I have a game idea that I've been toying with a little bit... well, really two ideas that are sort of the same kind of thing, so I'll probably want to either merge them or focus on one or the other. The themes are: a theme park or a snow day.
I'm thinking of a cross between action point games like Tikal and worker placement games. For the theme park idea, you and your opponents are kids who are dropped off at a big theme park in the morning. You only have so much time (action points) and money, and you are trying to score the most fun before the end of the day. For example, you can get big fun points by going on the roller coaster, but it might not be worth it if the line is too long. You can try to win a big stuffed animal at the Midway, which would be cool to take home (and bring in more fun points), but it might cost you a lot of your money to win, and you'll need to budget your money accordingly to pay for some food and rides and souvenirs.
For the snow day idea, you and your opponents are kids in a neighborhood where school has been cancelled because of a big snowfall. There are several different things to do... sledding, snowball fights, ice skating, etc. And like the theme park idea, you want to have had the most possible fun by the time the day is over. But again, you only have so much time and so many possible actions.
Having just typed out both of those ideas out now, I think the theme park one is stronger, both thematically and in terms of the gameplay potential (managing time, money, movement, etc.), and I can picture a variable board setup with different attractions and a different park layout each time, which would be cool. And maybe each kid/player has a particular personality/background that gives them some special ability throughout the game... one kid is rich and gets more spending money to begin with... one kid has lots of energy so he gets an extra action each turn... one kid is good at talking his way into a better position in line for the rides... That kind of thing. Yeah, the more I think of the theme park game, the more ideas for it seem to come, which is usually a good sign for what to pursue.
Anyway, if you have any suggestions/comments, by all means, feel free to share them. I'd appreciate any input, especially at this fledgling stage.
