| The author and a lot of other people in this thread seem wistful for the days where game design was a lot more weird and experimental and are pointing to the indie game scene but I have an alternate suggestion: try Roblox. Roblox is (rightly considered) to be a gaming platform for young kids but its unique mix of: - portable identities/avatars/friends - easy to use dev tools - platform distribution - built in multi-player Have made it a virtual riot of creativity and fun and odd mashups of things. Here's just a sampling of things I've seen my kids play. - social potion making + adventuring (to get components for portions) + you drink the potion and are a giant - social tower defense but it's also a platformer - survival game / city builder where you build out a peninsula and islands in hexes but can also send out attacks on other players and sometimes you're attacked by sharks - adoption game but with kidnapping as an emergent behavior - 3D character brawler (ala Smash) but it's a circular island and it's centered around slapping. Each time you slap someone off your hand gets bigger until it's the size of your body and has lightning. |
What made things like the WC3 editor generative of new ideas was that there were clear limitations. And anyone who is "creative" by any stretch of the word can recgonize that creativity is most generative when prompted with limits.
https://www.pcgamesn.com/best-roblox-games