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Stupidest game concepts ever?? [roundtable]
 
Which game concepts have you come across and immediately dismissed all chances of success for? The stuff where, if you were a game company exec, and someone pitched you, you would just laugh them out of the office? (Disregard the quality of the actual finished game.)

I will say... Naughty Bear. And Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg.

And Imagine Party Babies. Who the fuck is the target audience for that game??

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11/21/10, 21:45  
 
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Kinect.

JJK.

I thought Billy Hatcher looked awesome though. I was super excited about the game in theory. But the reality of it, it just didn't come together.
11/21/10, 22:36   
Action 52
11/21/10, 23:19   
An Italian plumber that gets powered up my mushrooms, uses flowers to shoot fireballs, and he's saving a princess from a dinosaur.

Let's pretend for a second that Mario never existed and someone pitched this idea to their studio head, could you imagine the reaction.
11/21/10, 23:43   
I think Naughty Bear looks cool. I have no idea if it's good or not, but I want to try it at some point.

I don't know of many game concepts that I think are stupid. I think generally if I feel that way about a game, I won't bother to look at any info for it, so I can't recall any examples off the top of my head.
11/22/10, 02:26   
Naughty Bear was on the tip of my tongue when I clicked the thread.
11/22/10, 03:30   
Now that I really think abut it, I'm not sure if there's any game concept I'd call stupid. Any concept can be turned into a great game.
11/22/10, 03:39   
Journey Escape..... Do I need to say more?
11/22/10, 08:14   
Barbie games.

Where's Waldo? NES.

DOA Volleyball. weird CG anime chicks do nothing for me.
11/22/10, 08:25   
@X-pert74

I agree. I mean whenever I try to explain Phoenix Wright ("it's a sort of 'Lawyer' game") I get weird looks. Maybe I just explain it wrong. But generally it's not until they play the game that they get what makes it so great. There's probably a lot of games like that.
11/22/10, 08:54   
Kingdom Hearts: Disney & Square. I thought it was the stupidest idea ever. And yet it actually worked.

Animal Crossing: It's a game about nothing. And it hooks me every time, just like Seinfeld.

Pokemon: Ten year olds go around the country engaging in glorified cockfights. Can't put this game down either.
11/22/10, 10:26   
sirmastersephiroth said:
Kingdom Hearts: Disney & Square. I thought it was the stupidest idea ever. And yet it actually worked.

Worked... as in... people liked it and it sold enough to continue as a franchise?

It was a pretty game to look at, pretty boring to actually play. I honestly could not accept the basis of the story. Hard pill to swallow, and Sora having bigger feet that Goofy perturbed me to no end. I somehow managed to do EVERYTHING in that game and leveled everybody to 100. I think I was mostly just addicted to fighting Sephiroth.
11/22/10, 11:38   
Oh, were you serious with Wii Music? Is it such a strange concept? To allow non-musicians to improvise music? I think the concept is really, really strong. Some people didn't like the execution, though. And most didn't even give it a chance.

It's kind of like a more casual, more free-form version of Band Bros. Jazz, the game.

@X-pert74
That's true, but some concepts just have no chance of ever finding an audience. I'm kind of shocked that you liked the idea of Naughty Bear, though. It's so weird.

I guess I could've also included Fairytale Fights, the super-cute/super-bloody vs. brawler, although it's kind of like Super-Happy Tree Friends, or whatever.

@autokymatic
I could only make it to the second level.
11/22/10, 18:55   
Simbabbad said:
I actually really like Wii Music, but the concept was really strange, business-wise. It's not a game with competition or real goal, it's an initiation to music but with quite bad MIDI samples... who was it targeted to?

I guess we would be the target audience since we like it so much, lol.

No, to seriously answer the question, the game was targeted towards people who wanted to feel like musicians but didn't/don't have the talent to be one or don't want to put forth the effort into being one.
11/22/10, 19:23   
Simbabbad said:
@casper884

Yeah but then the samples get in the way of that. And the music selection.

It struck me how the casuals I know who bought it because it had "Wii" in the title and was made by Nintendo, were completely puzzled with it, and disliked it immensely.

I had to explain tons of things to them so they got the purpose of it. Like how to display the notes on screen.

I had different anecdotal experiences with 'casuals'. Many of them enjoyed the 'Jam Session', but not necessarily the composition part of it. So for improvisation, I think it's excellent software and nothing like it on the market, and in that sense I think people took to it well (those who let go of their inhibitions).

EDIT:

Also, in Jam Session, there's nothing to explain. You just flail away.
11/22/10, 20:26   
Edited: 11/22/10, 20:27
Super Meat Boy? He's made of meat..right?

@sirmastersephiroth

Who aaare these animals?
11/22/10, 22:45   
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