
Ideas for Game Clones to Code (2012) - maastaar
http://inventwithpython.com/blog/2012/02/20/i-need-practice-programming-49-ideas-for-game-clones-to-code/
======
Zolomon
There is also
[http://www.squidi.net/three/index.php](http://www.squidi.net/three/index.php):

"This is my attempt to document three hundred different gameplay concepts of
my own creation.

These ideas are free for anyone to use."

~~~
kragen
Do we have any idea how many of them are fun to play? Or which ones?

~~~
PhasmaFelis
Quite a lot of them are good-looking ideas, IMO. Beyond that, I can't really
read the articles for you. Read a few of them and see what you think.

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dandelany
Great list :) I've been working on #43 (Dr. Mario) off and on for a little
while - it's my favorite old NES puzzler, better than Tetris IMHO. My (very
WIP) version is at [http://mrdar.io](http://mrdar.io) \- the single player
version is working OK (except for buggy mobile controls), now I'm working on
implementing multiplayer over websockets... It's a lot more challenging than
expected, but I'm learning a ton.

~~~
maastaar
That's nice. Thanks for sharing.

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newobj
Sure, you could clone, or you could bring the ideas on Game Toilet
[[https://gametoilet.wordpress.com/](https://gametoilet.wordpress.com/)] to
life instead.

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siddboots
Another one to add is Galactic Conquest, or Galcon [1], which is a sort of a
minimal real-time distillation of Risk. I had a lot of fun implementing a
version of it a couple of years ago.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galcon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galcon)

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gavanwoolery
#49 ("Zoop")
([https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7501LkNvyI&t=36s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7501LkNvyI&t=36s))
was a highly underrated game that is waiting for a clone (maybe one exists,
not sure). It may even be better suited for touchscreens (with a slight
redesign).

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teddyh
They missed the most obvious one!

[http://www.threepanelsoul.com/comic/on-brainstorming-
session...](http://www.threepanelsoul.com/comic/on-brainstorming-sessions)

Edit: I thought they missed Breakout, but it’s in there, but they’re calling
it “Arkanoid”. Bah.

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Razengan
I've always wondered, is there a wiki for ideas? Something like a Github-
equivalent for open-source drafts of video games, including standalone
characters, combat systems and anything else someone thinks might be cool in a
game.

Somebody make that, please?

~~~
danohu
Try the half-bakery: [http://www.halfbakery.com/](http://www.halfbakery.com/)

~~~
Razengan
I was thinking of Halfbakery as I writing my comment! I thought it had gone
defunct a few years ago.

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nickpsecurity
A bunch of these are on the list that Google's AI was aimed at. Makes me
wonder if they read it or there's a similar list they were drawing on.

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jackson_1
This is a great list, I've tried to order them into what I think would be
easiest to hardest, so you can work through all of them whilst improving your
skills! If you think the list could be ordered better let me know and I'll
edit it! 1:Pong 2:Minefield 3:Tic-tac-toe 4:Memory Puzzle 5:Simon 6:Sliding
Puzzle 7:Duck Hunt 8:Yahtzee 9:Maze 10:Typespeed 11:Lunar Lander 12:Nibbles
13:Katamari Damacy 14:Tron 15:Asteroids 16:Arkanoid 17:Flood It 18:Quoridor
19:Space Invaders 20:Scrabble 21:Othello 22:Quarto 23:Fruit Ninja 24:Tetris
25:Minotaurus 26:Connect Four 27:Missile Command 28:Abalone 29:Sokoban 30:Dr.
Mario 31:Kirby’s Avalanche / Puyo Puyo 32:Checkers / Draughts 33:Pipe Dream
34:Blackjack 35:Grid Lock / Traffic Jam 36:Last Stand 37:Bloxorz 38:Bejeweled
39:Zoop 40:Rampart 41:Mancala 42:Snood / Bust-a-Move 43:Scorched Earth / Worms
/ Gorillas / Angry Birds 44:Stratego 45:Risk 46:Go 47:Diner Dash 48:Fire ‘N’
Ice 49:Chess

~~~
jenscow
Ping isn't the easiest - it uses physics and is 'real-time'.

Simon is the easiest, in my opinion. Simple logic and graphics.

~~~
chipsy
I would say Pong approaches easiest for a game with real time graphics,
though.

The difficulty of Pong depends to a large extent on how real you try to make
the physics. For a classic-style implementation you flip some state bits to
test a different axis depending on movement direction; all angles of travel
and reflections are defined as a small LUT. The most complex test needed is
the paddle boundaries.

Relying on LUTs and state machines to avoid complex behavior is the cheat that
defines a lot of the early arcade games, however tutorials tend not to teach
them in this way and just immediately dive into trig functions and AABB tests.

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erikpukinskis
I love that none of these involve shooting people.

I love video games, but I honestly cannot comprehend how anyone enjoys being a
gamer these days... I watch a lot of game trailers, reviews, and gameplay, and
very close to 100% of the games being made seem to be about murdering other
creatures. I am often like "wow, that looks like a cool world!" but then I
never buy the game because the gameplay is just shooting people in the face.

Part of me thinks we should drop the pretext of a "Gaming Industry" and just
start calling it the "Murder Simulation Industry".

Of course of the same people who enjoy murder games, many like to eat food
from murder, and live on land that was taken via murder. I start to feel like
we _have to_ make murder a super normal, everyday thing like this otherwise
we'd have to face how violent we actually are, through our government and
corporate intermediaries.

Instead, we just crush virtual skulls and eat anonymous packaged food in our
safe little boxes and pretend we're kind, gentle people. Feels good if you can
keep the illusion up.

~~~
bmer
I play video games that involve murder, and I wish I could disagree with you,
but damn it...I can't. I happen to agree with everything you said.

I like to play a top-down 2D space RPG, which has lasers, missiles, and all of
that. I want to find a way to justify that playing that game does not make a
bad person. Is this possible?

Also, how would one make sense of enjoying movies like Star Wars?

~~~
kirrent
Yes, of course it's possible. Something like FTL is a fun, engaging game which
makes use of conflict as a game mechanic and driving force. The game wouldn't
make sense without it.

You might as well bemoan the 'violence' of chess with its military units and
combat. Video games can be enhanced through the use of violence just as books,
film, and board games can. You're not a bad person for enjoying it. You're
just a person.

~~~
bmer
But why bother using conflict as a driving force? Is it simply because we are
_used_ to conflict being a driving force in our entertainment for millennia
(e.g. chess being set in a military environment, even though it could be
completely abstracted away from it)?

~~~
kirrent
Why do I love the aesthetic of a Tarantino film? Because it's fun. Violence
and catharsis are powerful tools that can enhance a bit of media when used
correctly. They can be critical and make you feel negative emotions a la Spec
Ops: the line, they can switch off your critical faculties and let you have
mindless fun like Saints Row, or they can exist in a more abstract and
stylised form like in FTL.

Sure, all of these examples could be remade using other techniques to drive
them forward but I can't imagine them being as good that way. It's not only
because we're used to conflict being a driving force in entertainment. It's
also because it's such an effective driving force for so many types of
entertainment. For me, no other justification is needed for artist's to make
an artistic choice. Video games with murder are not only fun.

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CJefferson
jackson_1, if you read this, your posts are being marked as [dead].

jackson_1 posted a list of what they feel is order of difficultly, just giving
a little snippet:

1:Pong 2:Minefield 3:Tic-tac-toe 4:Memory Puzzle ... 44:Stratego 45:Risk 46:Go
47:Diner Dash 48:Fire ‘N’ Ice 49:Chess

I'd strongly disagree with this -- I'd prefer to do a Chess clone than a Pong
clone myself. While doing a good chess A.I. might be hard, doing something
reasonable is much easier than many other games on this list. Doing a good
enough chess A.I. to beat 50% of people is fairly easy if you use the power of
a modern machine.

~~~
detaro
FYI, if you go to a [dead] comment's permalink (click on the timestamp) you
should see a "vouch" link which allows you to make it visible.

