Story Ideas and Brainstorming

I waited until I picked an idea before posting this because it was very half-baked and I have commitment issues.

I find writing in general very difficult, especially fiction. I know what I like in stories and games but find it hard to implement myself, making it hard to commit to any idea.

• Noir film
  • The player is a detective solving crime

The player is a detective in a more noir-style game. Having minor visuals will be easier to implement with a more greyscale look. The issue is I don’t know how to write a mystery and don’t personally enjoy them myself. Plus I’d have to write multiple characters and keep track of multiple routes the player took. This could be fun visually but that can’t be the only plus as it’ll be a text-heavy game.

• Classic slasher
  • Player escaping killer

I’m a sucker for cheesy slashers, plus they follow a pretty easy formula. However, making this real text heavy might make it less interesting? Scary games kinda use visuals and atmosphere and I don’t think I’m a good enough writer to substitute that. Might come back to something horror related but not this.

• Apocalypse
  • Player surviving 

I just finished watching the TV series The Last Man on Earth, I found it a nice new tone for the apocalypse that wasn’t as drama ridden as The Walking Dead. Dumb comedies are fun, but it did kill me how little everyone took their survival seriously.

Thinking on thought it could be cool for a game in which the player could pick their atmosphere/genre of the survival game? They can dick around and try to survive while goofing off, or really dive deep into being serious and figuring out generators. The issue is, I don’t fully know what the end game will be? Like then what? How could this be fulfilling?

• Horror
  • Player being haunted

I like a more softer, psychological horror when it comes to text-based games. I think sort of a subtle reality shift and questioning what is and isn’t real could be interesting because the player wouldn’t be able to go back and re-read something that has happened and would have to rely on what the game says plus their memory. I just am unsure of how to ground this in any real setting?

Text adventure or visual novel??? Still unsure. A visual novel could be hard to implement with lots of different visuals, so I think a compromise could be made where it’s pretty heavy in the text but in a setting that makes sense, like online or on a computer etc etc. The visuals could also be more pixilated with a limited color palette to drive this home.