Dream Games (The video games you design in your head)

I’ll start with something I brought up in another thread recently. I have a great love for Dragon Age and Mass Effect, or more specifically the “BioWare Formula” that underlies them. That being a player customized character with a troupe of memorable companions to explore the world with. So I often like to think about how that formula could be applied in different ways and sometimes different genres (most of the stuff I think about is more story rather than gameplay based).

However, I have a Fantasy (yes, capital F) scenario that I don’t think has really been done before exactly.

It would be a Classic Fantasy (Dwarves and Elves, that schtick) universe but the catch is that humans have yet to appear in the world at the start of the game. It would be an elf dominate world where the player is a member of the elven royal family. The elves I’m imagining would be highly wise and magical but also at peak levels of decadence and courtly intrigue. The player character would also be there for first contact with humanity who arrive at first as refugees, but at some point the intrigue of the elves, land hunger of the humans, and possibly other malevolent forces leads to conflict. Somebody decides to take the player character off the board and puts them in an enchanted sleep. This would be 20-25% of the game.

The remainder of the game picks up a thousand years later when the PC wakes up to find that the elven civilization has been all but demolished and elves are now living as second class citizens in a human world. Meanwhile, the same malevolent forces active so long ago are still active, now ascendant perhaps using humans as puppets, and the protagonist must fight them to save themselves and possibly win some future for their people in this fallen world (or not, player choice and all that). Companions could include another elf or two that has survived but fell on hard times, humans that need to be shocked out of their tacit acceptance of the world they inherited, perhaps a personal familiar whose form can be customized to a degree.

And that’s the extent of my thoughts on that idea. I’m not sure what form the antagonist should take, but I like the idea of exploring a setting like DA or TW from the perspective of an immortal elf who remembers what it was like before.

Fortunately for me, someone else already had the idea. Even better, it was someone with the actual skills and money to make it a reality.

...if you tag me I can't not look     ... 

It would be a party based single player roleplaying game in the Warhammer 40k universe.

As a new Inquisitor of the Ordo (Hereticus/Malleus/Xenos) you gather a party of acolytes that serve different roles (pilot, gunner, sage, infiltrator, interrogator) and your mission is to uncover a great conspiracy of the Ruinous Powers. Your possible skill choices are determined by your choice of Ordo and previous career (Arbites, Guardsman, Psyker, Assassin, Ecclesiarchy etc).

Gameplay should be diverse, featuring brutal combat, covert investigations, diplomacy and exploration on several planets across the sector. From blending in with treacherous nobles to descending into a space hulk with heavy flamers and rotator cannons, the entire 40k experience should be available. Your decisions should enable you to act as a Puritan or Radical or in between.

The game should have a failure state. Miss too many clues, make wrong decisions, and the bad guys win or get away.

No one will ever make it.

In the 90's a company called Mindcraft had a series of fantasy games called The Magic Candle and spin-off games. Most notably imho Siege and Ambush at Sorinor. There were even world maps and such.

All of these games are now abandonware. With some refining of details and the foundation, it could make for a great fantasy setting.

I played Siege for hours on end and to satisfy the armchair general in me I often thought about large scale battles in 3D along with micromanagent of your army ( units, equipment, factional politics) and commander; as well as a storyline.

The setting would also be appealing as a RPG like DA.

A few more floating around in my head. Sometimes, a small part of me fears these ideas getting snatched up, but then I remember that I'm not exactly original, and hopefully someone could make these games .

As much as I loved the conclusion to Throne of Bhaal, part of me was dissapointed that I never got to play Baldur's Gate 3 as a god. Thus, Divine Right is my headcannon Spiritual Sequel; the Prologue would allow players to outline what kind of person they were before Ascension, then you and your potential Companions of spirits, daemons, demigods, constructs and the like go off to determine what kind of deity you will be, and how to deal with the mortals, entities, and other gods reacting to you.

For a nice subversion, Followers deals with the Squire, a tavern wench, the blacksmith who has been robbed blind, the pack mule, the put upon Familiar, the often bypassed monster and Random Encounter thug as they attempt to clean up the messes left by the Chosen Heroes .