like a board game but is too simple itself.
27: There’s no substance to it. It wasn’t worked on enough. Only a few levels, none of which are
good.
28: It tries to be too many things at once.
29: It requires you to remember too much.
30. There’s no depth to it, it is too simple.
31: You have no idea what to do next or what to do after that.
32: Collect-a-thons. That is, all you do is collect things in a game without anything more to it.
Too many “fetch quests.”
33. If it is just too complicated then it shouldn’t be included.
34. Trying to be just too realistic. Being too real-world just reduces the magic of an imaginary
world.
35. Making a licensed game that has nothing to do with what it’s based on.

Contrasting old Ideas:

This is all considering how things can be done differently.
For example: Mario doesn’t go down a pipe, he goes down a (?) They range from very obvious
(instead of a fireball, an ice ball) which rip off artists are more likely to use. To less obvious: such
as instead of going down a pipe going down a well. Whatever keeps it from just seeming like the
same thing is good, if it is good to begin with. Imagine a bear that follows you when you are not
looking, then when you look at it it turns into a stuffed animal. Add care bears to that, make the
little bears be in the upper clouds. All you have to do is go through old ideas and use them
differently. Just avoid overly simplistic changes, such as having an explanation block instead of
a question block, with no other differences between you and Mario Bros. That game was
creative enough that a ball and chain became an enemy. Ball and chains have nothing more to
do in the real world than for immobilization of prisoners. Video games don’t have to make any
sense. I think they require less sense than cartoons do. You could go off of this basis
“Castlevania + (Your favorite show or book) =” Combine any two things at a time, combine those
with others, as a process of coming up with new ideas.
Then there is inspiration that comes from movies. Whole games have been made based
off of certain movies yet never even outright say so. For example, Contra was based on the
Alien franchise. There are many more things to pull inspiration from, of course. Be they books or
myths, like Kid Icarus. Legends of old demons or evil spirits, past magic, along with art that the
game maker alters to serve the game better. Maybe a good first step is to write down your
inspirations. To not make too large a list but to make one you know well. To include your favorite
heroes, villains, shows, movies, cartoons, etc., to have a list of inspiration to pull from.
A genie in a bottle? How about a fairy in a bottle? Jack and the beanstalk? How about Mario
and the beanstalk? Mario got bigger with a mushroom. The Altered Beast got more muscular
with an orb. The ghost is afraid of Pac Man. The ghost is afraid of Mario.

Game Making Tactics:

Mixing things up well- that is, take pre-existing ideas you have and change them throughout the
game. Say you have an enemy, make it larger later or give it wings. Say you have a sword, alter
that later, giving it more power. One has fire power, another ice, each looking a little different.
The idea is “now there is a ( )” while making the player feel that a cool element has been added
to it. A silver treasure chest has less than a gold one. One a wand of ice, another of fire.

Go where the good ideas run, instead of where they walk- If an idea just gives and gives of itself
and is easy to work with that way, then you’ve found a good thing. If they don’t seem to go
anywhere, don’t get stuck on them. If you’ve just found it impossible to make a bad thing a good
thing, then leave it behind. If any one idea produces many others, then work on those ideas.

Keep notes- That is where the work begins. It is the first thing to do. To create the basic story,
ideas, and characters. To draw, to add and to have a good start on what you want before you
actually begin programming the game. Some game making companies have a box in which
programers put their ideas inside.

Bring together a good team- Establish what you are in it for. Know well how much they can
benefit the whole project, or how little. Don’t feel you have to hire anyone who isn’t as good as
you want them to be. Some of the best companies have been easy on others and have come
together as friends. Such as Google! If you all love what you do then you accomplish greater
things.

Have a good eye- Don’t fool yourself into thinking that a bad idea is a good one. It is a common
mistake. A good idea isn’t necessarily a good one, either. The programmer may feel like they’ve
touched upon something special but isn’t doing much more than impressing themselves, while
others may not think so much of it. In other words you aren’t a person so much of your own
good ideas as much as a person making good things for others. Look for the thing that stands
out. Look for the things that cause stronger reactions.
Be in it for yourself- People ripping off Pac Man aren’t. They just want a quick buck. So they
halfway do a game, perhaps based on a movie to garner greater appeal. Think more like the
Mortal Kombat team did. They didn’t just want a new Street Fighter 2. They had inspiration from
themselves. They wanted that but more brutal and mature. The most important thing is that you
make a game because you want to. And to contribute in a new way, you must do things your
own way. Sometimes you will present previously used ideas and that’s okay to a certain extent.
As long as you are having fun and wish to contribute something new and excellent then you will
do well.

Be a part of the times and the community- You will know what people want. Take what is new
and popular and put forth a game that people in modern times would love to play.

Bringing a game into modern times- Nintendo asked Zelda, “how do I bring bombs into your new
3D game?” And the answer was to make the game go down the floor and up a wall. The best
thing about new games is that they can be robust. While old 16-bit game makers had to be very
conservative with what they included to save space, modern games don’t nearly suffer from the
same problem. As a result there can be more of everything- including choices, items, paths,
places to go, whatever the game maker wants to have included in the game. Fully orchestrated
music was a first. Some games just slipped in actual video of things. I had so long wondered
why Final Fantasy 8 looked lifelike to this day until I discovered that. With new things in gaming
comes new ways that things are done. It helps to know how things are being translated and
evolved in order to keep with modern times and even stay ahead of the curb.

Knowing what game makers have done before, but doing it better (such as from Double Dragon
to Streets of Rage, or a racing game unto Mario Kart.) Looking into “what better games could
have been.” Such as old forgotten games that had no evolution to begin with. The best game
makers apply inspiration the best way asking themselves “how could this be better?” In the
process they truly evolve things. There are so many examples. It happens all the time, up to a
point. Naturally sooner or later ideas are exhausted. New things or old things could still be, only
they become much harder to find over time. Yet there are games that come and go that never
evolved. There are many games that are one of a kind to this day. There are those that may
have gotten just one new rendition, such as Marble Madness to Monkey Ball. If that initial game
wasn’t considered then Monkey Ball may have never been.
Once inspiration catches you find the same thing being done again and again. As there
have been many kart games since Mario Kart. Before Mario Kart racing games were generally
the same. This new style caught like fire. Sooner or later it loses its appeal. Nintendo are
masters at changing a genre, Super Smash Bros being another example. If you asked me how
much different a fighting game could be like with Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, and all of its
variations, I would have come up blank. I would have said “not much could be added to it.” But
Smash Bros. proved that wrong.
There are many things just waiting for a similar evolution. Many of them were just
brushed past never given another thought. Some may have not evolved in ages. People don’t
so often make new kinds of pac man games. I haven’t seen a Dig Dug kind of game in God
knows how long. The ideas for these games remain great. A lot of people still play Pac Man. But
I don’t think the idea for Space Invaders has been used since Millipede. It wandered off into so
many space shoot em up games like R Type.
Many would say “I wish this game would go back to its original form,” but few game
makers act on that. For example it took until Breath of the Wild for Zelda to be a true exploration
game again (rather than having to do things in a predetermined order, you can basically do what
you want when you want.) Where were the game makers that wanted a return to form? So there
are great game making ideas based on that. Mario Bros 2 USA hasn’t been like that since that.
Find your style. That’s what the best game makers do- they have a style, a way of doing
things as they want to as opposed to what others have done. We all have a set of interests.
They are very broad. So a good thing to do is to learn exactly what you like and bring it together.
We typically like a large number of things. Within things we may sometimes wonder how we
would have used the same idea. Ideas aren’t copyrighted. It is their expression that is. George
Lucas wanted knights in his movie, as those within a religious order, perhaps highly relatable to
The Templar. So through lightsabers and the power of the force he was able to carry those
ideas into space.

Have your game be rated by others, or get input in various ways. Ask for opinions. Have
elements of the game rated on a scale from one to ten, such as graphics or story. Ask them how
things could be done better. If they have good suggestions then use them. As such, be more of
a team even when any one person is working on a certain thing by her or himself.

Be your own developer, if not with just a small team. Others have your side already, technically.
They’ve made it easier for you with game making software and printing out boxes for you online.
Tutorials are available online, so as to be able to do precisely what you want. Whatever you
want to learn about you can do, whether you are learning python or how to make a game on a
really old computer. The older systems required less coding. If you just don’t have the desire to
make a game you can do like I did and just make a book of ideas. Choose what system you
want to program for. Pretty much anything out there from the Atari through early Nintendo
consoles to something newer. Some of them have great game making software associated with
them. Others are multi-platform. Be smart and don’t get too far ahead of yourself. It’s harder
than it seems. It is made much less difficult with patience, however. You could just do a draft
and go from there. Notation software can be used to create music in many cases. In fact
notation software is often used to create whole scores in movies. As for games, most always.
Just don’t assume you will know all you need to know from the start, but it is good to have a
general idea to start with. Maybe your first game is just practice. Instead of setting out to make
the best of all things it is better to build up practice for what you are doing, anyways, and as
such no time is wasted. And of course “anything worth doing is worth doing right.”
Going back to old things: Some ideas never had the chance to go very far but all ideas
can be improved upon. There are many good one of a kind games. There are games that were
just good at the time but never had a chance to evolve. The game maker can also evolve bad
games into something good. Game making companies evolve their own ideas to better games.
The first wasn’t liked, the second was, well enough to go long into a series of new games. They
took their idea and made it better.
 II. A list of one-of-a-kind games: I am not listing any Nintendo made games here
simply because there are too many of them and most are well known already. However I’d like
to mention these: The Legend of Zelda Four Swords Adventure, Earthbound, The NES Kid
Icarus, Pilotwing, and StarTropics. If they’ve been copied a lot or had a lot of sequels then they
won’t be listed here as the point is in their obscurity. They may not literally be one of a kind, but
here is a list of those at least close to that: Marble Madness, Blaster Master, Bionic Commando,
Chrono Trigger, The Immortal, Act Raiser, QBert, Dig Dug, Paper Boy, Knights into Dreams,
Crystalis, Star Wars Chess, Dragon’s Lair, Betrayal At Krondor, Myst, Organ Trail, 8 Eyes,
Rygar, Faxanadu, Yar’s Revenge, A Boy And His Blob, Cavemen Games, Hatris, Wizards and
Warriors, Joust, Legacy of the Wizard, Monster in my Pocket, Rampart, Spy Hunter, Uncharted
Waters, Flashback, The Lost Vikings, MechWarrior, Out of This World, and Body Harvest.

Enjoying it all:

It’s meant to be fun, not tedious. It isn’t meant to be a sit down to code and logically determine.
It’s meant to have fun on graph paper with a pencil and evolving ideas in order to make a good
product. The other end of that leads to a great game, which leads to pride. If all that is wanted is
a quick buck, then what’s made will not be memorable or even worth playing. Those that do that
may as well be con artists. Be patient one and all. Start with a draft that isn’t absolute. Look into-
quarry, what would make the game be the best it can be. Get the blood flowing. At the start one
doesn’t know what to even make of a thing. The start is always more difficult, not the later work.
Things will start to come together and when it does it will all become much more fun. To get
there halfway is to be so far along. It is like going from unsure to sure. Just don’t be a painter
that says “this will never look good” and rips up canvas after canvas.

Having the Most Fun in a Game:

1 Money spending elements are one of the best parts of any given game. Spending money on
things like: weapons, powerups, armor, items, game helpers, make-easier items, precious items,
extra lives, energy potions, enhancements like clothes, car parts, new areas, new
transportation, things to seed and come back to later, hired help, new spells, easier routes, to
enhance/upgrade your inventory, to upgrade your power, for new abilities, and on keys.

2 Mini games or bonus rooms are a lot of fun if made right. Otherwise they may be very
simple, such as a single room with luck of the draw (pick the right chest) or a memory game
which I’d say is better.

3 Improving or changing your character is always fun. Giving them the ability to fly or throw
neat weapons. To get a new appearance alone can be a nice change. I liked how Link got a new
color of clothing in A Link to the Past, as simple as that was. Giving them more powerful
equipment as bought after leveling up. Upgrading car parts in a racing game makes all racing
games better. That time when Cecil from Final Fantasy 2 became a Paladin and his appearance
completely changed, was just awesome.
4 Finding the right power or weapon. Such as Mega Man beating certain enemies with ease
based on just one weapon powerful enough to do so. Or castlevania where certain weapons get
you by better depending on where you are. Or Ninja Gaiden where the right weapon will make
things a lot easier. Mario as well finding that hidden P Wing. What one thing couldn’t be
accomplished can be with the right item. Power Ups give you abilities to go further, and further
access to any given area. Some foes can only be vanquished with a certain weapon, or are at
least more easily beaten with a certain weapon. Only the legendary hero can obtain them.

5 Hidden Areas. A place kind of out of the way. Maybe a place harder to get to but rewarding if
you do. Link finding a map there. He doesn’t have to have a map but it sure makes things
easier. Could be hidden due to puzzles. Could be hidden in corridors. Could be off the beaten
path. Could be a shortcut on the racing track. Could require a special ability to get to. I liked how
in Mario World every level had two different exits, one being secret, and how that was expected.
There was no guesswork there! Some hidden areas are wells you go down. Some are
conspicuous cracks you bomb. Others are behind locked doors and some are just out of the
way.

6 In two player games… The co-op that is especially helpful such as in Contra. In beatemups
where the players have to decide who needs the powerup. A shooter where you must hide from
the other player and snatch up the bullet proof vest before they do. A music band game in
general. Beating someone else’s racing speed run. Outlasting the other player. Sneaking up on
them. Getting the highest points at the end of a beat em up level. In a fighting game like Street
Fighter, having the better strategy and better combos against the other player. Then there are
board game video games, or better things like Club House Games. Thanks to the internet a
second, far more than that in fact, players can compete with you. The most addictive of them
being MMORPG. And something like Mario Maker where you create levels for other people to
beat. Then there are things like Animal Crossing which presents itself like a community.

7 Exploration. Whether it is going into the upper or lower levels of a side scrolling game or
obtaining an airship to go to the moon, players will have a lot to find and enjoy. Having a wide
open world to venture around obtaining things is an awesome part of a game. They may have
gems to find and sell, food to obtain and cook, treasure chests, a ruined kingdom with some of
its things still there. Diving into ponds, digging for treasure, harvesting resources, are other
elements of exploration gamers enjoy. Having a dark world counterpart where some things are
the same but some aren’t, opening up new paths and being able to go to a new area because of
an item, are other ways you can put exploration into your game. Metroidvania games have an
abundant amount of exploration in them. The map opens up based on where you have been,
exposing great new areas of possibilities. They could contain something as simple as being able
to super jump in order to get there.

8 Emotional impact. Games that make you feel things ranging from a scare to a romp. The
more you play a game the better you get at it, that is a feeling of its own, like mastery. Having a
countdown to destruction that makes you get to the exit as fast as possible. Astonishing
graphics that impress. A sad story, a sometimes happy story, feelings of hope and other things
intertwined into the story. The adrenaline pouring while you barely defeat a super boss. He cuts
you down to just a little HP before you cure yourself. A list of all the feelings you can feel in a
game might help: anger, happy, sad, proud, anxious, worried, surprised, curious, unsure, desire,
energized, impressed, shocked, fearful, hopeful, interest, wonder, being mesmerized, laughter,
etc. Making an emotional impactful game gives the game some soul.

9 Immersion. Like a world you want to be in. What you put in you get out. The desire to see
where the story will go. There should be a wide variety of things you are capable of. Having a lot
that can be done in any given level or area is a good thing. Having special things happen once
in a blue moon keeps things fresh. Keeping things fresh is always a good game making
practice. Still you don’t want to have too much on the plate. It just makes the player feel like
they’ll never figure everything out and wonder about what they should do, or that they are just
unable to appreciate it all, wishing it was more limited in its design. In other words we want the
player to be more decisive. Feeling like you are a part of the whole experience is great. Again-
keeping things fresh is a good way to make games. That can be like giving the player access to
other areas through an airship, but first a boat, and before that a raft. It’s like classical music: it’s
better to introduce all of the instruments gradually, one at a time. Likewise learning more spells
over time or new abilities gained according to how they are obtained.

10 Like of the game/acceptance and appreciation of it. That means that the graphics aren’t
intolerable (for me that’s when characters have bulbous heads, for one.) A game that can be
appreciated. The game is fair. If you work at it you can win without burdening yourself with
difficulty. They do not impose too great a difficulty. Such as if the player levels up enough they
can expect to win. It doesn't make you lost and wandering around everywhere to learn where
you are supposed to be. The voice acting isn’t so terrible and repetitious that you’d rather just
turn the sound off. The player enjoys the music, it isn’t too simple or annoying if it has to be
heard often. The game can be figured out. It doesn’t have you going around in circles fetching
numerous things just to advance the story. The game doesn't require precise controls like in
platforming. Glitches can be like an ugly smear on an otherwise good portrait. Compulsion
should be limited- so that the player doesn't have to bend over backwards to get a few coins for
a potion. Going to the other side of the game world every time you need one is no better.

11 Replayability. Leave the player wanting more.

Developing a Theme and World

Just when you thought all game themes had been used, along comes Cup Head, a game
resembling very early cartoons. Castlevania set itself within Dracula’s Castle and incorporated
other famed monsters. First came the theme and thereafter everything else just fell into place.
Some are inspired by other games but you’d never know, such as Ninja Gaiden being inspired
by Castlevania. The setting could be a world war like in the shooter “1943” or many first person
shooters. They may not be based on anything previous to begin with, such as the case with the
Mushroom Kingdom. It can be a tropical island game with a tribal looking guy. Could be based in
prehistoric times like in Joe and Mac. Could be based on grecian myths like Icarus. There are
many options there and it just matters what appeals to you the most. Even if it is entirely new it
can be inspired by older things, piece by piece, just altered the way you want them if not totally
the same.
Know your interests well and you will never lack imagination. Being involved helps, like
having the desire to create neat new enemies for your game, neat power ups too and all else.
Typically levels and places in the game shift/ change. Level 1 an overworld, level 2 an
underground level, with underwater levels fitted in, for example. That’s so in all genres of
games. Like in an Adventure game there are dungeons below. Games should be more than just
one kind of thing repeated over and over. Even if it is Arthur climbing up a rotating castle for a
change.
If you take books and movies into account it’s easy to see there are a vast amount of
fantasy worlds out there. Some based more or less on the actual world, others completely
different, set in places far, far away. In video games you find Dracula’s Castle (Castlevania), The
Devil’s Realm (Ghouls and Ghosts), a world of robots in Mega Man, Mushroom Kingdom and
the world of Hyrule.

Developing A Story
Sometimes only a little story is just fine. Some classic games had no story at all, such as
Pac Man. The sum of a character in a fighting game may amount to just a paragraph of text.
While some games practically contain a novel, such as Final Fantasy 6. The formula for a good
story isn’t too difficult. It may require that you rewrite things while programming a game, as the
story is just a dead end or you suddenly come across a better idea that conflicts with the rest of
it. Surprise elements are a very good thing and can range from an enemy being a relative, as it
turns out (much in Star Wars style.) A person you thought was a friend was serving your enemy
all along. Maybe they were just mind controlled as you discover later. As with all stories a plot is
there. What will be your plot? Will it be an evil king pursuing you? Saving the princess from the
dragon? Beating an entity that has caused chaos in the world? The pursuit of revenge? The
struggle to restore peace? And there are plots one at a time such as finding the fabled sword
needed for final victory against your foe.
The main objective itself is just part of the story as we learn from characters who join our
party each having their own backstory and personalities. Motives are drawn between them, as
one character is “in it” for reasons different from the others. There are many enemies in the
game in a similar way. They are each their own thing. One a dark elf, another a dragon, or
whatever you want them to be. The Four Fiends from Final Fantasy 4 are brought to mind. It
can be an army you are against.
And perhaps you are apprehended and placed in a prison, which you must escape.
Maybe your cellmate knew you all along. He was told a vision of what was to come. So all along
while locked up he had been digging a holl for your arrival. That was a part of the Dragon Quest
11 story.
One common plot line is that you are the destined savior of a people. When you come of
age you are suddenly thrust into a quest. The crystals of the world are fading. You must restore
them. An enemy is just growing more and more powerful. Common as they may be, they seem
to work every time.
 Here is a list for possible story elements: Remember that plots aren’t so easily defined in
a video game. What is a plot in a video game may not at all be in a movie or a book. For that
reason I will include “video game settings” in this list.

Ideas for Story Development and Story Settings:

1, A merciless act was committed against a loved one, and you want revenge.
2. A corrupt king is gaining power and must be overthrown.
3. The world is facing ruin and if it isn’t saved it will die.
4. Your loved one has become sick and you must go out to find the herbs that will save her.
5. Friends sacrificed themselves to save your team.
6. An ominous evil has returned.
7. There is a mysterious power behind the king controlling him.
8. You are The Chosen.
9. There is a hidden magic/warrior/underground/on the moon race.
10. A prince or princess on the run. The Chosen One on the run.
11. Magic has returned to the land. Monsters have returned to the land.
12. An android race has taken over.
13. An alien race to defeat.
14. Someone stole your treasure and you want it back.
15. You have to sneak back into town.
16. You have to prove yourself to higher beings in order to receive help.
17. The story alludes to a main enemy that turns out to be your sibling.
18. Hell has broken out all over the land, literally or not.
19. You are a demon yet against demons, are a vampire yet a vampire hunter.
20. A character is an assassin for hire against an evil only you can defeat.
21. The quest to destroy your evil side. Meeting your evil self in a place and defeating it.
22. The quest to find lost friends after you all have been separated.
23. Only one has the vehicle you need to go further, you must gain their help.
24. It turns out a character is an alien or a sumunor.
25. A character discovers their own kind after a lifetime of not knowing anything about them.
26. You wash up onto an unknown land and now seek your way back home.
27. If you want someone to help you, you have to help them first.
28. You are a part of a rebel team that the king is after.
29. The main enemy is trying to open up a new dimension in which she can rule.
30. A major enemy was a good person all along, just fully possessed by an evil entity.
31. A character that has lost their kingdom but late in the game gets it back.
32. An evil shape shifting wizard has turned the people of a kingdom into strange things. You set
out to defeat that wizard and undo the curse.
33. Forced into marriage but wanting someone else.
34. Going against the norms of the world, not accepting a suicidal pilgrimage in the end.
35. The people are being mind controlled by an evil force and acting strange and barbaric.
36. You thought it was a treaty but it was just a trick to get you on their side.
37. Suddenly a hidden city appears, one technologically advanced. None even knew a city was
there, as it was cloaked.
38. The old “I have your loved one and if you want her back you better come to me with the ( ).”
39. The enemy has managed to open up the Dark World or set upon the world a great
catastrophe.
40. You were poisoned by a person and black mailed for the antidote.
41. There are demons of an evil entity after you.
42. A character was transformed into a toad who is after becoming human again.
43. A caged person agrees to help you or solve your problem if you release him.
44. A wizard friend takes your dead body and brings it back to life.
45. Magicians and mages who are a part of a cult. Maybe your main enemy is their leader. Or
maybe you defeat them all to take their prized treasure.
46. All along you were together as friends in an orphanage and have forgotten it. What made
you forget may have been using a new technology or something.
47. The light of the world is going dim.
48. While incognito your team mate spills the beans and reveals who hired you.. In an awful
blunder.
49. Setting the stage for an assasination attempt on an evil dictator. As such, going through the
sewers and sneaking up to them.
50. You discover you were a prince or princess all along. Or your friend turns out to be a King
who was hiding the fact.
51. Elements of being framed and demonized by it.
52. Suddenly remembering your old spells.
53. You were the child of two different races, one human and one magical, and your powers are
just waking up.
54. Unexpected help in the nick of time.
55. A main character dies in the game.
56. A magician corrupted by magic he shouldn’t use, yet it’s made him greatly more powerful.
57. Why is the player in the fighting tournament?
58. You are a part of a proud warrior race that has rebelled against more powerful beings
enslaving them.
59. You wash up on shore to an unknown land, even an unknown planet. You wake up in the
game rising from bed.
60. You travel to the planet you came from to discover it has been destroyed by an alien race.
61. You are adrift in deep space trying to return home. You are looking for faster speed
equipment and occasionally face fights against local enemies.
62. Zombie game.
63. A vampire virus instead of a zombie one. The whole world has become vampires. You alone
have not, it seems. During the day you venture out to get what you need such as garlic for your
door and do what you need to find humans that survived the vampire virus. Just like the movie
“The Last Man on Earth.”

Types of Characters And Their Nature:

The Main Hero- He or she may be a fated hero. They were born into that role which is slowly
revealed to them over time. They may have been forced into the role of a hero due to their loved
ones being slain. They may have the power to help that others do not. They might be decisively
against an evil entity, a dictator for example. Their motive might be just a passion to do good, to
bring about good. It may be agreed among their friends that something should be done against
corrupt things, things that must be stopped. They may have nothing else to lose.
The Sub Heroes- For a brief moment in the game everything may rest on him or them. They
may do a thing that the main hero cannot. They could have a more significant role in the game
too. They may have secretly aided you against the enemy and weren’t seen again in the game.
They might even have sacrificed themselves for that cause.

The Main Villain- By rule a villian does evil. They could be either psychotic or crazy. If not those
then at least powerful and immoral. They are power hungry. They want more power and set out
to get it. The hero must stop him. They could be an abomination from hell or the leader of a
more powerful alien race who are enemies with the human race. They could also be an evil elf
king. Human or not they love destruction and slaughter. Seeking a thing that endows a great
power, the player must get to it first. A good villain is one you hate. A good villain is one you
want to overthrow. They have an element of scum to them. They are haughty throughout. They
consider you lower than them and a waste of time. At the end of the game they are proven
wrong. Never all along could they be convinced to stop. They have come to be considered
powerful, a god, by the player. Nevertheless they have gotten the power to defeat him, do so,
and all of the evil in the game is then gone.

The Sub Villains- Could be the lesser version of the greater self. Could include the smaller
monsters/devils/aliens than the greater. Castlevania made Dracula the prime enemy and before
him were the lesser ones such as Frankenstien. Another example is Bowser and his kids. One
Kingdom is the prime foe with lesser kingdoms presenting their own lesser troubles. In Final
Fantasy 6 Kefka at first seemed just the underdog. He had a touch of madness that propelled
him into greater power than the king he served.

The Anti-Hero- The two things that make an anti hero are that they have a glimmer of humanity
and are vulnerable. They have good in them deep down. They may be aggressive against their
foes but that’s just because they have a sense of justice. Vegeta from Dragon Ball Z is a perfect
example of an Anti Hero. Also there is the movie Falling Down. Batman has been portrayed as
an anti hero himself, in certain conditions. These characters mostly do bad for the sake of good
but are not bloodthirsty or anything. You can relate to the antihero. “He killed my ( ) and
deserves to die.” “Nobody is doing anything about (this bad) thing, so I will.” Maybe The
Punisher is a better example than Batman. The charming thing about them is that they aren’t
doing good for the sake of good but are fighting for good while following no rules about it.

The Savior or Redeemer- The forces that be, whether they are higher powers or ageless
beings, have set you on your course. They knew you all along. Sometimes they didn’t know you
all along but did after you proved yourself to them. Maybe you had to strip away from your bad
side like Cecil did in becoming a Paladin. The Sword in the Stone idea is that only the truly
worthy could uproot it. Her or his role may have come to be known by “being born with the mark
on their right hand.” One common idea is that you were the reincarnation of a past hero. The
crystal called out to you, or the tree. It told you who you are and what you are to do.

The Band of Friends- (Those and just any friend in a game.) They all have their own reasons
to be in it. One member may just be after a treasure or hired help. Another is objectively against
someone and what they are doing. They might just be doing their duty. They may be a part of a
whole team just because they are related to someone else in the group. One may have been
drawn into the group due to her powers, who would have not been invited in without it. Your
lineup could be a king from a fallen kingdom and his remnants. They may all be banded
together for different purposes though still share one major purpose. Friends may increase
throughout the game until all those you helped during it come together to aid you in the end.
They might have nothing for you but wisdom regarding your quest and advice as to what you
should do.
Knowing who you are, they might give you an item or weapon you need.

The Fool- Ever play a game where you thought you were up against someone incredibly
powerful based on the way they look and talk to you? Then after you fight them they may be
beaten just by shedding 1 HP? It is like a samurai who thinks he knows it all. Even a wrestler,
like Satan/ Hercule in Dragon Ball Z. It is a self professed warrior who can’t show the goods
when the time comes as they were just fakes. In Final Fantasy 8 the main characters were hired
to go against a certain dictator. The main team were among SeeD, a hired soldier
establishment. In the midst of an assasanation of the dictator Zell blurts out that they are with
SeeD, which endangered the whole team behind them.
A little pride goes a long way. They thought all along that they were the hero. Wherever
they go they think ‘here comes the hero!’ While his friend beside him is the hero, not him, and
he is afraid to admit it.
Someone who shouldn't be granted power sometimes. does. They could be an over-serving
goofy soldier like in Final Fantasy 9. Duty keeps them from seeing things as they really are.
They may be nothing more than pawns. In fact they may be put into power for just that reason.
They are both dumb and easy to use. Dumb people make a good show and “all the world loves
a clown,” as you can surmise from TV.

The Emperor-

The Wizard or Mage- Carries that power that none of the other characters have. Wizards are
more appreciated than sword wielding warriors. They bring with them better graphical qualities.
You never know what spell they may learn next. The spells themselves may be learned by
leveling up, bought as a scroll in a shop, or within hidden esper stones. They do more than
attack or cure. Their magic can shield, bring back to life, automatically bring back to life too,
make you float to remain unharmed by an earthquake attack, you name it. There are always
more powerful or more useful spells to gain.
The Warrior- The warrior brings with it swords, shields, and armor. These become increasingly
powerful throughout the game. When at last you thought you’ve gotten the best sword you find it
can be tempered into one even more powerful.

II. The Character Motives:

Has nothing left to lose- They live in the slums. Their king is too harsh. Life is cruel to them
under a dictatorship’s rule.

Is after something- Just like Han Solo they just want money (at least at first until he
sympathizes enough with the resistance to help it.) He has a double motive as he’s got to pay
Jabba The Hut or else get hunted down by his bounty hunters.

Wants revenge- After all their whole village was burned down, they were enslaved, or their
loved ones were slain.

Wants to set things right- Cecil fought for an immoral king. The king sought magic, imparting
crystals. He’d have Cecil and his soldiers get them at any cost, and slaughtered innocent people
in so doing. Returning from such an indenture he questioned the king's motives, directly. The
king stripped him of his authority over The Red Wings and sent him to a small village. He was
told he was just delivering a simple thing but it turned out to be a magic fire bomb that set the
whole village on fire. There was one survivor, a little girl. He left the kingdom and came back
with full power against it, eventually, including significant help from The Summoner Girl.

Is a fated hero-

Is following after a mystery- Such as Adol Christin in Y’s 3: Wanderers from Ys. Him and his
friend are in town and spot a fortune teller. Curious, they approach it and Adol has his fortune
told. The crystal ball bursts and she fearfully yells out “Galahad!” A mystery begins to unfold… A
character may have just washed up on shore. Finding themself in a strange land they can’t help
but inquire how they got there. That could be like the game Myst or Dragon Quest. Link’s
Awakening is another example. “The whole thing was just a dream” idea. Could be among the
oldest stories of all, The Odyssey. In The Odyssey it happens again and again to Odyseus. He’s
just trying to find his way home. In time he forgets. Then at last when he has served his purpose
he returns home. The people in his world do not understand all he went through and never
could. A moment hasn’t even passed, he was returned to the exact time he left.

Wants Power- And that power may corrupt them but it doesn’t have to.

Is coming to terms- At first one may have just been hired to help but s/he comes to find them
friends. At first they ask “why me?” when they are told they are The Chosen One. Maybe they
have the special power or position they need but it takes a lot to convince them to help.
Important things to include in different genres:

Adventure Games
Exploring the world is key, therefore wanting to explore the world is the feeling you want to give
the player. There should be a good amount of different resources. Those always work well.
Whether it is slicing grass or mining gems there are lots to get from the world around. To
everything a mystery and no one area taken for granted. You may find one place a dead end
until you return there with the right item. If a net is found or a bottle, a shovel or a flute, they all
have many uses and are helpful in many ways. You may want to go a less Zelda route on this.
Just use your imagination to come up with items that were not in the game, except maybe those
that are just easily thought of anyway like the bow and arrow. Look around your house or look at
what’s on TV for some ideas. Consider how those can be translated into a game. If you do want
to draw the more obscure in your game too then just find a different use for it, to retain
uniqueness. For example, bombs are almost always in the game, but your bombs are color
bombs that spread out different effects. Yellow bombs blow up a yellow door, things like that. Or
place a bomb underneath a platform to burst upward.
I. Puzzle elements in an Adventure game:
The most common element is simply having to know what item to use and where. For example,
there are enemies in the room. You have to kill them all to open the door, only they can only be
killed with a certain weapon. Or there is a curtain in a room that you slash with your sword to go
forward. Or to use your fire wand a certain way. To require a certain way to interact with objects
is also very common, like needing to pull on a statue’s tongue. Sometimes one item leads to
another that leads to another and another.
II. As for the least difficulty: They can be as simple as putting a heavy statue on top of a
switch or much more complicated. There can be a crack on the floor to bomb or a thing
to hit with an arrow. Could be just a switch under a thing you move. A treasure in the
dungeon lets you proceed. A treasure you’ve gotten elsewhere, same thing. If you kill all
the enemies in a room and the door opens. Having you move cubes just the right way so
you can get through. There are right order things such as hitting something in the right
order. If you are transformed you can proceed.. For example a tile changes you into
someone else and that someone/something else allows you to go through a certain door.
III. As for medium difficulty: Raising water levels to access new areas elsewhere.
Unexpected use of an item such as dashing into something to make a thing fall or using
a book at a slab you come upon. Falling into an inconspicuous hole. Switches lower
different barriers. You may have to go all the way to the start of the dungeon to hit the
right switch. It may seem like you need to hit a switch to go past a hole but there is just
enough room to pass by. If you did hit that switch it would block you in a future room.
Falling down the right hole by guessing. Similarly, with transporting tiles. You have to kill
all of the enemies to open a door, only the area is dark and it is difficult to find them all.
You have to kill an enemy in a room to open the next area up but they don’t immediately
appear in the room.
IV. As for harder difficulties: Having to know just what way to pass without any hints.
Such as there being five small waterfalls that don’t seem to go nowhere but by trying to
go through one (and only one of them) you do. Having to use two different items on one
 thing to get through, with not much of a guess as to what those are. A lot of guessing
within a corridor that is highly confusing. Requiring techniques that the player would
never consider, like bombing yourself across a hole or if you enter the same room ten
times then it will change. Having to do patterns you’d never expect like a circle eight
around two boulders before you can bomb it away or holding the down button in a place
for ten seconds will open the way. Only a certain item will let you go further in the game
but that item is both hard to find and nothing is known of its use.

Sports Games
When John Madden was asked about his new football game he told the creators of it “there’s
not enough players on the field,” or something to that effect. Sports games have always been
popular among gamers even if they end up as shovelware. Pong itself was just tennis/ ping
pong. There are a large number of sports that a video game can be made from. Here are the
more common ones: baseball, football, soccer, tennis, boxing, wrestling, golf, racing, volleyball,
and bowling. Then the less common: fishing, pool, hunting, The most important thing to work on
is the mechanics. You obviously don’t have a golf club in your hand. You have a gamepad.
Unless we are talking about future VR or something it is far from a realistic simulation.
Nevertheless the same ideas are kept intact and enjoyable as games, if the mechanics provide
a type of style. Considering a golf game there are differing clubs, indication of wind, terrain,
stronger and weaker strikes, things like those. A baseball game may require an eye as quick as
in real life. Football games include plays and maneuvering. Soccer games translate very well
into video games. Some do more than others. Pool games require the right angles. A racing
game requires that you slow down when you turn. My advice is to develop the mechanics of
them the best that you can.

RPG games
Some of the best things about RPGs you’d think would have always been. Some of them were
just due to space constraints however. The ability to take so many things to make what you
want of them is among them. It is nice when you can easily find the shop and the inn when you
enter town. Treasure chests and breakable pots are scattered about. A large part of the formula
has remained the same. They’ve added ability makers such as getting ability points along with
HP and MP. They may give you a direction to where you want to improve. Ability points can be
spent towards swords, magic, or stat boosts, your choice. I’m all for a stunning beginning.
Apparently some agree when you regard the opening of Final Fantasy games, like the Red
Wings of Final Fantasy 4 or the ominous opening of Final Fantasy 6. There is a lot of magic lost
when an RPG becomes an action RPG, no longer using turn based battles. Some want a return
to fantasy based RPG games instead of a sci-fi setting.
Summon monsters are an important element. Blue mage abilities are good too where
you can call on an enemy you defeated. A recent game I was playing gave you a 30% chance
of capturing any monster you defeated (if it was that blue mage party member that did.) As a
result you collect something just about every battle instead of just money and stat boosts. Which
reminds me- the thief job class could be better in just about every RPG I’ve ever played. 9 out of
10 times you are told “couldn’t steal anything.” Back to summons though, I like how Final
Fantasy 6 lets you learn magic just by equipping them. Final Fantasy 8 was a lot more elaborate
with that adding to it special abilities. Like one stopped all random battles. Some summon
monsters are enormous. So many are based off of old mythological beings ranging from grecian
lore to Christian demons. That is, every last one you can think of except Lucifer (what a shame!)
If a great myth is already there, then why not use it?
The stories involve love and loss, destiny and hope, overcoming and defeating a great
evil in the world. Along the way characters die, even sacrifice themselves to save the rest of the
party. Friends betray or may have never been friends at all. Mind control through magic is
happening. The main enemy turns out to be your sibling. The four crystals must be saved. That
greatest weapon or spell must be found. The characters are fighting against an evil dictator.
They are often on the run. Magic has returned to the land. A great soldier has defected to join
your party. The world is dying because of a corporation misusing it Gaia-Theory style. A King
has waged war against your kingdom and you flee to fight another day. You wake up one day
into the game world and all of your friends and family send you out into a coming of age mini
adventure. Monsters have mysteriously returned to the land. The main character is against the
King on a moral basis and is questioning his own morals himself.
The most important elements in making an RPG are: story, enjoyment of items, graphical
quality, exploration, magic/weapons/armor, stat boosting elements, learning abilities, quality of
characters complete with appealing personalities, and arousing emotion from the player. With
these you can’t go wrong.

Beat em Ups
It is good to have weapons you can pick up along the way. There are different settings to pick
from, from fantasy stuff to the tough crime filled streets, or back and forth in time like in “Turtles
in Time.” There’s that much needed powerup here and there. Throwing a trash can, picking up a
knife. There are things you can ride on along the way, beast or vehicle. I was once playing one
with a friend who actually got angry that most of the enemies were only color swaps. There are
effects to add to the game like being able to throw the enemy toward the screen. Attack a
certain enemy and he drops goodies. Do it quick, they are quick to flee. In two player beat em
ups the better player at the end of the level is told so. In some beat ‘em ups the player has
magic. They may have a special attack but it drains their life energy if they use it. The players
are sometimes proportioned in the usual formula- one is slow but strong, another is weak but
fast. There may be those to rescue along the way. With these a great beat 'em up can be made.

Metroidvanias
Dark settings do well, like those gothic or ominous. As a mysterious planet, hell, or a demon
infested castle. Maps are very important even if they are opened up a little at a time. The main
idea is that the more you get the more places you can go. For example getting a super jump
item or power can take you to the next area. Those are important to go over: getting a grappling
hook, shooting down a door with a more powerful gun, being able to go into deep water, being
able to survive lava, being able to climb up a wall, becoming smaller to fit into tighter areas,
flying abilities, jump stepping, freezing enemies to turn them into platforms, using a super bomb,
presenting an item to a thing and so let forth, being given transportation as from a flying horse
carriage and its driver, and sticking onto platforms to go all around them.
 A favorite element for players is being able to take the power of those you defeat.
Usually after defeating about 10 of the same thing you get its power. That power is based on
what that enemy could do. Sometimes it is the power to conjure them for help like a fairy that
flies around you constantly and attacks your foes for you.
And another good element to include is that you can gather materials to make things.
There may be a person in the game you can go to in order to have them make things from what
you have collected. Such as a sword with iron or more complicated things. These games often
include the truly monstrous as enemy bosses from Super Metroid to so many Castlevania
games. Just do the same and provide the player with a pattern to work with and you’ll do well.

Platformers/ Side Scrollers

There are the run in gun kind, there are the fantasy world kind, certainly there are too many to
name. I don’t know where to start. Most often you have to hit something to grab a power from it.
That power can be about anything you want it to be. Fire balls have been used, so have bouncy
balls. Ninja stars for the ninja, a whip for the vampire hunter. Or Rygar where you had a saw
disk on a whip. A whip is the only thing I know to call it, anyway. Some think we had fireballs
before, why not include ice balls in this one? Or enemies in the old game had this weapon, so
why not give that to the main character. With that the game evolves well. Once they were
throwing hammers at you and now you are throwing hammers at them. The weapons
themselves can be enhanced like a longer whip than before or a fire whip, a chain whip, etc.
And then there is a game that has nothing to do with anything I have been talking about, like
Mega Man. No other game land is quite like mega man’s. He takes the power from his enemy
boss and the game acts like a paper, rock, scissor sort of way. Taking the power of your
enemies- that never gets old.
Fortunately the story doesn’t have to be more than vague. The princess needs to be
saved. Your girlfriend needs to be saved. There you go.
I love the magical feeling of Mario falling from the sky with a wand in hand. I love the
awesome moments in Ninja Gaiden’s cutscenes. I loved entering into the ghost houses of Super
Mario World. I like the appearance of Bowser, the clown car and the thunder, at the end of it.
Little touches can do so much.
The terrain shifting in Ghouls and Ghosts was neat. Finding a pipe you can go down in
Mario Bros is cool. Having the same enemy only in different forms is nice. For example one that
has wings instead. They don’t even know how to fly, they just hover a little. Maybe the player
even feels a little superior because of it. It is common that you have or are something that
protects you but if you lose it you may only be able to take one more hit. Like from big to small,
armored to in your unmentionables.
The game maker is free to employ their imagination. Nothing has to make any sense. In
fact the less sense you make the better. Games aren’t meant to be as boring and plain as real
life. They are an escape into a fun or at least engaging world. Some are just trying to make a
new mushroom kingdom but they will fail every time. Besides, what’s the fun in making a new
one of someone else’s? I’ve yet to see a whole new game world as well hammered out as that.
At least inside scrolling games.
 These are the important things to focus on when making a platformer: game mechanics,
especially jumping. It isn’t too difficult or unreasonable with jumping mechanics. There are many
different ways a character can jump in the game from flipping to more heavy feeling jumps. A
good idea with it is a good idea indeed. Will they climb the wall, flip from wall to wall, or neither?
Are you thrust backward when hit, or no? Does your weapon feel precice? Powerups are
another imported thing and are something that should be carefully thought out. The designs of
enemies, how they look, and what they do, is important. A touch of exploration put in such as
upper and lower areas, bonus rooms, and hidden rooms being present. You may want to include
things you can ride on if it fits your game, be it a beast or a skateboard. A good world map is a
great thing to include while going from level to level. Hidden levels are good to have, like having
more than one exit sometimes. To have a variety of levels is good too. Some have you
swimming, another is a forest area, whatever you like. Spending money is a good addition.
Collecting a certain amount of things gives you something special. Adding the fun of a mini
game is a good inclusion too such as the memory based card game in Super Mario Bros. 3.
And by following these you can do no wrong in making a great game.

First Person Shooters

The formula isn’t very difficult but the formula is important. A variety of weapons to use, those
having different functions, is important. You know, here’s a chainsaw, here’s a machine gun.
Here’s a list of some options: guns of different models, a missile launcher, a golden gun, a
grenade, a knife, a machete, a laser, a blow dart, a crossbow, a bow and arrow, a mace,
throwing star, a spear, a mine, something remotely controlled, a cannon, a sword, katana,
dagger, a club, bat, pole, or anything to pick up and throw. Just by including as many as you can
you will have made a highly expansive game. The question is: where will you place them? What
a large amount of uses to give them? How will you balance them out? How will they make the
game more fun?
To go over the environment next, and setting: That itself can make up a list. That list is:
zombie apocalypse, future world (something like Blade Runner maybe, Star Trek perhaps, or
your favorite creatively invented sci fi universe.) Could be a dystopia, could be either based on a
fake war or one real, you could either be a cop or a criminal in an invented city or wherever else,
you could be a secret agent on a mission, it could be a medieval like fantasy world, could be set
in hell, an alien world, time travel, or a multi dimensional world with any of these included.
What will be the gameplay itself depends mostly on the setting. Some are very
straightforward, others not. Here is a useful list of purposes the player may have: infiltrating a
unit, sneaking your way in, assasination, sabotage, destroying a base or destroying ill intended
weaponry, going after evil alien creatures, serving a crime boss, acting as a soldier, surviving a
zombie infested land, delivering a special item to an important person, saving innocent people,
fighting against an alien takeover, going after wanted people, or on a secret mission.
The gameplay can also include these things: sneaking up on your quarry, getting by
without being caught, hiding behind cover, finding different ways in, gaining a pass code or ID
key, having allies beside you, having puzzles to solve, maning vehicles sometimes, being the
last one alive, freeing hostages or prisoners, stealing a powerful space ship, destroying the alien
monsters in it before you can, exploring areas- abandoned homes in a land of zombies,
buildings, war areas, demon infested areas, or the enemies stockpile of weapons, you can take
any weapons from those taken down, going through corridors, spying on your enemies, and so
on.
With these things brought together well you are sure to have a great FPS game.

Open world games

Give to the player many different ways of doing just one thing, such as getting around and the
uses of things he finds in any given place. Let their way be more fun, like on motorcycles or
climbing walls. Have there be much to collect with much to gain. Let none of the world be in vain
but in all places something to be found or used. Have them lost in that world with fascination.
Things help for sure and the player desires these: faster transportation, a map marker
telling you where to go and where things are, it not being too much of a fetch quest, reasons for
exploration, auto saving and convenient saving, things not impossible but reasonable,
quests/missions that feel pointless, and avoiding anything that is boring. Some thrust you right
into mystery such as “Myst.” Awesome title for that by the way. Grand Theft Auto sure put a new
spin on racing games. See this car? Take it. The police chase you, that’s our racing game.
Maybe a lot can be learned from that in mixing genres.
Some games let you go into an arcade room within the game so you can play a lot of old
simple but fun games. There is that old trope where you have to sneak past the guard.
Some open world games are only semi open world games. There may even be just a
narrow passage from place to place. Another bad thing is when the player just isn’t getting what
they want from the game world. There may be a common element of things to get that are just
too scattered and difficult to find so the player has to go thoroughly through every little thing.
Online games bring human life into it and the effect is far better than any computer characters in
it. Those online players can help each other out.
I. For a list of things within the adventure based game world: grassy plains, snow
capped mountains, desert, swamp, forest, cavern, lake, river, sea, island, fiery area,
towns, beasts, monsters, angels, demons, spirits, ghosts, creatures, weapons, armor,
food, fruit, trees of all kinds, towers, walls, animals, great kingdom, water fall, pits,
different races of beings, shelter, sacred areas, graves, churches, hideout, merchants,
transportation, sword in stone, dungeon, labyrinth, enormous beasts, and and your own
home. Does your open world adventure game have them?
II. For a list of things within the sci fi based open world game: Sci Fi transportation
large and small, with greater or lesser power/capabilities. Alien races, some good, others
not, instead of a fabled sword a fabled ship, instead of metals shields electronic shields,
instead of job classes race classes, a formidable enemy approaches from deep space,
forbidden “human enhancement” technology, androids, animal like vehicles such as the
AT AT from Star Wars, and evil space dictator, getting a pass code illegally, lush new
worlds like you’ve never seen before. Does your open world sci fi game have them?
III. For a list of things within the war based open world game: based on a real war or an
imaginary one. Based on a simulation or more realistic representation of a past war. Set
out on a mission maybe like James Bond. Having you go through a jungle, buildings,
ships, car chases or escapes, or covertly searching through the streets. Meeting
someone privately to receive your objective. Gaining rank, support, and power. Has a
helicopter. Has explosions. Just the right weapon for the circumstance. As an assassin,
 a soldier, secret agent, or hired hand. Contains rules such as if you shoot a hostage,
game over. Being sneaky, areas that block bullets, and lets you drive military vehicles
like a tank. Does your war game have them?
IV. For a list of things within an MMORPG open world game: Different races to choose
from, legendary beasts to fight, right of passage, more social areas, lore and legends,
quests, objectives, selling, buying, trading, human characters building upon the world,
game has a schedule and holidays, area of mini games, tournament fighting, human
customization of the world, wanted posters for monsters or even human characters,
leveling up upgrades your appearance, suits and outfits as chosen/purchased by the
player, renting things from other players, and resources everywhere to harvest. Those
are good things to put into an MMORPG.

Racing games
There are a wide variety of them for sure. There are a lot of possibilities from futuristic racing to
kart racing and a lot more. Some are super sprite scallers. Others are overhead. Some are first
person perspectives. Others are side scrollers such as Excite Bike. Racing games have always
been most lending to game peripherals. Those of a steering wheel for example. Some have you
traveling across the nations of the world which is nice. Players like buying new equipment for
their car based on the money they got from a good race. Be it better tires, nitro boosts, new
paint, etc. Pick your vehicle (or driver) the fast but hard to control vehicle, the slow but sturdy
one, or wherever in between. The track itself may restore your energy so you can be bumped
around more. Or on the track there are speed boosts. There are shortcuts to find. There are
things to avoid like oil slicks.

Fighting games
A little game called Street Fighter 2 came out one year and the whole world was pumping in
quarters like never before. Why was it such a good game? For one the fighting animation made
you feel like a martial artist yourself. You could throw and grapple and each player had their own
style of fighting from Chun Li’s flipping kicks to Zangief's bear-like maneuvering. Every character
had their own unique characteristics otherwise, too. Vega had claws, Blanka the green beast,
you had a sumo wrestler, and a boxer too. Dhalsim's limbs could stretch out. The music in the
game was great too. When Mortal Kombat was made it just added fuel to the whole genre,
enough for so many more of them to be created. Even the Ninja Turtles got their own rendition.
Mortal Kombat pulled off something evil in an appealing way. It was a fight to take seriously. It
was to be less a martial artist and more a combatant. Hearing Scorpions ``get over here!” was
good enough reason alone to play the game but when you combine it with the setting and all
else it is a masterpiece. Killer instinct decided to focus on combos. I guess you have to have
some gimmick you are good at! Super Smash Brothers allowed for many players at once. In that
game the players are trying to throw the others out and the last one standing wins.
Creating balanced characters is important. That is making every character equally
capable to win.
Dragon Ball Z had a great series of fighting games if you want a more obscure source of
inspiration. Sometimes famed characters make their way into fighting games such as from
Marvel, DC, or famous villains from horror movies.
Mixing Genres
Here are some games that are brought to mind: Blaster Master combined footing with a tank like
vehicle. Contra combined side scrolling with overhead game play. Act Raiser combined a god
game with a side scrolling game. Chrono Trigger had a momentary racing game in it. Currently,
game genres are blending together. Why not have a little of everything? That open world game
where you can visit a casino. That place where you can fish or hunt. Choice to go from 3D to
2D. Giving RPG qualities to FPS games.

The Best Ways to Place Secrets in any Game

One- Would seem suicidal such as jumping into a pit. They normally kill you but this one
doesn’t. It leads to a special item.
Two- Going a dangerous route leads to something special.
Three- Going out of the way to a place that seems to go nowhere, but there is treasure there.
Four- Jumping in certain areas seems pointless but an invisible block is there with a 1 up.
Five- A crack means it can be bombed.
Six- It is there but you can’t have it. By returning to it with greater power you can take it.
Seven- Strike the wall with your whip and there appears a hidden area.
Eight- Many pipes but only a few lead downward.
Nine- Button combo codes.
Ten- Low chance of stealing an incredible item from an enemy.
Eleven- Is in a place you wouldn't think to look.
Twelve- Is in a place you didn't think you could go.
Thirteen- Requires special conditions to make happen. Is only there at night. Only appears if
you have been somewhere a while such as Doom Gaze in Final Fantasy 6. Like bringing forth
Reptile in Mortal Kombat. Like having a certain amount of coins and time on the clock gives you
fireworks at the end of a Super Mario Bros level.
Fourteen- Is found after a puzzle is figured out.
Fifteen- Is something to dig for or fish for.
Sixteen- Is found after you burn down a bush or lift a heavy boulder.
Seventeen- can only be gotten with a power up.
Eighteen- If you hold down on a certain thing or in a certain place then a new area is revealed.
Nineteen- Is a rare occurrence such as an item coming up at an auction house.
Twenty- Comes after getting all of the coins in a level.
Twenty One- Treasure chests, pots, grass, book cases, cabinets, barrels.
Twenty Two- They are unlocked after beating the game.
Twenty Three- Might only be possible with only one character. Like Cyan laying in the bed of
his old room in Final Fantasy 6.
Twenty Four- Finally being able to travel through lava, jump super high, fly, or travel through the
sea.
Twenty Five- Gotten with a key, a special passcode, or ID.
II. About Easter Eggs: Just like an Easter egg they are something to find. Once found
could be amusing. It might be a painting of a character from a whole different series. It could be
the developer’s name or image in a secret room. It could be a throwback to a different game. It
might be a moment when the character acts like they would in a different series. There is the
Chris Houlihan room in The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. He won that room in a contest.
Inside it his name is referenced and a lot of rupees are given to the player. The famed Koonami
code may be an Easter Egg in a non Konami game (up up down down left right left right B A.) It
might be a room or thing showing off the upcoming sequel. It could be an airship at the bottom
of a sea which was in a different game and different world. Sometimes Easter Eggs are in the
hardware itself such as a soundtrack on the disk. They could be characters used in your game
from another popular series, as a movie or something, such as Bigs and Wedge in Final
Fantasy. Sometimes old movies are quoted and that’s the Easter Egg. They could be a word
you unscramble resulting in a message from the game’s creators. In Fallout: New Vegas you
find a refrigerator with a corpse inside that looks just like Indiana Jones. That is an Easter Egg
that refers to the movie Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. In the movie
Indiania Jones hurried into a refrigerator in the midst of a nuclear explosion. Which he survived
and was a scene that many fans of the series had since made fun of. An Easter Egg would be
like playing a music album in reverse. Like the Konami code it is just something that is expected
sometimes.

The Best Things…

1. The best guns… can be charged for greater power, hone on enemies, hit all targets on stage,
fire three bullets at once, do the job the first time, wavy is cool, so is freezing your enemy.
2. The best magic… is the ultimate spell. Is the most difficult to get, turns the table in an instant,
was a fable proven true, has the nicest graphics associated with it.
3.. The best sword… is like The Sword in the Stone, found in a fabled land, was made even
better after being tempered, cost the most, can be charged to greater power, can cast powerful
spells. Is not just the best but the best by a longshot.
4. The best boss… Has gained a special and formidable power, casts the most awesome
magic, is a thing that makes you want revenge, was the one behind who you thought was the
final boss, and is super challenging.
5. The best special item (e.g., the dark world mirror, the shovel) opens up a whole new way of
playing the game or adds a lot of resources in it, makes life easier for all of the players, brings
fun into the game, is neat like the hookshot, and gives you superpowers.
6. The best environment… Goes from day to night, has an eclipse night too sometimes, is on
the moon, shifts while you cross it, has weather to it, lots to explore and find there, is as
mysterious as the sea.
7, The best racing game… gives you good control over the vehicle, is a great two player game,
lets you upgrade your vehicle, lets you drive crazy fast, has nice graphics all around.
8. The best RPG… doesn't make you level up either too much or too little, has an excellent
story, is robust with items- each unique, doing special things, grabs your attention, is never
boring, is straight forward, and has great characters in them,
9. The best beat em up… GIves you things to throw, Gives you things to ride. Is great as a two
player game, provides good maneuvering, and has a wide variety of enemies.
10. The best side scrolling game… has lots of hidden things to find, has an overworld map from
level to level, the power ups are a lot of fun, memorizing patterns will get you further, and the
player is able to control the character the way they want to.
11. The best metroidvania games… lets you take your enemies power, makes life easier by
giving you a map, has awesome monsters, lets you collect things from which to form new things,
and has a dark setting to it.
12. The best fishing games… let you upgrade your gear. Gives you a large lake or a number of
them, gives you sight within the waters, and provides just the right tricks to nab the fish.
13. The best FPS… lets you sneak around. Gives you powerful weapons. Gives you more than
just guns. Has good hiding places. Sets you out on missions.
14. The best job classes in an RPG… let you steal things as a thief, let you summon monsters
as a summoner, Could never be without the Black Mage or the White Mage. Has the warrior or
Knight for those who prefer using weapons.
15. The best sci fi games… Have incredible ships. Has aliens with unique personalities. Have a
very evil and powerful race to conquer. Having you explore the universe. Has awesome science
fiction tech.
16. The best music… Is rememberable. Fits the mood. Isn’t over-simple. Isn’t clitter clatter. Is
well thought out. Comes only from the best composers.
17. The most acceptable games… Don’t make things impossible. Don’t have funky mechanics.
Don’t have mechanics difficult to use right. Its music doesn't annoy you. Doesn’t feel pointless,
allows you to do a variety of things level to level. Is a thing you love to explore and is fun or
intense to play.
18. The best mechanics… let you jump as you intended. Lets you climb walls. Doesn’t have
weapons that are difficult to hit a target with. Lets you run either fast or slow. Provides attacks
that ease difficulty, if you can find them.
19. The best hidden secrets… was what the player was looking for. Brings up things not found
anywhere else in the game. Are worth having/ uncovering. Are consistent and predictable: such
as if you get every coin in any given level then something special happens.
20. The best in-game help: is straight forward. Doesn’t have to be difficult to begin with. Is
useful, not annoying and useless like Navi. Is laid out in the first level or soon thereafter. Comes
from money in the game like paid advice. Lets you practice a thing before expecting you to
know it.

The History of Major Games, Why They Succeeded, And How They Evolved

Mario Games- Mario is the Mickey Mouse of the video game world. There is always at least a
little appreciation expected for him. Nintendo was a little in the market by the time of Donkey
Kong. Donkey Kong did well and the original single screen Mario Bros also. Nintendo then knew
the next direction of their company should be in game making. In fact Donkey Kong received a
lot of highlights in the home console market. Better technology brought single screen games
into games of levels. The genius of Mario’s creator, Shigero Miyamoto, was the least of what he
was capable of. If you add the music of Koji Kondo you just can’t lose. It was a strange world
and if cartoons are any example, kids love strange worlds. A world of turtles, of Bowser and
mushroom land, which not at all made since, but was such fun to play. It had so many secrets.
The player didn’t even know what would come out of any given brick at first. Hidden blocks,
pipes to go down, the player didn’t know what would come next. One brick brings up a vine to
climb up into a cloud area. If you jump onto a turtle going down a staircase just the right way
you can get 1 up after 1 up. The coins you get, if you get a hundred you get an extra life. Game
players didn’t know these things until they played the game. It was before the internet. Then
after the first level they didn’t continue forward into the same area but were sent below. I
remember when I first played it that it was so cool you could run across the top of the screen if
you could get up there. Similarly there were water and castle levels. Any given level could
provide something different like a Lakitu throwing down spiked turtles. With each new level there
could be a different thing, like a Bullet Bill. You could jump on those almost like a platform. Who
doesn’t think a mushroom isn’t cool? Or what kid doesn't like turtles? You could have a statue of
a face that blows bubbles and kids would love it.

Mario Bros 3- It was mario times mario times mario. The same things were there only
graphically the better. Nice things were added to pre-existing things such as wings for the
Goomba. No more just hammer bros but boomerang bros, too.Most importantly Mario could now
fly. He can pick up a shell and toss it. He had a score of other suits. There was the hammer bros
suit, the tanooki suit, and the frog suit. For the first time Mario had a world map from level to
level. It contained choices- sometimes you can play one level instead of another to get through.
Some had mini games. Other’s had treasure houses. Mario was truly going up into the clouds
now, onto enemy boss ships. Each ship had a unique enemy boss, one of Bowser’s kids. The
worlds were each diverse, from the desert to the ice world. Gamers particularly liked the giant
world where every enemy was gigantic. As for secrets there are so very many in the game.
They range from getting every coin in a level to holding the down button to enter into the
background, where a chest with a flute is found. The flute was the warping item of the game.
Mario Bros 3 received a great deal of attention during its release. It did before that too
with the movie Wizards. It was a highly markable game. There was a lot to pull from in making
toys. Mcdonald's sponsored it with toys. It got its own cartoon. There were good reasons for
magazines to include it. It lived up well to expectations. It far exceeded expectations. Nintendo
could have made a little better Mario game but they came out with something far better than its
predecessors.

Zelda: My first knowledge of the game came from a magazine providing secrets for it. It had
gained a lot of traction in magazines because of the sheer amount of secrets in the game. As a
result of the secrets in it a large number of gamers were asking magazines about it. What they
were talking about in that magazine fascinated me. A secret sword? Lost woods? So as soon as
I could I got it and played it. It was the first cart game that had a save battery in it. Its title screen
was one of the greatest. The music for it was at first going to be Ravel’s Bolero but it turned out
to be copyrighted, so Koji Kondo developed his beloved Zelda theme instead. The title screen
then scrolls down to every item you can get in the game, as well as the basic plot. That way the
player was sure if they had gotten every item or not. They may be left wondering what one of
them does, such as the red ring. Then upon starting the game there is a cave. Going into it a
sage tells you to take a sword before you venture out. When things fall into place it always
seems to have been accidental. Ideas suddenly come out of the blue. Shigeru Miyamaoto
modeled the game after his childhood explorations into the countryside, such as entering into a
cave. It was the first game of its kind for sure. The dungeon music in the first Zelda game was
captivating. Certain areas had especially neat things, such as the grave yard. There was a
diverse amount of enemies with different things to do to them. Particularly difficult was the
Darknut which you had to strike from behind, yet the way they move about makes that difficult.
The enemy design overall was very nice. Mothula comes to mind. Overall the graphical quality
of the game was well done. The enemies were diverse in many ways. The music was excellent.
The exploration aspect had the gamers looking into every corner of the game and often enough
found something.
Zelda 2 decided to do something entirely different. I remember getting that box at a
rental store with an awesome sword on it, taking it home, and being both confused and
disappointed. I felt the same way about Super Mario Bros 2 but this was going too far. I am sure
their intentions were good. They probably thought they had a great idea. After all, people loved
side-scrolling games. When I did see the overhead part of the game I felt it was awful looking.
Everything had shrunk. I hadn’t really any desire to be in these places, like the towns, and it was
far easier to get lost or not know what to do in that one.
Zelda 3: A Link to the Past was based on the original formula. The hardware leap from
the NES to the SNES was very pronounced. Everything looked much better and sounded much
better. Back then graphical leaps seemed larger. Starting with the title screen it had a kind of 3D
effect using the triforce. Then a much more elaborate “Zelda” icon was seen, having a sword
and a shield with it. After that the story of the game was shown. That’s pulled off very well. Upon
starting the game Link awakens in his bed during a storm. The rain is falling outside. Zelda is
calling out to Link. His uncle says he has to go. So he does. Link gets a little treasure and can
do no more than venture outside. Eventually he comes to a secret entrance into the castle. He
finds his uncle there who has fallen and gets his uncle's sword to seek out Zelda, who is locked
up in the dungeon of the castle. After freeing her they make their ways through the sewer into
the temple. It is the best game opening of all time. That is everything a game opening should
be.
No doubt A Link to the Past was a landmark game. It remains on people’s top ten list to
this day, decades later. Nintendo did what they always do well, which is to take old ideas and
improve upon them. There is imagination to it. Every area you explore is its own thing. Maybe
most importantly there is magic to it, from the lost woods in a quest for the master sword to the
flute (ocarina) player on the tree stump. The mechanics of the game work well. Each weapon
does what it is supposed to and is very fun to use sometimes, depending on what you are
doing. Nintendo made an array of diverse enemies again. Like that thing that shocks you when
you strike it, the skeletons that hop backward when you try to hit them, or the bastard from the
sea that you can’t quite hit but it can sure hit you! Nintendo set forth a lot of things to collect
such as rupees, bottles, and heart pieces, not to mention arrow and bomb upgrades and the
major weapons of the dungeons. Again, each setting was very nice, such as going through
Death Mountain or changing everything altogether through the venture into the Dark World.
Those are the reasons why Zelda is such a great game.
Final Fantasy- the history, evolution, and qualities of the game- Final Fantasy may
never have been. It was the last hope of a dying company. When they had but one game to
make before they were probably going to have to close shop they released Final Fantasy. First I
want to mention Nubou Uematsu. His music has been a shining star above the series. The first
final fantasy game could be considered a little better than its more popular contemporary
Dragon Quest. The box for the game was impressive. It probably boosted its popularity in fact.
Even the font on that was good to look at. Final Fantasy was going to be their final game and oh
what the world would have missed out on if it was! It went from a little better than its competitors
to greatly better, a game that any RPG player couldn’t do without. A reason alone that made the
genre popular. WIth the exception of a few sequels they are largely different games. They have
cross over elements in them, however, and fans of the series can’t wait to see the new use of
the Chocobo or what role Cid will play. With Final Fantasy 4 there were a few things that really
sold it: the music, the story, and the gameplay. If any of these were taken out then the game
wouldn’t have been as good as it was, for sure. But what a great story it was involving love,
betrayal, and a hope to make things better. You are casually sailing through the sea when
Leviathan appears. The enemy bosses were fascinating, such as the Four Fiends. The game
was sometimes quirky but not in a way that made you cringe. It was a big thing back then that
you go to the moon in a game, which you did here. When I heard my friends appraise this
game, it was most often mentioned. The gameplay was good. Nothing out of the ordinary- turn
based battles as typical. What amped that up was the enemy quality in the game and the music
beside it. There were certain ways of defeating different bosses. Some took away your ability to
use metallic gear. Another must not be hit while in his shell. Overall Final Fantasy 4 had a great
story to it, which was its greatest quality. That includes the way the enemies were made and
presented, includes the quests such as healing Rosa and Cecil becoming a Paladin, some sad
moments such as Porom and Poloms sacrifice to save the party, Tellah’s revenge, and the story
was good throughout.
Final Fantasy 6 was certainly a more complicated game. If you are looking for a good
example for a game intro, it is a great game to consider. We are presented with a
straightforward story. Magic has returned to the land after technology has taken over it. Then a
first as far as I know: the intro leads into the start of the game. In other words after watching the
title screen story you are brought into the game. There are three people entering into a town
trying to find an esper- a being of magic that can impart magic on regular people. The town
doesn’t like the empire. The three fight their way into the area the esper was suspected to be,
and there it is. The esper kills two of them- zapping them out of existence. One is left, who is
Terra, a main character in the game. She is aided by someone in that town. He removes a slave
crown from her head which had enslaved her. She has lost her memory by that point and is
struggling with what she should do. Should she help the rebels? The rebels want her help
because of her magical power. Magic was just now coming back into the world. The first part of
the game is incredible already and even gets better. The makers of Final Fantasy are pros when
it comes to making a good story.
Another appealing thing about the game is the large number of characters. Not only that
but each has a distinct personality, purpose, and abilities. In fact while they were flushing out the
story they assigned certain people to certain characters. They developed the story for each and
interconnected them later, a very smart approach at story making. The game wasn’t at all a
typical turn based battle. Each character had their own ability to use which usually was. Gau for
example who could take a monster’s power. With button codes like from Street Fighter 2 Sabin
could do special martial arts like attacks. Edward had technology on his side. For example a
chainsaw, a powerful attack weapon that can be found for him. At first only Terra could use
magic. Later you get esper stones that summon beings, improve stats, and teach you magic by
gaining ability points. Relics were a nice addition to the game. They improved certain stats and
had effects such as letting you walk much faster or guarding a character low on HP. Could make
you immune to certain things, double experience points, or stop all random battles. Those were
sometimes purchased, sometimes found, and other times obtained from bosses.
They included special places in the game such as a battle arena and an auction house.
If you are lucky then they will bring an esper up for auction. In the battle arena you could bet on
an item to win. If you put up a very good item then you can win a very good other item. Kefka’s
tower was also a neat place. It was a tower where only magic could be used and if you reach
the top you get a powerful item- X Magic. In good games every area is contained as its own
unique and special thing. Towns are hardly the same, some are bustling market areas, others
are for the upper class, while some are villages of magicians. Any given thing in a Final Fantasy
game has been well thought out. It’s no wonder why it is such a great series.
To briefly mention Final Fantasy games that followed: Final Fantasy 7 brought a cartoon
into a movie. Now things were in 3D. Not perfect 3D, although the recent remake led to its
improvement. Back then though it was stunning. Going into 3D at that time was like going from
crawling to walking. Walking at first, and now we are running. Final Fantasy 7 was helped by a
Pepsi sponsor as well. It brought a lot of success to Nintendo’s new competitor, the Play Station.
Fate would have it that Square needed a disk based system. Each game continued being
unique but the quality of each has been maintained, by its best attributes: story, gameplay,
depth, and the music.
Fighting games Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat- When Street Fighter 2 was
released in the arcades an enormous effect on future video games followed. So many
companies began producing their own renditions on it. In fact just about anything you could
imagine followed. Fighting as dinosaurs, or highly obscene farters, nothing was out of the
question. Some were more normal than others. They might take martial artists and give them
demons to fight. They sometimes included swords. Street Fighter 2 had an impact on a genre
like never before and never again repeated. Due to technology constraints Street Fighter 1
wasn’t as lackluster. Capcom knew a good idea was there and Capcom being Capcom evolved
their game into something greatly better. They had put a lot of thought into the new game and
their thinking was in the right place as they balanced out the characters and other small but
important details like the characters maneuvering. Their diversity of characters are quite
remarkable. Even if one wasn’t at all good to fight as they were good to fight against. Such as
Ehonda. They included a blade wielding enemy, a beastly looking thing, a very skinny but far
stretching character, Chun Li who could gracefully flip around, a boxer, a military man, a bear
like figure, a well suited and well rounded boss, and a prime martial artist and his brother. Each
brought with them a diversity of attacks. Some had a burst of power shot forth, another a
lightning kick, Blanka could shock you, Ryu does a powerful uppercut, and Chun Li had a
spinning kick attack. Their regular attacks were somewhat diverse such as blanka’s more
southeastern kick or Dhalsim's stretching ability. Special attacks through button codes were a
great novelty. Anyone can attack but more skilled/practiced players could pull off special attacks.
They weren’t as simple as simple button pressing either, not always. Some had you roll around
on the joystick that wasn’t immediately able to be pulled off. Even the background of the stages
were well done. You could go a bit back and forth instead of keeping it on a single screen. The
player then had a little bit more room to fight. The music is excellent, and those are the reasons
why the game did as well as it did. It was ported to just about every popular system at the time
and you know Capcom, when they have a good idea they run with it for a long time. New
versions came out, but for a long time the title retained Street Fighter 2. The next game let you
fight as the bosses and that little thing alone led to great sales. A few more characters were
added, things tweaked a little and the game remained strong and healthy for a long time to
come.
Mortal Kombat brought bloodshed into the game. Ed Boon and John Tobias had a more
brutal inspiration such as from the movie BloodSport. In fact they wanted John Claude Van Dam
to be the star of the game. Which he didn’t and was replaced with Johnny Cage. Same initials
and first name basically. It was at least original in its approach and probably wouldn’t have done
so well if it wasn’t. You wouldn’t call Mortal Kombat a Street Fighter 2 clone. Its controversy sold
it. It did to Street Fighter 2 what South Park did to The Simpsons. It hit the news like crazy and
was the biggest reason for the ESRB rating board. When ported to Nintendo the blood and
murder had to be taken out. It was based on an R rated movie, only in a market still largely
made up of kids, who were actually playing as the killer. However it was just given a Mature
rating and was allowed to be. You can only be controversial for so long. The sensitivity of it
wanes. They would make it ever more controversial but any more it isn’t anything that hasn’t
been done before. It’s much more of a game than mature matter, however. It certainly had more
of a cultural impact then street fighter 2 with movies based on it doing quite well. It led to a great
deal of “mature” games.
The characters looked more realistic. Before I found out that games could use real
images, this was far into the past, I wondered why after ten years the game had such great
“graphics.” They weren’t graphics, sprite things, but filmed people. Here was an evil shape
shifter to defeat. Here was a four arm monolith grabbing you with two arms and pounding you
with another. It was a serious game, one that can be taken seriously, which is actually rare in
fighting games. John Tobias and Ed Boon had just the right touch. Because of them we had
Scorpion and his famous “get over here!” move. That’s just more powerful than Guile’s “Sonic
Boom!” They have outlasted nearly all other fighting games. Fighting games came out in scores
but most of them aren’t around anymore. Mortal Kombat is.

Ninja Gaiden had the best cinematics to grace the NES. After every area they appeared
and continued the story. The powerups were all useful. Some areas certainly called for certain
powerups. The sound effects should be mentioned. They are some of the best out there, from
the sound of striking your sword to the game over motif. The music is also very well done. The
game is known as one of the most difficult of games. One of its best charms however was that
everything was pattern based. The more you played the more you learned patterns and the
easier the game became. Unfortunately though when you are hit you are thrown backward. As a
result game overs are all too frequent when you are on a narrow ledge, especially with bird
enemies around. Hits however are precise and coupled with patterns it makes you feel “good” at
the game. You could even say it makes you feel like a ninja. The way you grab certain items has
you striking your sword in mid air after jumping from a clif, to add to the effect. The way the
game had you rush through as well. You can’t sit still in the game. There are too many enemies
coming at you, for one. Ninjas were a popular thing at the time, during the late 80s.
The game lets you stick to walls and climb them.It began as a much different arcade
game. That game was more beat 'em up in its approach. There are two games often said to be
much better on the NES over the previous arcade version- Contra and Ninja Gaiden. It is an
outstanding game based on Castlevania.
Castlevania was one of the most beloved games from the NES era. It was a game
inspired by old monster movies, as was indicated by its film scrolling title screen. The main
bosses are those found in old monster movies like Dracula and Frankenstien. It wasn’t out of
place at its time. Kids liked ghoulish things like ghoulish toys at the time. You can include
Monster Squad, MadBalls, and Ghost Busters to that. A game whose main weapon is a whip-
giving you a little space between you and your enemy. In fact the power up is there to lengthen
it. You have Holy Water, knives, and axes if you would rather. The NES had only two action
buttons but that was fixed by pressing up plus B for special weapons. You could find secret right
areas by striking certain walls.
Castlevania 2: Simon’s Quest may have been a bad rendition similar to Zelda: The
Adventure of Link (see the similarity in the title?) but when later games were made they were
formed into a kind of Metroid game. That led to the genre “Metroidvania.” My favorite genre. A
favorite genre for many. You either like it or you don’t. My brother doesn’t like them. By the time
Blood Stained: Ritual of the NIght came out, it was just about perfect. Metroid and Castlevania
both had a dark setting and continue to, but the new genre has seen many varied settings.
Some were outright demonic. The basis of them is very simple though they vary in execution.
There are areas to gradually pass through by getting new powers. For example a super high
jump ability to reach a new upper area. The new Castlevania games let you take your enemies
power. You just need to defeat an enemy a number of times to either summon it or gain its
ability. They may let you collect things to make into something you want, like weapons or energy
restoration items. As you enter a new area the map opens up. Like in Zelda the map is found
someplace per area. When you get the map you can see where you have not been yet and so
are indicated where you should go. That's it in a nutshell. I would even say nothing has quite
evolved like the series did.
Metroid was a little NES game inspired by the Alien movie franchise. You play in a
weaponized suit and to the surprise of some players Samus was a female all along, as is seen
after you beat the game. The first NES game wasn’t nearly as popular as some of Nintendo’s
other games but that may have been just for some small reasons. For example there’s no map
and that makes the corridors very confusing. I think it was one of those gameboy games that
proved a gameboy game could be even better than the NES version. Like Zelda: Link’s
Awakening. Super Metroid is a much better example of its potential. Nintendo games are so
often a work of love. It wasn’t how well a game did initially so much as what it could become. At
the time it was their darkest game. The title screen showed dead scientists and a Metroid alien
that was robbed. Samus rushes to get it, but she is unable to get it from Ridley, who has taken it
to Zebes. She then goes there to retrieve it from Ridley and that’s where the game is set. She
leaves her ship and finds a ball morph powerup nearby. She gets it and a camera scans her up
and down- she’s seen by her enemies dwelling on Zebes. The enemies in the game were
monstrous. As far as I know it was the first of its kind. They filled more than one screen. They
had a kind of screech to their voice, and by the time you get to Mother Brain you are left feeling
the true evil is right before you. It’s a brain in a glass. She seems vulnerable. It had taken so
much just to reach her. She has tech that protects her in her resting place. You break through
her protection. It doesn’t seem all that difficult. Maybe that is why she had so much protection.
Then she becomes her full form though and is almost totally undefeatable were it not for a
Metroid. That Metroid thought Samus was its mother. Mother Brain has her energy drained by
the Metroid but she comes back from it, then Samus continues attacking her making her head
fling backward. Once she defeats Mother Brain she is rushed into getting back to her ship as a
timer counts down. That sure is time taken to make both a great beginning and a great ending!
As for the powerups of Super Metroid they all had their place. They were hidden in good
ways. I especially liked when you morphed into a ball while on a statue's hand. It came to life
and brought you to a power up. All of the statues before didn’t do that. Yet one statue came to
life and attacked you. There were bombs, super bombs. There was a freezing beam to turn
enemies to ice and make them into platforms. There was a ray to aid in seeing secrets. There
were suits that let you go into the lava and they were all very fun to get and use. I found out
recently that if you don’t need a missile or energy up item then the enemies don’t drop them.
They just drop things you aren’t totally full on. It is a masterpiece in Nintendo’s catalogue.
Mario Kart and some other racing games- I wonder what the first great racing game
was. Whatever it was, it wasn’t nearly as good as Mario Kart. Rock and Roll racing was great.
Spy Hunter was among the best racing games on the NES. They both let you have little powers
against the other vehicles. Spy Hunter had a helicopter against you. Marble Madness was a
racing game with a marble. Top Gear was nice for its nighttime lights. Some had it overhead,
Excite Bike scrolled. Racing games were simple overall. FZero stood out. It put the energy idea
into a racing game. You got more along the track on certain spots. It felt super fast, and used
Mode 7 very well. As far as racing games go though, Mario Kart did to racing games what Super
Mario Bros did to side scrollers. The Mushroom Kingdom worked well into a game, from the
twomps of Bowser’s castles to the ghost houses of Super Mario World (Dinosaur Land,
technically.) In the past you may have had three racers to choose from. The balance of them
was simple. Once fast, one slow but more sturdy, and one somewhere in between. Mario Kart
had that idea too from Toad to Donkey Kong. However some racers were more likely to get a
certain powerup. Depending on who you were racing as you had a particular racer to beat.
Instead of a car of a different color you had a focus on the character over the vehicle, with many
to choose from. Non racers in the game included the Lakatu which would pull you out of a pit
and had the starting lights, moles in the way as first seen in Super Mario World, and twomps.
The items to use against other racers was perhaps its best feature. You can’t have a game that
doesn’t have bad ones making the rest much more preferred, such as the banana peel and the
feather. Then again the feather could help you in battle mode. The red shell was best of all. It
was like a honing weapon. If any racer got the lightning bolt you would know it, as all of the
players are suddenly shrunk. And you liked being that racer! The mushroom was made into the
common dash forward things found in many racing games. The banana peel served as the oil
slick.
It made a track more than a road. The tracks in Mario Kart were a true splash of color. It
led to many imitators but “there is no honor among imitators” and that is especially true with
Mario Kart. Anyone can make a new Mario game and get away with it- like Adventure Island or
something. But when you have famous characters from a series racing on carts, the imitation of
it is quite obvious.
Why they have succeeded overall: They were inventive. They didn’t follow rules that
said things should be realistic. They instead cast a whole world into a good and identifiable
setting. They kept out things that were out of place. They took any given idea and added well
unto it. In the silent area of video games music had to be well done. The games depended a lot
on their music, for better or worse. These were adventures on a TV screen in an awesome
setting. The game could be depended on- to have mechanics that weren’t unmanageable, or
totally unfair elements. Instead of being lost in the start as with so many bad games, the game
gave a helping hand. They were well enough understood at the start. They had their own
personality. Players greeted that with charm. The land may be amusing, or compelling, or
engaging/ interesting. It wasn’t just a hosh posh of levels but something put together with
thought. They’d even tested the game often to make sure things were as good as they could be.
They didn’t leave problems there. They fixed them. It wasn’t done out of labor but of love. They
took the time to find good ideas and were probably experienced at it. They were the work of
creative minds. They were geniuses in their profession. Just as much as Bach isn’t Mozart who
isn’t Beethoven, they stood out as different and even revolutionary with what they did.

Two Player Elements in Different Games:

1. In a platforming game: These have been very bland before such as simply taking
turns. Super Mario Bros was that way but when 3 came out they had an original Mario
Bros game added to make a two player game better. That little addition added a lot to
the 2 player game. Another point can be added to that that there is 2 player gameplay
absent from the one player game. The two player element can add a lot more
possibilities. These have just been recently explored, things like racing to the end of the
level to get their first. Online gaming has allowed for many players at once doing so
while blocking others along the way or throwing a thing behind you to make the other
player lose. In some games if you kill an enemy it gets thrown into the other player’s
game.
2. In a beat em up: The joy of a two player game is at its best in a beat em up. It is well
suited for the genre. Each player hopes the other lasts long enough to help them at the
end of the game. They may, they may not. The player is informed how many attacks they
got in, and so given points, which proves which player did better. It just makes you try to
do your best. Who gets to the energy increasing item depends on who gets to it first. The
same goes for enemy dropping weapons or one just laying in the street. The game may
be very difficult to begin with but the two player incentive makes it easier. Sometimes the
 character can attack the other, to their annoyance. Double Dragon lets you turn that
feature on or off. One character guards one spot while the other takes care of the other
side of the screen. More cowardly players will make the other player beat up the harder
enemies or just kind of pretend to be fighting in order to reserve their energy.
3. On a single screen: A lot of fun can be had on one screen! Whether it is Combat for
the Atari or a favorite card game like Skip-Bo. In Combat you just ran around in a tank
trying to shoot the other tank. The first game to come out really was Pong, a tennis-like
game of such simplicity. Even puzzle games like Tetris have been made for two players.
4. In a racing game: Make it to the top three to win. Even if you are behind you have a
second chance as later tracks give you more points. There is a side game where you
can battle one on one, on a field instead of the track. Battle modes, they are called,
where you see a split screen of the other player to know where they are hiding. It was a
much better purpose for the feather item in Mario kart. Within the game are special items
to use against the other players from oil slicks to banana pills. Games before Mario Kart
had different drivers and cars to choose from but it was a great deal more shallow. One
could go faster but had less control over the vehicle, things as simple as that. Mario Kart
is a game often imitated but never outdone. In a motorcycle game one player tries to
bump into another just well enough to crash them out but not crash themselves. One
annoying player may maneuver in front of the other player so they can’t pass. Their nitro
bursts must be reserved. Some games have a pit spot which hopefully you don’t need.
Some racing games let you control one car with two different players. Maybe in two
player racing games you should be able to switch cars with any other player using a
special item.
5. In a fighting game: Who hasn’t been cheated by a player spamming jump attacks in
them? Does the player have just the right choice of fighter according to their tastes?
Diversity helps. It gives the player just what they want. For women to have female
characters, a person to have whatever character uniquely suiting them. A balance has
always been important in making a good fighting game. That is, with any given player
you don’t have a handicap over any other. Fighting games really are fighting games. No
other game makes you quite as mad when you lose against your friend.
6. In a FPS: What are the locations you want to have in the game? Does it have spots to
hide or large corridors to sneak around? Does the player have the chance to escape if
they have to? Does the game itself not take too long or too short a time to win? The last
one dead wins. Knowledge goes a long way such as where that special gun is hidden. A
wide amount of different areas is always a good thing, areas either chosen by the
players or random, maybe only able to be chosen by the winner. If you hide then your
energy may gradually increase. Then the other player really wants to hunt you down.
7. In some of the others: Such as vertical shooters and board/card games.
Clubhouse games had just about everything you could want. Whatever they couldn’t
include because of trademarks they just made in generic form. They called it something
else and gave it a somewhat different look. Some sports games translate well into video
games better than others, naturally. Some just needed a technology boost to be really
good, such as American Football. Among all the 2 player sport games wrestling is
 among the best of them. One move grapples, tag the other player if you need (whether
in a 2 player game against the computer or a four human player game) thrown out of the
ring too long and you lose. Pin your opponent down after weakening them enough, then
you win. Each wrestler has a special attack, pounce your character from a corner pole,
and use a chair as a weapon- what a perfect two player sports game! There are sports
games too that are perhaps just too simple and shouldn’t be bothered with, such as pool.
The entirety of the game is just hitting at the right angle and even Pong has better
gameplay than that. Tennis, in fact, goes very well into a two player sports game. Mario
Party was great fun! That is a perfect example of a board game for the video game
world.
8. When the computer is the other player. I remember reading Nintendo Power at one
time when a person wrote about Mario Kart and was angry with it. He said that the
computer is just too unfairly better. However good the computer is, human players have
generally been able to outsmart them. A super chess game could be made and would be
a good way to get better at the game. AI more recently has become very difficult to beat
in the game, even by the best players in the world. The smartest AI has its place, which
is sometimes not its place. The player can choose a difficulty- from amatuer to master. I
played an RPG recently that I really didn’t like. I won’t name it because I like the
company who made it. It had this awful design that even on the easiest level your enemy
would keep you just barely able to survive, yet you did. The enemy themselves had a
ridiculously high HP level. In effect you can surely win… in about an hour of fighting, you
are fully able to win, it just takes a loooong time. Cure yourself twice, attack once and
rinse and repeat a thousand times. It goes to show you that enemy AI can border on the
offensive. Before video games all we had was solitaire to play a game without another
human person. Even though they aren’t real people you are interacting with you just kind
of go with the flow. Movies are no more real, nor books, and the same is true with video
games- people are good at pretending. If our siblings don’t want to play a board game or
a card game then there are always video games to turn to. Games like Uno and
Monopoly already have the whole design worked out. They have touches that the board
games don’t have, such as certain visuals. No one can cheat at them while playing. In
my experience the AI has been perfectly fine in those kinds of games. Then there are
game show games like Wheel of Fortune which are just pulled off better than a board
game of it would.

Choosing a system to create a game for

There are many to choose from and software is being created all the time to make it all easier.
For a while systems were outdated. People only looked toward the new. Recently though in
large numbers people have been returning to old systems. These people can be easily seen
online promoting their new game. Some are all new games. Others are hacks. Some are
remakes. The hacks just rearrange things in an old game, in case you didn’t know. Chip boards
are available for certain systems right now and hopefully availability increases as well as the
number of systems for them. That itself isn’t too difficult. The ROM is made, tested in an
emulator, and the eprom soldered in. As for boxes and manuals, those can be printed by
yourself or mass printed online. There is a lot of help available.
 People are making games for a wide variety of systems. Even the Atari Lynx. New
hardware for old systems are being made in mass amounts and sold online like NES clones.
Old systems and handhelds are being fixed more and more. New life is being breathed into retro
gaming. So if it is an old system you are creating a game for you will be most welcomed. You
may even have a product on your hands to sell if you can build up enough hype in the gaming
community. In fact systems that failed badly in their time are finally starting to get attention.

Choosing a Peripheral to create a game for

If a new game for any given system can be made then any peripheral for that system can be
used. Maybe you want to make a game for the power glove that actually works well. Maybe a
new guitar hero game or maybe you even want to make an all new controller. The controller
itself may not be that complex, just a third button on an NES pad. Things like that add to the
market things that are sorely missing. You may even get others on board with you. I’m surprised
how much time has gone by without anyone improving the most famous peripherals of all, the
power glove. New technology could certainly make it work better. Maybe someday people
making new Wii games won’t be an uncommon thing and of course that is a one of a kind,
motion sensing system. That is a console that lends well to peripherals.

On doing things that have never been done before

A person managed to fit a fairly good Doom game in a special NES cart. No one yet has made a
new Super FX SNES game as far as I know. Mode 7 on the SNES has been made sharper and
the effect is noticeable. A new NES emulator has put NES games into a kind of 3D.
As for the Super FX chip it goes to show you that consoles are a lot more capable then
they seem off hand. Sega had a similar chip for the Sega Genesis/ Mega drive. Things never
done before- The Virtual Boy, which could have been better! A great point can be made that just
because something doesn’t work as is doesn’t mean it can’t work at all. Of course major
companies don’t want to take those chances but that doesn’t mean others can’t. Tiger’s R-Zone
could have been made better. Mattel’s Hyperscan, too. Some of these things were very good
concepts, they just needed to be done the right way. They usually just failed because they were
just cheaply made or had just a couple things wrong like lack of portability and a red screen.
Some have lost their place though. LCD “calculator” games for example now that small
screens of real graphics requiring such cheap hardware are available. In fact we are starting to
see old games made handheld. A perfect example is the new Super Mario Bros Game and
Watch. The Game and Watch was Nintendo’s LCD game series from the 80s. This new one has
the actual NES game Super Mario Bros on it. I have seen Organ Trail similarly. So sometimes
using old technology doesn’t make sense anymore. Sometimes it can be improved to make a
bad thing good, and sometimes all new things can come about when it wasn’t even thought
possible.
Some things that need to be done might only come from you. Like taking these old
crappy licensed games and actually making them good. Some of them only have one flaw in
fact like the mechanics, but would otherwise be a good game.
A Brief History of Early Video Gaming
Independent game makers are becoming more prevalent. More and more they have the
software needed to create their own games and those can range from hacks to all new games.
Games like Tecmo Bowl are given a fresh coat of paint having modern NFL teams and designs.
Certain 2D games are being made more challenging. Newer games are being ported to different
consoles. It’s been found that people still like old game styles. After all, people still like cartoons,
by comparison. Things did not entirely switch to CGI cartoons, either. We can make old style
games better than ever, adding depth, sprucing up the graphics just a little, having more space
for a game than ever before. Old games will continue to be remade, like was excellently done
with Final Fantasy 7 recently. It may be a practice that increases. Just look at how much that is
being done with movies, so much more than ever. Maybe video games will undergo the same
thing. Old games still sell very well as apparent with the sales of classic systems and game
bundles. So a large part of future gaming is going back to the past. A lot can be said about an
idea whose time has come, but what about an idea whose time has returned?
New games will have more space than ever. The matter at hand will be keeping a game
from being too convoluted. In some ways that will be easy, in other ways less so. Game makers
should be cautious not to include too many features that a player doesn’t want. VR and
augmented reality may have its day soon. Who knows? Maybe beyond that is a Holodeck-
before that, holograms. Some things just can’t be predicted. Who knows what the gaming gods
will produce in the future. Imagine if you were in the 80s with an NES controller in your hand
and some time traveller put a new game pad in your other hand. Back then I wouldn’t have even
guessed that consoles would be mostly upright. I guessed and guessed what the new consoles
would look like. Alas I was far off.
The days of any innovation have passed by. It used to be a whole new frontier. A gold
rush. Those smart enough to know simple code and electronics jump in the scene where
computers could produce TV games. Games and electronics could be produced by small
teams.
Games that once took entire cabinets to store now fit in the thousands on a thumbnail
size memory card. Emulators and Roms have led to a large retro gaming market. I remember
when I first bought an emulator device. It was a plug and play system. I got it at my local mall for
$40. Most of the games were crap. The thing itself seemed to be made in someone’s garage. I
thought Mario Bros had entered the public domain. They became more commonly known.
Online stores wouldn’t sell them at first. They were pirated. Their numbers became too much to
fend off eventually. Now these emulator boxes and handhelds are easily gotten containing every
last game of your childhood. Unfortunately, having everything at once has taken away some of
the appeal of these old games and the market possible for their creators. Believe me if we
couldn’t play Ninja Gaiden again until Capcom re-released it, then it would sell enormously
when they did. But the pirates fill the sea and steal the merchant’s cargo.
Genres were being hammered out at one time. Just at the point where you couldn’t go
much further with them came 3D. Cheap 3D perhaps, but still a sight to behold. I’d been
astonished with Super Mario World before that. Back then leaps in graphics were truly leaps.
There I was at Walmart when the SNES was on display and I lost my breath for a moment.
The advent of controversy
 Salvation from Nintendo- The famed video game crash of 1983 led to the video game
market being all but abandoned. Poor and disappointing games caused it. Here it was
Christmas and ET for Atari was being released. It was a rushed game however, and with a large
number of quick cash grabs trashed the market. As for ET it met its fate in a garbage dump in
New Mexico, a rumor later proven to be true. Nintendo had some worthwhile success in making
arcade games, most notably Donkey Kong. They wanted in the video game market. They found
a challenge in doing so. Stores wanted nothing to do with video games. So Nintendo set out in
trojan horse fashion to enter into the market. They had to guarantee they’d buy back any system
that didn't sell- which if they didn’t could have bankrupted them. They even had pixel art on the
game over appealing art. They wanted to show the game for what it was. So the earliest games
for their system did just that with “the black box games.” Nintendo decided not to market it as a
video game system at all. The trinity of that being it was called an “Entertainment” system, had a
VCR design, and came bundled with Rob the Robot as though it was a toy. Next, Nintendo set
forth quality control to cut out the cancer at its source: that of poor quality games flooding the
market. So Nintendo made it where companies could only produce 5 games a year for their
system. With that, more time would be spent on making games. Like they only had one chance,
and to get it right.
The mass appeal of Nintendo soon came to be. It permeated the lives of children in its
time. Mario cartoons, movies like The Wizard, even cereal boxes and fast food places were a
part of it. Nothing added to a new movie or cartoon like it did, offering Teenage Mutant Ninja
Turtle games for example. Although many of these games were far below any good standard.
Sega doing their thing trying to outdo Nintendo like everyone else. They even succeeded
to some extent unlike all of the others. The Atari was 64 bit! Questionably so. Too far ahead of
its time too. The two biggest reasons for a systems failure are the price of it and poor games for
it. Everything else can look good on paper but without a reasonable price and good games the
system will surely fail.
Nintendo playstation- Nintendo and Sody had a pseudo-legal deal to create a CD add on
for their SNES. They went back on that deal. They felt that Sony would have too much control
over their Super Nintendo. They had cold feet and backed down on it. The CD add on may have
done well or may not have, who knows. Sony decided to take what they had been working on
and create their own system with it. That is The Playstation of course, and the rest is history.
What could Nintendo do? And what made the Playstation succeed so well after they had ruled
the market for over a decade? The Playstation was known to have more games. Nintendo’s
restrictions were no longer serving them. Back then CDs were their own good reason. CD’s
were popular. CD’s held more space so even though Sony may have been technologically less
powerful CD’s and the space they allotted made up for it. A similar thing happened again with
the GameCube over the PlayStation 2. DVDs were then popular. Everyone wanted a DVD
player. The Playstation 2 was also a DVD player.
Things are ever shifting. At some point graphics and space are neither problems cost
wise. We will come to a time when the two don’t need to be so highly advanced in new
generations. Costs can only go down from there.
So many things tried- Virtual boy, power glove, motion control, dual screens. Yet hardly
any of them are any good. Some were liked for a short time, then passed. Controllers on the
other hand fell nicely into the design they are today. Just not always. Some dared to go off the
beaten path. Even making controllers seem upside down or requiring the second gamepad be
connected via wire to the player one controller. Yet only Nintendo made controller designs that
became standard. The others such as the turbografx 16 wasn’t even any different than the 8 bit
NES, though it was 16 bit. Sega did no more than add a third action button. They at least gave
the controller a grip but when Street Fighter 2 came to home consoles they had to introduce a 6
button controller.
The beginning of video gaming is different from other forms of entertainment. At least in
some ways. Movies didn’t always have CGI and special effects evolved over time. Video games
similarly went from low tech to high tech. As time went on, greater power from computers
allowed more. We went from Pong to Pac Man to Mario. Largely in the 16 bit area you could say
things got “double good.”
The value of old games has gone up incredibly. I have a regret of buying so many in box
games at an old place going out of business. This was before the prices of retro games went up
so much. I had 30 or so of them that I pawned. Unfortunately I was a pawn freak, to coin a term.
Some rare variations of games can make a person rich. Sometimes some highly valuable game
turns up at a garage sale. The knowledge of fixing old consoles or enhancing them is easily
available online. Whether it is a new battery for an old game or a new back lit gameboy screen,
replacing game gear caps or installing a new 72 pin connector in an old NES. Most of these
things aren’t even too difficult. All new systems of old consoles are available. Some of them are
two or three systems in one. Then there are ROMS and emulators. I knew about those before
they were popular. I don’t use them myself simply because it ruins my interest in them. I mean
have everything at once and nothing is valuable anymore.
Discovery of forgotten games- or games little known to begin with, is a new thing. There
are people that find them and suddenly a went nowhere game is quite popular. Preservation of
old games is tended to by some, even Tiger Electronics LCD games.
Early systems began with Pong. Such a simple design yet so fun! A very principle about
games can be made from it: with video games a little goes a long way.
Portability of games. They began with mostly LCD based games along with gimmicks to
improve their value, such as with mirrors and things, or mechanics to them. Some of them were
better than others. The Game and Watch series used the technology well. Then came the
gameboy. What was so appealing at the time was that it was like an NES in your hand. They
used cute little carts resembling those of the NES. The choice was made to bundle Tetris with it.
Kids couldn’t stop playing it, nor adults. More advanced systems were released such as the
Atari Lynx and the Game Gear after it. They weren’t so well at being portable however, which
was the point to begin with: a portable system. One that didn’t burn through batteries. The
Game Boy did far better than they did. Certainly another reason for it is that it had an awesome
catalogue of games, including those from Nintendo such as Mario, Metroid, and Zelda. They
didn’t have a backlight. They had just shades of green. But people saw past those things and
kept the system selling well far into the future.
One thing leads to another. Another leads to two, and two leads to dozens more. In other
words ideas just don’t add one from itself but it multiplies into many other possibilities. The most
basic of games are improved piece by piece until Double Dragon leads to Teenage Mutant Ninja
Turtles: Turtles in Time. From Dungeons and Dragons came modern RPGs. New technology
created new possibilities, but more importantly new ideas created better games. Some ideas
were just lazy and destined for the trash. Like Mario clones that made one ask “what happened
to Mario? Why has a three year old painted over his world?” Video game licenses have been
around for as long as games have. While we expect a movie to game thing to translate
differently then say a book to a movie or a movie to a book, some were just regular games that
happened to have a superhero or something in it. A lot of these people thought “that was in the
movie, so we will have them here, for no real reason.” But good game makers are good at
making any game good. So among the upper game makers came some excellent licensed
games. For example Batman on the NES, or Ducktails, and a great Gremlins 2 game on NES
made by Sunsoft.
Back then if you had a game you had to make it good, if at all possible. I remember
renting games I just didn’t enjoy. Imagine me trying to understand Bill and Ted’s Excellent
Adventure on the NES. Games followed after an Arcade factor of making the game more
difficult. That and to extend the longevity of a game either due to lack of space or lack of desire
for programmers to make a long game to begin with. For a while games on a system improve
graphically, even greatly so by the end of its lifetime. I only need to mention Donkey Kong
Country and Star Fox. Or Final Fantasy 8 compared to 7. Sega themselves had a type of FX
chip, which they only used once. Parents back then would argue why their kid needed the super
one when they paid so much on the former. Backwards compatibility is always a good reason to
buy the new one.
Everyone wants to do Mario, but better, or Zelda, but better. Few there are that succeed
by copying others. Rather it is being different but in a better way or even the same but in a
better way that will succeed. Sonic was a lot more different then Mario. Mortal Kombat was a
stand out from Street Fighter 2. It takes The Beatles to overthrow Beethoven and in turn
become revolutionary. People spent over a century trying to be better than Beethoven.. To be
higher esteemed than him. Did it take a hundred musician orchestra? No, not at all. It took a
guitar, singer, and a drummer. Sometimes the simplest of ideas can cause the greatest change.
Sometimes they can succeed where the most complicated of things could not, such as with
MineCraft and Tetris. As with Galaga I just felt it was an added nuisance to have Space
Invaders, only the ships were now diving down on me. When people were making Mario
Nintendo was making a suck up monster named Kirby.

The Gaming Community

It is more than just robust. It is alive and well. It makes up a large portion of YouTube. It is a part
of something people really want but is still hard to find from professionally made TV shows. You
might find a documentary here and there if you are lucky. You may find a modern game play
through on TV from some corporate channel, but overall it is relegated to individuals and their
teams making them for video sites such as YouTube. Videos about them can be widely varied.
To name a few they can be top tens, reviews, glitches, play through, speed run, history of,
hidden gems, personal collections, about rarity, news, and more. Especially more among top
tens which aren’t only top tens of the best games but far more than that. Like top tens of “most
graphically impressive,” things can be quite specific.
It is a sport we watch sometimes- esports. We have our own sport! We don’t collect
comic books so much as we do game manuals. In fact video games have among them an
enormous amount of things to collect. Anywhere from a GameBoy fanny pack to a Castlevania
wall clock. We have our own form of music- music from video games, which range from
classical music to lyrical music. Opera music if we like, such as from Final Fantasy 6. It contains
Stravinsky-like music, or organ music that came from a more wicked Bach. (In other words
Fithos Lusec Wecos Vinosec and the castle music from Super Mario World.) If Classical music
went anywhere, it was into video games.
We have our own history to study. It isn’t a boring history either. It is a history that
involves us and our childhood. It reveals blunders like over priced consoles that go down into a
sort of philosophy.
If you put it into a form of religion, we congregate at the flea market, we tithe by buying a
used game to add to our collection. We build shrines for the better part of our collection. We
hear the praise or criticism of any game. We gather to play.
Thrift stores selling games have gone from cheap to expensive in no time. I really
thought I should have predicted that. We were poor kids mostly. Games back then just cost too
much to have more than a small collection. Interestingly it has made gaming magazines from
the past cost more because the internet stopped their production! We used to just throw the box
away and lose the manual. It was all an interesting series of events that led to their price hikes.
Speed runs are definitely a popular form of entertainment for us. They have gone down
to just about the least possible time to beat for some games. Of course sometimes a glitch is
found that changes that such as the pipe level glitch in Super Mario Bros. 3. The Super Mario
World and The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, allows you to “beat” the game in just a few
minutes. Ninja Gaiden 2 was once thought impossible to beat without taking a hit, Even though
only one hit speed runs or game plays were common enough. It was thought impossible to beat
the final boss without taking a hit... at least one. But a certain jump and slash mechanic was
found to undo that problem, and the first true damageless playthrough occurred after that.
Speedruns are done on hacked games sometimes, too. Such as “Final Fantasy 4 pre
enterprise” where it is that all of the major items are shuffled. So the first treasure chest you find
may hold the best item toward winning. Or A Link to the Past doing the same thing.
Even though video games haven’t been around all that long the history for it is all deep
and interesting. There are the teams and their designs of the game that we hear about mostly in
interviews. Some of the design ideas are kept tight secrets but in the past leaks occurred that
revealed them to the public. Some of the ideas for new games are amusing to hear about when
heard, such as Pac Man being inspired by a pizza minus a slice. Then there are the ghosts in
Super Mario Bros 3. A guy's wife would shy away when he looked at her. We get to hear about
things such as inspiration and the other thought processes behind the designers. That first
game to have an easter egg too because the game publisher’s wouldn’t allow credits. The
easter egg was a hidden room that stated his name. The first Mega Man game may have fared
better if the box art for it wasn’t totally rushed.
Those that rate video games have a large number of top ten types to use. From the most
ordinary one “top ten NES games,” to hidden gems, best graphics, best genre, best levels, or
top worst of those instead.
I would love to see the day when I can go to a place to watch esports just as easily as
any other sporting event. I would love to see esport players get paid just as much as the major
athletes of other sports. I would love also to see arcades return. Maybe all they need is a
gimmick. Maybe someday video game magazines will become widely produced again. I’m sure
we will continue to see remade games or newly released ones, as well as newly made consoles
from the past. I believe VR and augmented reality will become common someday and someday
later even holodecks. People will continue taking old carts and systems, fixing them or
enhancing them with modern things. I wouldn’t be surprised if old games continued to increase
in value. Someday even those we can still get cheap will soar in value. Game systems may be
all digital someday. I can’t see why not, Having a physical copy just isn’t its own good enough
reason when the games and system both could be cheaper. It's always interesting to see what
the new system looks like when that time comes but someday it may be no more than a small
brick that streams games.

The Joy of Game Making

Be among those after a good idea. Let inspiration easily strike you. Video games are a multi
talent thing- the best of all things from art to music composition, stories and so on, yet each are
easier than their counterparts. Pull out that graph paper and start making the title screen.
Formulate the font for it. Consider the best music for it and make it. Do all so in fun. Take it as
an opportunity to contribute something great, something uniquely your own. Take your time.
Take all the time you need. Think long into an idea, trying to realize it the best you can. If your
heart's in it your heart will know it.
Comparing game making to other forms of creativity, well, it includes so many within
itself, from art to writing music. It is a far more recent form of creativity that wasn’t possible
without modern electronics. It is far more than just one of its parts. It’s an imaginative process of
so many different things. It’s far from a song, it’s a symphony. Most of all it is a result of
imagination… the imagination of a whole new world with which the player occupies themself. It
is the closest thing we have to creating a whole new world for someone to enjoy. Of course
there are more simpler games too, many of which are remarkable games themselves. There is
no inspiration quite like the game maker’s. It is found in making new genres, the perfection of
old ones, or mixing genres as well as possible. At any given time a great new genre may come
to be which serves as a gold mine for the industry.
It is to take your favorite parts and bring them together. A book may have a brief
description of any given thing, like what a monster looks like, and that’s well enough. But within
the game that same thing is as alive as can be. That’s truly like a book you can interact with, or
a movie. It is a movie you can control. The game maker gets to decide the quest, the game
maker has the opportunity to give all sorts of life to what they create. What they create is alive,
not stationary, not impersonal. They can throw in whatever they want, a board game, some
gambling, fishing, personal art style, a song, you name it.
The more games there are made the more possibilities there are. The magic of game
making is the bringing together of ideas. Those ideas are more versatile and multifaceted.
Comparing it to other creative forms: making videos for an online video website for
example, doing so is far more superficial. People talk on video then upload it. Sure they can do
a little research. It is an easy way to get popular, in a superficial way. People working on that
may get popular for a moment. May have a long lasting hobby. Might get a few thousand
subscribers. If they are lucky then they’ll get a little advertising money. The competition in that
area of creativity has increased greatly because of just how easy it is. That isn’t that game
makers can’t make both video games and online videos- quite the opposite, but what they have
to talk about has a lot of meat behind it- the game they have made. Me? I don’t say so
hypocritically. I write over producing simple videos, books that can take months to complete over
a two hour online ramble.
If painting on canvas or drawing on paper isn’t exactly for you then maybe making
games is. Drawing is a part of game making. If writing music and gathering a band isn’t quite
your thing then maybe doing so within the form of a game is. Making games is a multi faceted
thing. I’d say so more than anything else is. Making a good game means being good at a
number of things at once. Game makers draw from history, learning history in the process. That
is, if they want to. Whatever a game maker likes can be used for making a game, in fact. If you
like to draw, make a game. If you like to make a novel, make a game. If you like to write music,
make a game. If you like any combination of those, make a game. If you and your friends want
to make something but can’t decide on a single thing you can always pull your talent out in
making a game.