Almost a year ago, in November of 2014, I presented a piece entitled “Steal this Game Idea!” which became one of our most popular articles on the League of Gamemakers, receiving over 100 reader comments. The piece was simple, a list of ten game ideas, a few simple rules, and a requirement that readers had to give a little back – by posting their own game idea.

Now I present to you another round of Steal this Game Idea! This time, things will be very similar, except: some of the game ideas presented below were selected from reader submissions!

THE RULES:

1) IF YOU READ THIS PIECE, YOU HAVE TO GIVE BACK

– by posting at least one game design idea below in the comments. Your idea can be short and sweet, or fleshed-out with details.

2) DON’T TEAR DOWN THE IDEAS SHARED BY OTHER PEOPLE.

You may think that an idea presented might be mundane or boring, or that it’s been done a hundred times before, but to someone else, that same idea may be an inspiration.

3) KEEP US POSTED!

If you manage to build something interesting from an idea you find here, make sure to keep us posted on how it progresses! (and if you built a game that was inspired by last year’s post – let us know with a comment below!)

IDEAS FOR NEW GAME DESIGNS

  • 1) Group Worker Placement -provided by Seth Jaffee.
    “The basic idea is that you place workers in different locations, and then when it comes time to resolve each location, you zoom in and it’s another worker placement game. -So you have workers that are essentially groups, and you assign 1 group at a time to the areas, and upon resolution of that area, you reassign the members of that group to the worker spaces in that area.”
  • 2) Philanthropy -provided by Dave Armstrong.
    “A worker placement game where each player gives from the bounty of their game engine. The more you give, the better your engine. There are 4 scoring rounds in which the players must have the least resources on hand. Playing bonus cards to augment worker placement actions, a player can ‘gift’ resources just before a scoring round. E.G. blue player plays a CEO bonus card on the red player giving them a new car. Combining cards with worker placement more efficiently and at exactly the right time allows you to reduce your holdings for scoring. Lowest score wins.”
  • 3) Semi-Cooperative Building Game – provided by Nat Levan
    “A party/euro game, where every player generates resources, and you have to work together to create enough to build something. Players can choose to contribute or not, depending on whether the buildings being constructed support their private goals.”
  • 4) Real-time Resource Game – provided by Scot Eaton.
    “A real-time, turn-based game where you gain resources or currency based on the amount of time you waited for others to take their turns. The original idea was for an electric generator powering you up for waiting. Then, on your turn, you make your decisions as fast as you can, knowing that every second you spend making decisions is another dollar in your opponent’s pocket.”
  • 5) Hybrid Game – provided by Luke Laurie.
    “Pull three games from your shelf and take out the components. Combine the components and build something that works.”
  • 6) Unknown Identity -provided by Jamey Stegmaier.
    “A large-group secret identity game where the only identity you don’t know is your own.”
  • 7) Card Drafting-Building -provided by Royce Banuelos.
    “A card building game where you can pay for cards that you will physically use to build a structure. Very open ended on how the structure will turn out. You’ll bid for cards and plastic connector pieces, each player will have a secret scoring bonus like Troyes.”
  • 8) Open Source Board Game -provided by Jeff Cornelius.
    “A game designed by the community and anyone who desires to contribute to it. Similar to how Linux and Wikipedia are done. It would have a core group of designers who would act as “gateways” but everything that is submitted is evaluated by the user community and if it gets enough backing it is incorporated into the game. The game is ever changing. It would have to exist as PnP for the most part or possibly print on demand. You could “publish” for retail certain major versions of the game as you went along.”
  • 9) Amnesia/Hangover -provided by Seratonin.
    “My idea is a game based on mass amnesia, the TV version, not how it works in real life. Or maybe a “Hangover” scenario. Players are all working to figure out who they are or maybe what they’ve done.”
  • 10) Wormhole tile-laying Game -provided by Daniel Zayas.
    “Some sort of Wormhole tile-laying game (Interstellar much?) where players compete for solutions to earth’s problems using technologies on other worlds discovered through an almost Tsuro/Saboteur web of wormhole tiles with openings to other worlds. Something like finding artifacts in Forbidden Island/Desert and pick up and delivery to Earth for points. Simultaneous action selection like in RFTG, to be observe (flip tile), explore (movement), investigate (draw card from world) and event (playing card). Certain cards could only be played on certain tiles. I’d be happy to join any design team to make that a reality.”

    NOW IT’S YOUR TURN TO GIVE BACK:
    LEAVE A GAME DESIGN IDEA IN THE COMMENTS BELOW!