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[rottame]

I'm not too deep in the field yet. My wife's job is capable of keeping us easily a float. I think I'd rather do this decision sooner than later.

Do it only if the idea of working on something infinitely smaller that a GTA game is enough. And even there, only if the idea of working on ONE aspect of a game (modeling, animation, coding, design) is still satisfying.

Honestly, a game like GTAV is infinetely more fun to play than to develop. And in any case, only a tiny fraction of people working in videogames get (or want to) work on something of this scale.

 

[2+2=5]

Many games but my dream is to make a spiritual sequel of might & magic vi.

 

[Have a Nice Day]

Shadow of the Colossus

 

[PetriP-TNT]

Latest was FTL - Faster Than Light. So simple, but so well done. I know for a fact that I could make a similar game any day, but FTL takes the extra 10% to make an idea into a really great game.

 

[phosphor112]

Do it only if the idea of working on something infinitely smaller that a GTA game is enough. And even there, only if the idea of working on ONE aspect of a game (modeling, animation, coding, design) is still satisfying.

Honestly, a game like GTAV is infinetely more fun to play than to develop. And in any case, only a tiny fraction of people working in videogames get (or want to) work on something of this scale.

No doubt. I'd just love to get to that "blockbuster" point. Starting off small is key though. No overbloated budgets and keeping things focused is important.

 

[Yuterald]

It may look like I'm dropping names here, but in some shape or form, the above games have had a lot of impact on the game/project my brother and I have been developing for over a year. Whether it's the battle system/mechanics (Tsugunai: Atonement/King's Field: Additional/Shadow Hearts) or the dungeon mapping/puzzle design (Alundra/Wild ARMs) these games have influenced and inspired us on so many different levels. I'd hate to use this thread as a plug, but it seems as good as anywhere to share our most recent update/demo. If this sounds interesting to you, check out our game!

 

[Deleted member 22576]

I actually think I'm going to try and make a videogame.
I want to make a bowling game. I'm gonna make a bowling videogame, inspired by Milo's Astro Lanes.

 

[zoukka]

Nintendo games made me a developer

 

[Cymbal Head]

Dear Esther
To the Moon
Gone Home
Thomas Was Alone (avatar quote incoming)
Psychonauts

Basically, I would want to be on the writing/scenario side of things, because I can barely code and and I couldn't create an art asset to save my life. I know for a fact I'd be a shit level designer based on my experience with the few level editors I've mucked about in.

During high school, a group of my friends and I started working on an RPG Maker game. I wrote an intro sequence and part of the first chapter of the game, but only one of the other guys ever did any work outside of our conversations together and it folded instantaneously. If I had more motivated friends in school, I think we could have actually accomplished something.

 

[Kritz]

The reason I got into programming is because of games. I don't know which games started it, but I can certainly say the games that inspire me the most to become better at games programming are:

QWOP / Surgeon Simulator / Papers Please / Dwarf Fortress - games with obfuscated controls for the purpose of enhancing gameplay or introducing complexity via its control scheme.

Halo's perhaps my most mainstream example. The thing about Halo that sticks out to me is its well defined set of enemy types and AI interactions. It's super cool to kill an Elite then have all the grunts run away. For the enemies in that game to fill specific roles and those enemies dynamically react depending on how the player approaches murdering them all.

I love stuff like Dear Esther, and certain parts of Minecraft, and parts of Miasmata and Proteus. I love exploration, either of randomly generated worlds that feel real, or carefully sculpted rollercoaster experiences that just give a great sense of time and place when you play them.

I will say that I think most games are complete rubbish as any kind of inspiration for game development. There's so many working parts, so many people and ideas, so much bullshit that goes into most games. And once they're finished they turn into a bland gunk of boring mechanics and place that a hundred games before it have already done.

I don't prototype games as much as I'd like. I've never reached the point where I'd consider anything I've ever made 'finished', and that isn't me being modest - I'm pretty rubbish at making games. But I think, for inspiration, or games that make me want to make games, I think those games have to be unique. They have to try to do something more interesting than a shootbang murder simulation power fantasy.

And it's funny, because I would never ever play any of the games I would like to make. I like shootbang murder simulation power fantasy games. But I would never ever want to make one. And the games I do want to make are fuckin bullshit things like, "what if you were a chef in a kitchen but it was multiplayer so there were like four chefs but cooking things was physics based and shit was flying all over the place and you had tonnes of angry customers coming in wanting food so you need to get one of the players to take orders and if they get orders wrong then you don't make money and you need to make money or else you lose". Who'd want to play that game? Not me!

 

[Teppic]

2D games from the NES era. I'd like to see more games like them.

 

[SaggyMonkey]

For me it was more of the potential of making something I haven't seen yet.

Definitely also games like Portal, PvZ, Grim Fandango, Twisted Metal, Guitar Hero, Animal Crossing, Fallout 1/2 and Wolf/Doom/Quake.

 

[Marvel]

Kojima Productions.

 

[kyubajin]

Legend of Grimrock.

 

[Garibaldi]

None. I lived to be a developer when I was young. Now that I am the last type of developer I want to be is a games dev. Pay is shit compared to other fields because every young hungry dev will take your place for pennies. The hours sound terrible and finally management (both budgetary and people) seems so terrible your job is never safe.

I'm quite happy with my day job development role and building my own little gamey projects when I have time.

 

[Canis lupus]

candy crush

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=649883

 

[GreatestHits]

Bethesda games and even sandbox games in general get alot of criticism here, but the idea of placing things together in a sandbox and letting them create their own story, while "dull" in it's early stages, to me was the start of the most wonderful thing, to me it wasnt a video game anymore it was almost something else. I wanted to be a part of that kind of crafting, that kind of careful construction and balancing."

Granted right now, sandbox games are worthless to many people, it takes alot of imagination to do generic quests, and to feel like each quest has meaning, weight, value and a true effect on the world, when honestly the chain reactions of these things are very short or shallow. But the motion, the direction that sandbox devs like Beth was establishing... thats all that mattered to me.. you know that with ever-improving and new technology we are going to be able to finally come up with enough interaction, AI, and infinitely generated unique content to fool our minds. So to me, the small gameplay systems and super cool stories and cut-scene type of games that were out there were cool, but when bethesda tried to give me the fake, but seemingly real, big vast alive world full of wonder, that really moved me. That made me want to spend my time, brain power and passion on this form of video game crafting. I know parts of it suck, but just the initial vision was enough to make me want to eliminate the suck and push that vision as far as possible.

Sorry about the wall of text but this is a passionate subject for me

 

[lil smoke]

I'd like to redesign an NBA game. The same 'cheats' used since the SNES are used today against the player in order to create an 'even' match. I think there are other ways to design a fair game. Trying to play these games has gotten to be an outright tragedy, and I keep thinking that one intelligent person will step in and change things, but it's been decades.

 

[Noogy]

To answer the OP, there were probably a hundred games over my life that made me feel like "I should be doing this", but I think the one that pushed me over was Braid.

Just seeing what 2D gaming could look like on modern hardware, coupled with the buzz around XNA convinced me to finally dive in. Now I make a living as a game developer, and I think more people should try it.

 

[venomenon]

Indie games that were made by smallish teams or even sole individuals. Minecraft for sure, also stuff like Evoland, DLC Quest, To the Moon, ...
In fact, I am a professional developer, albeit not in the games industry. Personally, I consider that a disadvantage though, since after work I'd certainly rather play games than be involved in any development.

 

[Arthea]

I don't want to develop games, I prefer to play them. When you make a game, you know it already from inside, so playing isn't that much fun.
The only exception I would make is to revive Suikoden, it simply needs to be done in any way possible *sighs*

 

[encephalon]

I generally have this kind of urge when a developer has a brilliant setup for a game or if half of a game is great but then it just doesn't live up to its potential.

 

[subrock]

Sword and Sworcery made me feel that, and yes, I'm developing a game right now. Not the same style, but good games give me energy to create.

 

[Edwards_Omatic]

BioShock. When I first played it, my perception on what a video game could be was changed forever. I knew that this is exactly where I wanted video games to go. So I knew these were the games I want to make.

Well, aside from a few things, though, most notably some of the gamey elements.

Pretty much the same as me, Bioshock made me want to become an environment artist, which is what I'm currently studying to become.