Ask HN: What game do you wish existed? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: What game do you wish existed?

#381

Post by rococode » Wed, May 25, 2022, 4:41 PM UTC

Maplestory was a huge part of my childhood, I've always wondered why no other company has made something aesthetically similar.

I didn't care for the endless RPG grind so much - it was really the graphics and soundtrack that made such a lasting impression. Cute monsters, cute characters, cute equipment, cute maps, cute music, everything was just cute and relaxing, but still with a distinct flair that made it not feel uninspired and saccharine. I still have some of their BGM tracks in my playlists.

It's been a very successful game, too. Although outside of Korea it mostly died out long ago, in Korea it's still one of the most popular games. The global servers are mostly deserted, but when I managed to hop on the Korean server a couple years back, I was shocked to see that it was packed.

Despite its enduring success, to this day, its aesthetic is still completely unique. Other popular games have had tons of clones (some of which have overtaken the original), but somehow no one's ever made another Maplestory.

Re: Ask HN: What game do you wish existed?

#382

Post by zokier » Wed, May 25, 2022, 4:42 PM UTC

There are two categories of games that I wish involved time as more important element.

City builder: major construction projects take time, from planning to construction. Construction itself can be very disruptive, causing local negative effects and necessitating temporary arrangements. Another aspect is that developments that were once nice and shiny grow old and withered. In a long running city you should be able to recognize how different areas are from different eras, eventually some stuff becoming "historic" and valued for that reason.

RPG: In many games apocalypse patiently waits while our hero rescues every kitten from a tree and clears every basement from spiders. That makes decisions in game feel less weighty because often there is no cost for doing things. I would want to see a game where you'd really need to weigh if things are worth doing, not just in regards to players time but also in regards to in-game time. Tyranny (by Obsidian) was one game that kinda pretended to have this, but it was pretty weak illusion in practice.

Re: Ask HN: What game do you wish existed?

#383

Post by HellDunkel » Wed, May 25, 2022, 4:43 PM UTC

Bullet hell shoot em ups with great design. These games look either retro in a bad way or cheap like candy crush. „Hell is other demons“ was great.

Re: Ask HN: What game do you wish existed?

#384

Post by dllthomas » Wed, May 25, 2022, 4:43 PM UTC

A brutal third-person beat-em-up where damage is localized and disabling, where you heal yourself by patching yourself with parts from the enemies you've slain, and where both damage and repairs are visible long-term as you progress through the game.

It's probably important to note that both your character and your enemies are stuffed toys, but I enjoyed putting off that disclosure to the end of this comment.

Re: Ask HN: What game do you wish existed?

#385

Post by ilamont » Wed, May 25, 2022, 4:43 PM UTC

The game I want to see was actually described in a short story in an issue of Dragon magazine in the early 80s. It was basically a real-time RPG with real prizes - the ultimate prize IIRC was a virtual chest of coins that would be delivered to you if you won. For "real time" to work in-world, you had to find a safe place for your character to sleep, like a closet you could lock on the inside. Water, food, and other aspects were also stricter than the hand-wavy D&D processes of the time.

I don't remember the author, but it correctly predicted aspects of online culture and relationships that were not widely known or understood in 1982 or 1983.

Re: Ask HN: What game do you wish existed?

#386

Post by nazgulnarsil » Wed, May 25, 2022, 4:43 PM UTC

Large scale turn based overworld with real time combat zombie civilization game where you start out as the last outpost and have to retake the world. Like Xcom. Maybe a mod like this exists somewhere for some game.

Re: Ask HN: What game do you wish existed?

#387

Post by WJW » Wed, May 25, 2022, 4:44 PM UTC

"Rebuild a wartorn country", the game. Could be an entire country, could be as small as a Many games have this as a scenario (ie, "save this terribly designed city" in cities skylines) or as a minigame ("rebuild a castle for use in the final act" in Neverwinter Nights 2), but I rarely see it as an entire game. It might be very difficult to balance though, since success would tend to snowball really hard.

Re: Ask HN: What game do you wish existed?

#388

Post by f7fg_u-_h » Wed, May 25, 2022, 4:45 PM UTC

I want a heist-like (or maybe Hitman-like) game that has significant social interactions. Specifically where NPCs can decide whether or not to trust you, based on freeform speech input. Could be text NLP, or speech recognition.

I love the idea of bouncing around people at a cocktail party, trying to deduce some important secret that no individual will reveal, at least not unless you act that you already know. Maybe you've gatecrashed some kind of Hannibal Lecter party, and everyone but you knows who the next victim is, so you have to discover who/where/when and prevent it.

Re: Ask HN: What game do you wish existed?

#389

Post by luxuryballs » Wed, May 25, 2022, 4:45 PM UTC

tetris11 wrote: post #141

[Borrowers: The Game] You live as tiny mouse-sized humans existing with regular humans who should never know your presence as you occupy the walls and spaces in their home. Every day you must hunt for food, which involves collecting gear to traverse spaces (paperclip + string = grappling hook and rope, matchstick = torch, plastic bag = parachute) to reach places where food is stored (i.e. the kitchen - defended by th…

If only we could get the people who made “Ni no Kuni” to make a game out of “The Secret World of Arrietty“ (I highly recommend the UK English dubs if anyone hasn’t seen this yet).

latest from that game developer: https://www.polygon.com/platform/amp/23141182/ni-no-kuni-cro...

movie trailer: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VlMe7PavaRQ

Re: Ask HN: What game do you wish existed?

#390

Post by oneepic » Wed, May 25, 2022, 4:46 PM UTC

A Metroid Prime ripoff. No arm cannon, though.

I'd like it to have a focus on atmosphere, isolation, collecting data, and lore that's all about technology and the sciences (ie biology, even fake biology is ok, like in MP1). Maybe the main character is some guy with a space suit, a blaster, and a scanning tool.

Ideally I don't want a leveling or survival-crafting aspect to it. Just a Metroidvania FPS - walk around, scan stuff to get 100% completion in your logbook, find all the upgrades and ammo expansions... and of course, blast any local flora and fauna that attacks you.

Some of the following games have a few of those elements: - Subnautica (particularly the scannable things, isolation theme, and a lot of the technology the player builds) - Dead Space (particularly the isolation element, but I also loved the use of technology/screens in that game against the backdrop of horror atmosphere and monsters) - Deus Ex: Human Revolution - Void Bastards