Game Ideas From Dreams

[bluemonkmn]

Does anybody else dream about games that don't exist?  Seems like a good place to get game ideas.  I haven't actually used any idea from a dream yet.  I guess often times the game seems so much cooler in the dream because of all the variety and secrets you get into as the dream wanders wildly around.  Last night I dreamt up a game about a baby pegasus whose goal in the game was to not fall too far behind the mother pegasus, and eventually to catch up.  I think I dreamt about it before, but it was quite a boring game the first time because all you could do was go forward, and you never knew how far behind you were because you couldn't see the other pegasus, and I don't know how you were supposed to survive when going forward wasn't enough to keep up.  You couldn't even jump or fly.  But in the new version from last night, you could fly around and pick up items to add to your time and go off into secret passages... and do some things that aren't really possible in a 2D game... or on a computer monitor/keyboard for that matter .  (Maybe when the PS9 with the neural spores becomes available, all aspects of that game will be possible )

I wonder where these "game ideas" come from, and why.  Interesting.

[durnurd]

I sometimes dream about ideas for movies (not just dreams that could be movies, but dreams of how to do specific things in movies).  It generally happens when I'm deep in movie-making.  I don't do much dreaming about games though.  Probably because I've never actually really made one.

[hebedaymun]

*cough*low-lives*cough*  Phew...excuse me!

[cbass]

I remember dreaming about a plot for a scifi game/book/movie once.

I thought it was so cool right when I woke up, but a few days later I think I forgot a bunch of the details.

It invloved a mothership going at sub light speed around an unexplored solar system to slingshot around to gain velocity.  I sends a shuttle of a small crew to one of the planets to investigate something, and they had to get back before the mothership came around or they would be stranded.  So there was like a race against the clock or something, I forgot the rest. 

[durnurd]

*cough*low-lives*cough*  Phew...excuse me!

*cough*what-exactly-are-you-referring-to?I-haven't-seen-you-making-any-games-if-that's-it*cough*
Boy, I really need some nyquil or something.

[hebedaymun]

*cough*low-lives*cough*  Phew...excuse me!

*cough*what-exactly-are-you-referring-to?I-haven't-seen-you-making-any-games-if-that's-it*cough*
Boy, I really need some nyquil or something.

Hahahaha, wow, that was actually really funny.

[bluemonkmn]

*cough*low-lives*cough*

[durnurd]

Dangit, now you've gotten me doing it too.  I had a dream about a game last night.  It was heavily based off of Chameleon Man, I think, since there was the exact same chameleon in it.  Also, all of the graphics were either ripped from Mario or Final Fantasy 4.  It was in 3D though, so there was this 3D Goomba dancing with a cone of reddish aura around it for some unknown reason, and we were on a train.  There was a point to the game, but I've forgotten it after a day.  It was clear in my mind this morning, I swear.

[billybob884]

It was heavily based off of Chameleon Man, I think, since there was the exact same chameleon in it.

[Vincent]

Whoa, I'm way late to post in this thread, but I have to share. :p

Sometimes I dream about games too, but I never ended up making one of those. 

But once, I woke up in the middle of the night after having an incredibly realistic dream.  It was so intense, I had to wake up my wife and told her all about the story, the characters of my dream.  She thought that my dream had to be told and she wrote it down as a short story.  She actually writes a lot, she wants to become a professional writer sometimes.  She likes sci-fi, fantasy, thrillers, etc...  Anyway, when she finished writing it, as I read her short story I was very optimistic with the story.  It was really good and really acptured the feel of the dream too.

She sent it to a short stories publisher (is it a book editor or a book publisher in english?), it was her first attempt to publish a story.  And guess what?  They actually published it!

The thing is, it's written in french.  And I'm not sure I or she are good enough to make a good translation in english of this story.  So I can't really share it with you all.  Unless some of you speak french?  Here the link to the book: http://www.revue-alibis.com/numero/2008/25.htm
The story is named "Le double", which litteraly means "The double" (as in double agent or undercover agent), it's a story of a cop undercover in a criminal organisation whose mission goes very wrong...

[SmartBoy16]

I've got one. Interestingly, it was right after I was looking up some alien sightings on Wikipedia.

A4ED-EE was an alien from an alien race. He was the one of the greatest invaders of all the aliens. One day, he was asked to invade one of the hardest planets to invade, Earth. Many aliens have tried to invade before, but most who have even tried were spotted within 5 minutes of entering and had to abort their missions. A4ED-EE was part of the alien race Ayedee (pronounced Eye-Dee) who were famous for invading civilized planets.

A4ED-EE quickly entered earth without even being spotted and quickly observed the culture of the humans. He learned their language by a tool they use called the internet. Eventually, he meets a girl who he begins to admire and eventually, gets to know her. They talk about their lives and what they hope to accomplish. Eventually, A4ED-EE, nicknamed Freddy by the girl, realizes the importance of Earth to the humans and asks his fellow comrades to cancel the invasion. They refuse, and invade anyway, causing massive global panic. It is up to Freddy to stop the invasion and save the entire planet from unnecessary destruction.

I'll probably work on this game once I get my career in development. (I doubt SGDK2 would be able to handle what I plan for it, but SGDK3...maybe )

[tprime]

These all seem interesting. I can't think of one on the top of my head. I'll probably have to take time to think about it. 

[TheLaw]

@SmartBoy16:
   Hey, if you get some extra time, why don't you have a good think about the kind of tools you would require to make that game? Then head over here: http://gamedev.enigmadream.com/index.php?topic=1428.0 and post some feature requests for me. My project could be considered a SGDK3 or sorts, and I'm all ears about cool new features...

Right now that topic is just a big "Make a wish foundation!!", but I invite everyone to come pitch me their ideas.

Thanks,
Lawrence