Theme >> What's Hot? What's Overdone?

Cats On Fire.

Like, totally last week.

~Josh

Gangsters would be a fun theme to play under.

Me personally, the whole Midevil/Fantasy/LOTR thing is over done. As a kid, I loved these games, now I am kinda sick of them. I know it sounds kinda stupid, but whenever I encounter a fantasy game I am turned off. Before I even play. (Except for HeroQuest, that game was the bomb-diggity.)

I think the need to design to the market is what constrains people's imaginations. If you design for fun, you're more likely to get good, unique ideas. These games might one day be sold as product, but the design was driven by uniqueness and enjoyment, not what the market had to say.

Personally, I think that any combination of a noun and a verb (or a gerand, a word ending in "ing") can yeid a possible game theme, or the starting point for developing a unique idea. Idiotic most of the time, granted, but still possible. For example:

Dancing Icecubes. Okay, maybe not the cubes dancing, but dancing on some treacherous surface. Like walzing on stilts, or ballet on oil-covered rope bridges in the Himalayas.

Cat Negotiating: So what's to negotiate? How about out-doing other players in such activities as sleeping, eating tremendous amounts without barfing, and the risky but rewarding "phantom litterbox" maneuver? All of this must be dome with subtle, understated style, of course.

Car Fighting: Not just demolition-derby stuff, but full-on vehicular martial arts. Leaping fender-bashes. Lightning-fast door jabs to ariel-stabs to tires. Dim-mak strikes that make your enemy's spark plugs fall out the next day.

Personally, new and unique themes have never been much of a problem for me. Give this a try. It's almost a party game in itself, where people come up with the most obnoxious theme possible, and then try to actually design the game.

....and drumroll please while everyone quickly starts putting together notes for a Fantasy/Monopoly game!

~Josh

But if you come up with Fantasy+Monopoly type of game ( you must buy various building in the village). You come up with a totally new concept even if you use two overdone things.

Fantasy will always be a genre of choice as it invokes a fun theme as opposed to making games about everyday life (although these can be fun too!). I think Fantasy games have a broader appeal and age range then other less used themes.

Trying to find something that hasn't been done in the Fantasy genre is near impossible. However, I think the important part if you are going to tackle this genre at all, is to make the game as original as you can. I still think good designs can shine through, but we will see. My first foray into game designing is a Fantasy (Medieval) /Push your luck/Hand Management game that I think is fairly original.

As mentioned here in another post, Nick Danger just got his Fantasy (Medieval)/Tile-Laying/Pick-up and Deliver/Hand Managment game published, so there is hope for me yet.