Okay, I've been tossing the idea around of making a flash game for some time now. I have taken some programming courses in school, but as of now I don't know a lick of flash. (I wonder what Flash would taste like?). Although it shouldn't be as difficult for me to learn coming from a background that includes programming.
Anyway, another user, in a another thread, in another forum section, mentioned something about Armor Games making some dress up games in the past. Well, I started thinking (for the first time that week), "What if I made a dress up game?"
At this point you may be inclined to exclaim, "That's the worst idea ever!" (if you've bothered to read up until this part) and you're exclamation might be right. But, I figured that a dress up game would be easier to program than most other genres of games. It would be a great place for me to start.
"But who would want to play a dress up game?" You might be asking. Well, that's a wunderbar question, but I think if I could make a dress up game with achievements, upgrades, humour, and unlockables people would play it.
My thought would have actually been a "Dress the Elephant" game (but John is no longer with Armor Games) and I would need to have permission to do that I assume. Also, since I have no Flash skills if I submit a game it might not be accepted.
So what are your thoughts? What would you want to see in this epic dress up game?
For that matter what would be your ideal flash game in any genre of flash gaming? What would the perfect flash game be to you? What would it have in it? Upgrades, hidden features, RPG and sim elements, action, puzzles, multiplayer?
Lastly, if anyone who has actual Flash experience wants to take this "Epic Dress Up" game idea and run with it/make it reality, I'm not opposed to you using my idea. (Realistically I will never make any Flash game ever, so to me this may be all a pipe dream.)
Although not really a fan of dress up games, the idea of making it have humor is appealing, and I'm a trophy addict so achievements would be awesome for me. The question I would have about achievements is how exactly they would be awarded in a simpler game such as a dress up game. Use all pieces of clothing? Use this item a certain amount of times? Those seem fitting, but not at all challenging, so that would need some though if pursued, and I personally don't know what kind of achievements would be good until seeing a glimpse of the game itself.
As for what would be in it...Something random for sure. Dress the Elephant is a great idea for random, but like you said you'd probably need John's approval for something like that. I'd say try to avoid people altogether, as there are enough dress up [person] games, and a new take on the game style could be refreshing. Again, that poses the question of what exactly to make the game about if that's the problem, again with little help from me. I usually just play the games and rarely think about what future games could be made like.
This leads me to say that maybe a dress up, although ideal for its simplistic creation, might not be the best idea for a first game, unless you can fill in the blanks. I might recommend a simple puzzle game that takes little work into the variations of the game elements, but with enough challenge to keep people interested. Not the next revolutionary puzzle game. Just something to appeal to the gamers, but doesn't stress you out trying to come up with it.
As for preference of games, I've always loved RPG, strategy games, and tower defenses never seem to get old for me. I like it when they're unique, but usually play them anyway if there's at least a decent game engine and possibly a story. Upgrades are always great, plus hidden bonuses are cool, too. I do also enjoy the occasional puzzle game, so my recommendation wouldn't be out of interests, either.
I hope that helps, and feel free to chat me up for other questions if I didn't answer something thoroughly enough.
Yeah, I would problem do something like clothes combinations. You start out with a some clothes and some templates you view to see the combinations that will unlock more clothes to put on the character. Making the combination unlock more clothes or combos. Or maybe the templates give a hint on what to wear and you have to guess as to how to put them on to unlock the other clothes. As well as simple achievements like "wear hat 5 times" etc. Which then gives you a trophy to view in a trophy room or something of the sort.
Thanks for the feedback. I wish I had more free time, because I actually want to do this or see someone else do it (because I don't have too much free time here.)
