This past week I have been thinking about what sort of silly little indie game thing to try to make for the sake of making Ludexor Studios something more than just a name and a Ludum Dare entry. One thing that kept popping into my head was “Hey! Everyone over at Ludum Dare likes to make indie games… perhaps they would be good people to ask for advice?”

I hope it’s acceptable to post this little not-so-little post of me rambling about terrible game ideas of mine. I’d love to hear your thoughts, even if it boils down to telling me to never post anything like this again ever.

That said…

If there is one thing I have a new-found respect for after this week, it’s designers who can come up with good, quality game ideas. This shit is hard. I can’t even begin to explain to you just how many ideas got jot down on paper only to be furiously crumpled up and tossed in the general direction of a growing pile that I think once had a trashcan under it. At one point I considered saving time by buying a few notebooks to throw away as is.

However, we’re not here to destroy the environment. We’re here to make games, and damn it, I’m certain if I say that enough it will eventually happen.

So here’s what up. I have three simple game ideas, and I’d like to hear which you think I should put the most effort towards. I’ll probably just work at them haphazardly with about as much focus as an indecisive kitten presented simultaneously with a laser pointer dot, catnip mouse, and ball of string, unable to make a commitment until someone helpful encourages me towards one over the others. Or perhaps I’ll be encouraged toward all of them at once, being driven slightly insane until I lose interest and pass out, just as cats are so prone to do.

Particle Madness

This idea was inspired in part by a school project that I still have laying around. The general idea is that particles would be emitted from a starting point, and you would have to place down attracters, repelers, walls, filters, redirecters, and all sorts of silly things that probably aren’t real words to get them past various obstacles to a correct end point. Color would be a large factor in how particles interact with different objects.

So, in essence, a puzzle game. One that I would insist on making sure looked beautiful and surreal. If you have been following me for a while (which is no one, because I have no friends; you would know that if you have been following me), you will probably notice that this idea is kinda like my Ludum Dare entry in that it’s supposed to be beautiful and particle-ly.

What can I say? I like particle effects. So shiny.

Someone brought to my attention that there’s already a game exactly like what I had in mind: Auditorium. It makes this idea seem rather silly, especially when it looks like Auditorium has already done such a wonderful job. Oh well.

Cuddly Little Fuzz Creature on a Mission

Working title, of course.

This was inspired in part by ilomilo. If you have no played it, do so, because it’s a game so fucking adorable it hurts. The source code for that game probably includes legitimate real live kittens it’s such a cute game.

That said, this would be another puzzle game. The objective? To create a path to help some adorable little creature of cute to its goal, which would likely be a kitty or stuffed animal or something that makes you want to say “Awwwww.” The mechanics of this would probably be somewhere between that of a Rubik’s cube, Tetris, and/or those “Get the car out of the parking lot without just monster-trucking your way out of there like you so know you could” games. Ultimately, it would be whatever ends up being most “fun” out of several different variations that I’m not going to bother to explain just yet.

Oh, and I feel I should clarify on the cuteness of this game: I’m not talking the kind of obnoxious cute that makes you want to produce the most violent upheaval of vomit you can manage for the sake of restoring the cute-to-not-so-cute balance. I’m talking the kind of cute that even men can get behind. The kind of cute that you secretly adore but would never dare tell your girl. Pikmin cute. Chao from Sonic cute. Pokemon Cute. You know what I mean.

Potato Bucket

This game was inspired by a potato in a bucket.

Gameplay would consist of a potato in a bucket.

You can take the potato out of the bucket. Place it back in the bucket. Turn the bucket over and place the potato on top of it as it it were its own buckety throne to its potato empire. You can bake the potato. Take a bite out of the potato. Mash the potato. Tape it back together. Consume the potato, tape and all, then buy a new one, and launch it into space.

It’s potato bucket.

It can do anything.

Whatever one of these I choose to make will be made into an Android game, with a considerable chance of their being a web version created as well. iPhone versions would come at a later date, mostly because making an iPhone version is not a very viable option at the moment.

Oh, and most importantly, the game will be free, supported by ads which I will do my best to make sure are as un-obnoxious as possible. I hate intrusive ads just as much as you do.

So, which would you like to see be made into a game?