So I came up with a system last year which I used for a period of time over summer. It allows you to come up with self created ideas which should be triggered by asking you simple questions. I managed to come up with a few ideas I might share one day using this system I made.
Run through the questions below using an existing genre to get some ideas.
Take a Genre and answer these questions (some may not be genre specific)
- Is the game 2d or 3d?
- What is the camera perspective?
- If 2D, how many 2D plains does the game play on? (ie can you more between foreground/background)
- What are the standard controls for that game the way they are?
- Is the game randomly generated?
- Is there user created content?
- What tone do these games usually portray?
- What audience is this genre usually aimed at?
- How do you usually lose/win the game?
- What are the limitations of movement and attacks?
- Who/how many people do you control?
- Is it multiplayer?
- How is the game taught to the player?
- Does it have a heavy plot?
- Is it open world?
- Can the character level up?
- What makes the genre fun?
For your answers, ask yourself why it does or doesn’t do these things. Remember these aren’t the only questions to ask about your chosen genre, these are just some examples.
Change the answers to some of these questions, do they improve or break your game design?
As time goes on I’m going to do “runs” of genres through the idea generator and see what game ideas I can come up with. They will be listed below.
Run 1 – RPG Genre – Prison Escape RPG
Run 2 – Puzzle Game – Grapple Giants
Run 3 – Platform Game – Random Generation
Hopefully these questions help you to come up with an idea to innovate in an existing genre.
-Tom
Game Development & Reviews 
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