I never saw this in a game...

Okay, going along with creation and design, I had some ideas that I realized I've never seen (that I can remember) in any game before... some are ideas that are so obvious it's like "why the hell haven;t they done this yet?!" For example, my old idea that you spend so much time in a tunnel system, when you come out your vision is glared to almost nothing since you're not used to the sun, UNLESS you have and equip sunglasses! Like, DUH... why haven't I seen that yet?!

So my first big doozy is open world seasons. I was thinking about Skyrim, then Oblivion, then Morrowind, then the Witcher series, then every single open world RPG I've ever played. Sure, you want snow, go North, you want tropics, go south. BUT, the seasons never change!!! I'm not even sure at this point how many game YEARS I've spent ranging across Tamriel, but no matter what month it is, it's ALWAYS snowy all over Skyrim, it's ALWAYS dry and ashy in Morrowind, which is far enough North that as the months change in the game, it would HAVE to get colder, leaves changing color and all that jazz. Hell, I've seen a minecraft mod change seasons based on how many moon phases have happened! But a triple-A title with actual changes to the environment? Why the hell would we want that?!

Suddenly I think of Stardew Valley. Not an open world RPG, but a JRPG styled farming simulator I completely fell in love with. Sandbox farming, with quests and lots of UNIQUE people, and just TONS of stuff to do and find, while keeping your farm running... and buying seeds based on the damn seasons! Farming being almost completely useless over winter, making sure you have enough hay in your silos for your livestock to survive the winter, not being able to fish certain ponds cuz they freeze over. A simple tiny indie game can do it!!! Why not a huge open world RPG?! Imagine the changes to the game world... bandit groups moving south to stay warm, bands of kobolds holding up in caves to get out of the snows, prices going up for everything since trader caravans don't travel as much in the snow.... holy shit, talk about a living game world!

There we go... next thing you've never seen in a game?

Along the same lines, you have all these games that ask you for your location / time zone, but nothing ever happens with it. With games requiring online access (for updates), why not have a game that, when it is initially loading, it takes your location information and does something with it in game? If it's dark where you live, the game takes place at night. If weather conditions are currently experiencing rain, then in game it is raining. Have the game set up so that you can only do certain missions depending on the time and weather based in your real world location. Infiltration mission? You can only access that at 1a... but if it's snowing, you're going to leave tracks. Need to drive cross country? Better bring the jeep, because it rained for the past three days... the fields are going to be soft and muddy.

Interactive boring stuff! While waiting for a map/level to load the other day, watching the damn loading indicator spin and spin and spin, I was reminded of a game that went an extra mile. It was a Dragonball or Yugioh or one of those silly things, I believe for the PS2. A fighting game like a 3D spin around Tekken with awesome anime effects and lots of fight shouting. Fine great whatever... BUT, the game devs did something different. They knew loading each match was going to take forever, so they made a tiny bit of data that would load FAST, and it would start when the match loading started, so while the screen said loading, you had a little bean sprout or some damn thing. You had to spin both sticks on the controller as fast as you could to make the little bastard grow, and the person I was watching said something about a happening if you could ever get it fully grown. Silly, but something to do while waiting for the damn loading screen.

So, take it a step further! Have a timed tunnel race, or recreate retro game levels that will play during load screens! Remember the skiing game on the Atari 2600? Barnstormers? Hell, one board of space invaders... And with the new age of everything being connected, have a frickin high score list so there's even more to play for.

But we all know loading screens, we know they have to exist (unless specifically worked around). What else is boring in a game but COULD be fixed. What about credits? We have games that REQUIRE you watch the entire credits for special features, achievements, unlocking content, or even just simply to get back to the main menu. Some of these credit pages are getting crazy insane LONG. One game that required watching had over 30 minutes of credits. I'm sorry, but forcing us to sit through the whole thing to unlock the next difficulty or whatever has earned you a hefty fuck off! My idea? Interactive credits!

1. Fighting game like Tekken... you beat the main story, roll credits! Each main name, like the main design team, is a bad guy you have to fight. While you're fighting, all the names of those in his/her department play in a window on the screen. Now you're seeing who made the game, but you're still playing the damn game! You WILL remember the name of the storyboard artist because you're getting your ass kicked by him/her. Beat them, unlock stuff in the game.

2. First person shooter? Have an amusement park style target shoot, but the target bouncing across the screen are pictures, avatars, and names from the credits. Have the high score system, have an achievement, have a new unlockable gun, or map, or costume.

3. Tomb Raider style? Have another explorable temple, the credit names listed on the walls, but the main design team names are hidden behind puzzles.

Best part, you don't HAVE to tell people the stuff is there! Just have a CREDITS button on the main menu. They don't click because they don't care, they won't know the awesomeness that awaits!