Since I'll probably never get a chance to make any of my own game design ideas, I wanted to share at least one simple mechanic I just thought of, and wondered if it was either in any videogames, or if there are any glaring oversights I might have made? I also want to know your ideas, so you can skip all of this and post your own game design idea:


Skill trees in games are usually linear, so certain builds rise to the top. Since I've been playing League of Legends a lot, I'm attracted to the idea of player-specific builds. The unique character themes are refreshing, but the overlapping skills are confusing.


I imagine a skill tree where all characters start in the middle of a hexagonal grid. Characters can spend as many points on a skill as they want, or move on to a new skill that is adjacent to the skill or spell currently being developed.


Various archetypes or skill types could be focused further from the center if they are more powerful, forcing some polarization and specialization to balance abilities, while still allowing players to “multiclass” with the penalty of being “spread out” on the grid. A build becomes a historical DNA of decisions that have shaped their abilities currently available to them today, with various schools of simplicity and complexity.


A better variation that instead of starting at the center, have the player start at the beginning of a pyramid, in that a player levels up one or more of a various set of a available spells based on the previous path taken, and that once they decide that they want to move on to the next stage, they can no longer upgrade those skills.


Almost like “growing up,” in that after a certain window is closed you have whatever you got out of that period and you have to move on. This would make level 2 meaningful instead of just the road on the way to level 10, because that's when you learned to fish, and if you hadn't spent your time with the old man learning that, you wouldn't have the epic fishing skills you have today that allow you to keep your character alive.


Your skills become a story and you can't “go back” and learn those skills again, so the early game can be made rich and exciting, like the beginning of a quest every time you play, because you know the first couple decisions put you so far. One of the keys is to recognize that edge pieces in the pyramid would be more specialized, while middle pieces would have access to skills from more specialized groups without access to the outer edges, providing a natural balance.


Does that seem obviously dumb to anyone else? Is it already prominent in a game yet? Would anyone like to steal my idea because I just want to know if it'd be fun. Does anyone have any ideas that they've thought of for games that they wish they could just see built?

It sounds just a little bit similar to the sphere grid system from FFX, but I might just be misunderstanding.

Yeah actually, I remembered that but it wasn't progressive, and their proximity to eachother wasn't really all that important. That was about expanding and reassigning skill points, and doesn't require the kind of decisions and definition that my system suggests.

Ragnarok did something kind of like that. At level 40 you can upgrade your level, doubling your hp/sp, gaining access to better skills. Or you can continue for level 50, but considering you are supposed to have better skills and double your current hp?sp its pretty hard. The benefit is you get 10 more points to spend on upgrading skills.

That sounds a lot like how Star Wars Galaxies was when it first game out, except the specializations were never set in stone and you were confined to a tree structure. But you could still go anywhere in the entire tree you wanted.

Also, I really doubt that the system you described would prevent people from discovering the best build.

I would like to see Valve release something like:

SUPER SOURCE ENGINE REMIX

Where they take the models and character skills for all their Source Engine games and mash them together. Mostly it would be like TF2 except you could also pick any of the HL2/Ep1/Ep2, Portal1/2, DOD:S, CSS, L4D2 (Infected too!) and do all the regular stuff like Capture Flags, Deathmatch, Payload, Survival, ect. I'm guessing it would be pretty damn crazy with Portal/Gravity guns. Most of this stems from my desire to defend against a zombie hoard with a sentry gun. Now that I'm thinking about it, it sounds like a slightly more structured version of GMOD.

Eve Online: Learn anything (provided you have the time).

Although, to be fair, they changed the skill system and I'm not sure how it works anymore.

That systems seems to be a terrible approximation of real life. Most skills, you can 'go back' and learn. Your own example of fishing; anyone can learn to fish, when they never have before.

Game idea: Skill trees are boring as ****. Skill trees, classes, level systems, and XP are all just a way of padding out the length of a game. It's important to have, and it's expected for the genre, but it's probably the least important gameplay mechanic in an entire RPG design. It's only the rare super-boring subspecies of accountant who thinks "I love this, raising the numbers on this spreadsheet is so innovative!"

My game idea involves "goats and eagles."

You see, you are the eagle. And your job is to throw "goats" (who are on a mountain) off the mountain. Like in nature. My idea would simulate the experience, including using a physic engine for the goat bodies. The "goats" would be resisting agents.

Not promoting animal abuse though because it doesn't have to be goats. Just the pleasure of throwing s*** off a high place. It would have to be "resisting" entities though because where's the fun of pulling down willing subjects?

Might be fun for at least 5 minutes.

I'm assuming Gold would make the sequel where the goat eats the eagle.

Then I would have a sequel to that where you are an eagle and you throw Gold off a mountain. And his girlfriend(s).

a NINJA eagle

I'm still waiting for an MMO with skill-based melee combat (e.g: Rune) where huge battles (e.g: Braveheart) take place. I want to set fire to a haystack & role it down a hill, setting my enemies on fire as they attempt to scale it. I want to see thousands of arrows soaring through the air, eventually causing the deaths of hundreds of my enemies. I want to chop off the appendages of my enemies & see them bleed out & convulse on the ground only to see the children of my countrymen (AI) finish them off with daggers & collect their purses & their gold-crowned teeth. Oh, & I don't want anyone to respawn until the battle is over & the next one begins.

i want a game where you argue with a face it tries to convince you to play it (the game) and if it does you lose and if it doesnt you win and you get 100 points each second you play and the goal is to get a hi score (like in space invaders)