How to make original games

Finding an idea for your game

According to Karimov, when you are looking for ideas for your game, you often imagine any activity in the form of mechanics – even going to the store can start looking through the prism of the game: you are given a trolley of a certain capacity and a certain amount, you need to collect food for a certain time so that they fit … Constant reasoning leads to the emergence of new ideas that you can catch on and go further.

The original idea for Loop Hero was a discussion of the clicker and Zero Player Game. By clicking on a cookie, the player completes a cycle: accumulate, buy something that makes clicks for him so that he can accumulate and make more clicks. And it was necessary to arrange it to be interesting. This reasoning led to Loop Hero.
Dmitry Karimov
Chief Designer, Artist at Four Quarters

Kuznetsov said that there was a similar story with Despotism 3k – the roots grow from jam. He called a friend-artist, he connected a friend-programmer. The thought was: “Resource managers are usually meditative. What if you make a dynamic action out of a resource manager? It will also be a bagel. “

Despot’s Game has a primary idea on the surface: a single auto chess and roguelike. Nikolay added that Despot’s Game has no special story – the team just finished the old game and started making a new one. The developer presented ideas to colleagues, and they chose the most successful one. Nikolay is the main game designer in the team, but if two other co-founders reject the idea, then he has to come up with a new one.

I’m angry because it’s cool, but they’re like, "No, not cool." The programmer does not participate in the creation of ideas, but influences the game in the process, when he implements the ideas. And the artist is very influential in terms of setting, history, user experience.
Nikolay Kuznetsov
co-founder of Konfa Games

Pros and cons of original games

According to Kuznetsov, developers and players mean different things by original. Players tend to believe that the originality of the game is determined by an unusual setting or story. And developers are more likely to think about unusual mechanics and their combinations.

Mikhail Kuzmin noted that players more often perceive games as a plot or a set of ideas. Players are mistaken when they think that it is enough to come up with an interesting original idea, and it becomes a game.

Original games are not equally good ideas. You can come up with something unique, but not the fact that it will be a good game. [...]

Uniqueness doesn't work at first sight. Best selling for recognizable games and game series. In the initial stages, recognition works better.
Pyotr Vetkin
game designer, composer at Four Quarters

According to Karimov, the original game is one for which it is very difficult to find an analog. If it turns out to instantly find some “forefather”, then the game is not very original.