I think the last video game I ever played was Super Mario on the Nintendo 64 (that's showing how old I was uggh).

I think it would be fun to have a racing video game set in a world with physics similar to our own (gravity, friction etc) where you design and build some sort of jet from some set of contraints. Then you race your jet!

Probably you start with some basic configuration (with sensors, aerodynamics) but you have to make tradeoffs between weight, size, fuel capacity etc that impact the simulated responsiveness, speed, efficiency, range etc.

I didnt like Mario on the 64. I think mario is much better in 2d space :)

When I was a kid we played super mario kart constantly! A friend of mine got so good with bowser that we had to ban him from picking bowser as his character!

I dunno. Lately I have been finding myself pulled into more stylized games, like world or goo, little inferno, or the one i saw recently call fez.

Also part of the game people can build environments for challenges/races, maybe some are based on agility, others speed and people vote for which environments are the best/most exciting.

So there are a bunch of different aspects to the game play: building a ship, building the environment, designing a challenge, and competing in some challenge.

For me, I think that would be a very fun game, both to participate, and even just to watch.

What would you like in a dream video game?

The other game I played a lot as a kid was "Michael Jackson's Moonwalker" on Sega MasterSystem II hehehe

Lol speaking of building environments! When I was a kid I loved customizing DOOM II and Decent with my own graphics, sound, and maps!

For my dream game, I think it has to have a multiplayer aspect. Not so much online but more in person. Racing games have always been lots of fun. I would say something along the lines of mario kart but with less realistic physics. Real world physics are not fun! Things dont go fast, or high enough and also break too easily.

Maybe you're right with the real physics. I always crashed in Flight Simulator and you're right it's pretty boring to go so slow.

There was one game that came out around Apple System 9 came out where you were flying a spaceship and one person was the pilot, and the other was the gunner. I thought that was fun how you had a dedicated role, and it was multiplayer, but you were a team working together instead of opponents.

There was another game I played on early Apples where you build environments for these little stick men that were running around. If I remember I think you had to get them to navigate some 2D space by playing ladders or digging holes.

Building environments is a lot of fun! I think we've lost that in a lot of modern games no?

In my experience team games like that never work out :) You should take a look at Mario Kart Double Dash. Same sort of idea, a driver and a gunner. Not so much fun :)

Building environments is huge!! Have you heard of minecraft :) Or little big planet.

I hadn't heard about either of them. Big Little Planet sounds even more than what I was imagining! I'm tempted to get a PS3 just to play it but I'm not sure I can bring myself to buy such an ugly piece of hardware :-( I guess I could always hide it away somewhere...

I'm not sure now why I was making commentary on video games when I haven't played one for over a decade (oh! except dance dance revolution at your house party whee!!!!)

You could always get a psvita :) Its not a bad little handheld and it has little big planet.

Ohh! it's cute! :) also Wipeout looks fun too en.wikipedia.org

This game also looks like it would be fun :)

forrst.com

I have quite a few of these!

1. I'd love to see Nintendo take on the puzzle game category again and do something as groundbreaking as Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo with the Nintendo character roster.

2. An open world, never-ending quest style game in the world of Hyrule. You don't have to be Link. It's not an MMORPG. It would be something like an Animal Crossing, but with a focus on action, adventure, exploration.

3. More old school 2D side scrollers that are tough, but not impossible. Mega Man 9 was tough! I would love to see Nintendo take the lead on this.

I'm looking for the mainstream companies to pick up some inspiration from the indies. Games like Bastion, Sworcery, and Journey are masterpieces of games as (dare I say) art, and are visual and aural pleasures to experience.

@Justin: YESSSS to #2

A modern take on SimTower would be great.

It's an old Maxis Sim game where you could build your own tower from the ground up, adding rooms, condos, elevators, cinema's and so on!

Dream video game? The original Everquest with a totally new graphics engine but the exact same game, otherwise. Never been addicted to a game as fun as that one was.

A web-like MMORPG. Anyone can host parts of the world on their server, and create new objects with new rules (that sit within acceptable parameters). Exploration and beauty are on a par with action and adventure. And because the world is defined using a web-like API, anyone can create new game mechanics using the scripting language of their choice (again, within acceptable parameters so that nobody can ruin the game for anybody else).

I think that my dream video game would be one that lets you experience deeply integrated social aspects in-game a la World of Warcraft. I am an avid gamer and I have pretty much played all the games out there (both PC and console games) but none have even reached the amount of joy that I had when I used to play WoW. One of the reasons I found it so addicting was because of the community of friends (and even complete strangers) that you can interact with, share a quest, explore some random area or just share a few chuckles with. It is quite an achievement and the fact that so many people are still playing this game gives you an idea of how well made it is.

A game like WoW but maybe on a smaller scale. Well, the world can be as large (or larger) but tuned to smaller groups of personal friends would be awesome. I have always thought a private WoW server (or semi-private) would be tremendously fun.

A modern take on Civilization, starting in the 1930s. Choose whether you're going to start a newspaper, a food company, a TV station, etc, and try and grow (by buying companies, resources and influence) until you control the world's governments and have seen off all the other challengers.

Well that's just it, isn't it? A dream video-game. A game that literally takes advantage of the brain's ability to create and imagine.

I know it's far-fetched, but picture this:

When you close your eyes, a console puts you into a stable and controlled dream-state in which you are free to explore the world around you. Admittedly, it's not really a game. It's a console that would keep you from waking up until you wanted to.

This in mind, the brain functions faster while you're asleep. Remember the movie Inception? You could spend five minutes on a machine like that and it would seem like an hour. Plus, you get the benefits of sleeping while you play.

Just sayin, in my opinion, that would be way cooler than a Nintendo.

The canceled Agency game for PS3 is a prime example for my ideal game. Or rather, the structure and mechanics. I would like to have some sort of control of my main game experience synced across multiple devices, earning necessary in-game currency and experience. And, possibly experiencing some type of enjoyable gameplay too. Crossplay is beginning to do this, but only with sports/fighting games.

Take an RPG like Mass Effect and thr iOS game The Room's puzzle mechanic. What if you could have these intuitive puzzles/hacking games that would be optional but engaging if you choose to play them? And it nets you with desirable in-game content. Desirable being the keyword there.

I want to be fully immersed in the games I enjoy.

totally with kyle on this one — cross platform seamless experience would be awesome

also POKEMON 3D MMORPG

A Galactic Civilizations III with better planet management. Instead of tiles I would rather just have lists with limits on development maybe? I'm not exactly sure but that was my biggest problem with GalCiv II, the improvement management. Anyone else a fan of GalCiv II?

Or the a perfect 4x game in mind?

I think video games will be back to communicate each freinds. Real or Socialnetwork. Checkout hashtag #tw3ds Nintendo3DS game"Dou butsu no mori" nintendo.co.jp Smash hit in Japan.

Create own home, villege, fishing,make money,slow life,etc..
enjoying 3D life.

Dream video game? I'd love to see a video game written by Charlie Kaufman, directed by Christopher Nolan, and produced by Mark Darrah (Bioware) or Ken Levine (Irrational).

Would have to be multi-platform too (I guess)...

A modern, indie take on the tycoon games of old, back when they actually made sense and before the terrible 3D graphics. A mix of Sim city and Roller-coaster tycoon. (The reason for 2D graphics is the UI simplicity needed for a successful tycoon game, since the 3D UI often makes the game harder to understand without adding to the experience)

I still dream of a Wrestling Manager game - basically a wrestling game with focus not so much on the actual fighting engine but more on the show aspect around it. You would take the role of a stable manager and would plan story lines, develop characters and gimmicks, organize tournaments, feuds, transfer wrestlers from other leagues and all that. There would be some automatic dynamics between the different characters, real injuries to deal with, the challenge to keep your wrestlers and fans content etc. Basically a mix between Sega Football Manager, the classic WWE Games and the Sims and A Rockstar ate my Hamster.

I'd love to see a game that feels like a mixture between The Walking Dead and I am Legend. Something like an open world (maybe multiplayer) game that focuses on building your hideout, collecting e.g. food to survive (because you'd die without eating every few hours gametime) and discovering the world arround you.

I wanted to start up a Branch talking about "An open world, never-ending quest style game in the world of Hyrule" and invite everyone in here, so I did! It seems that people are interested in this topic...it was highlighted 28 times. So let's talk about this dream Zelda game!

branch.com

Minecraft already comes close, but I wish they'd make a sequel to Zach and Wiki - brilliant puzzle game for the Wii made by Capcom. It looks like it would be for little kids, but the puzzles are HARD. If you've played Braid, they're hard on that level of hard.

People are going to think I'm crazy but I'd LOVE a game where I start at my infancy and moderately grow into an adult who is destined to become a hero and engage in an epic battle. The twist would be the things you did as a child and teenager will shape your experiences later in the game, be it the person you fall in love with, if you choose to focus on romance at all, who grows to become your arch nemesis, how tough your opponents are...etc.

Like I love games where my decisions matter. It'd be a mix between Shenmue, Heavy Rain, Yakuza and the Batman Arkham series.

@Chris: Nope, not crazy at all! This game would be so fabulous. Imagine taking your idea and combining it with my open world Zelda idea (Branch here: branch.com) and holy heck! That would be a great game.

Shenmue is so amazing. I would love to see more titles in that series.

I agree - we've seen several games that change and respond based on the decisions you make (Fable, Mass Effect), and games where you evolve your character (sometimes literally!), but a combination of this with an open world would be neat. I think it would be a good pair with a game like Mindcraft where the world is totally open and randomly generated with each new game file. The result would be a game with HUGE replay value.

People are taking lots of these game ideas and experimenting with them in various combinations. For example, Ace of Spades is like Minecraft combined with TF2.

@Chris - if there's anybody to take your idea and run with it, I think it would be Peter Molyneux (Fable series & Black & White creator).

I'm easy to please: give me Final Fantasy VI any day. I'd love to see a remake a la Final Fantasy IV.

Speak of the devil: mashable.com

That's quite a hard one actually, so many cool things are still possible. For now, I'll say: A MMorPG with inf quests that syncs between consoles and PC's/Macs

well my dream game is solving murders just by using gadgets and equipment

I'd like a realistic modern warfare game where you're the guy back in HQ, watching over a small squad in hostile territory using satellites and other feeds, and you have to give them advice and intel. You don't actually move them around, but you can give general advice and orders based on the situation. It could just be choosing from a bunch of sentences on screen and moving a camera around in 3D space (drone?), or using Kinect/microphone to speak aloud.

I thought Full Spectrum Warrior on the original Xbox would be like this, and was excited until I saw my housemate moving the team around with the gamepad. The idea would be to have no direct control of the soldiers.

An update + third addition to the Mega Man Legends franchise. It's one of the only video game series I can think of rn that was absolutely flawless.

Hey everyone, thanks for all the cool ideas, I like hearing them so keep them coming :)

If you're new to Branch, when you ask to join a branch you have a textarea to enter why you want to join. This is just a sort of screening step to try and encourage conversation that stays on track - but it's only seen by me! You have to add your actual comment at the end of the thread so other people can see it.

Also, just dug up an old article I read last year about Game Developer Jonathan Blow twitter.com that I thought was really interesting:
theatlantic.com

These days I find myself mostly playing simple mobile games (lack of time, etc.). Few of the so-called "social" ones are fulfilling in a collaborative way. The social element is frequently the ability to see what your friends have done in their little corner of the world, but not really play together.

I'd like to see one that everyone has in their pockets, is able to pull out and engage with for a couple of minutes every hour or whatever, but that actually connects them to each other either in direct competition or collaboration. An experience and/or story deep and addictive enough that you always want to go up and talk to your fellow players about it in between sessions (whether at school, the office, or online).

How about an open world Gears of War with realtime strategy elements, such as zooming out into a grid like map view with an overview of the current known surroundings, and being a blue to order squads and supply drops to specific locations during battle. :D

Defiance is another dream of mine. It's a huge task for developers and show runners. But in the end, it'll be worth it IF it's an enjoyable show and game. You're invested in a show, and the plots are based on event outcomes in the game. That type of cross media functionality would be really neat. It's choosing your own adventure, but much more interactive.

@Brandon Galcon is a favorite of mine. I think it was one of the first cross-platform multiplayer games (e.g. someone playing on an iPhone can challenge someone on a PC laptop). I just helped fund the sequel on Kickstarter kickstarter.com

You can just launch this game and play 10 rounds in five minutes, and have a blast with it.

@adrian Thanks! I've played Galcon a little, but it's not quite what I meant. Should have been clearer: something persistent and continuous over time, perhaps turn-based. Could be a campaign or story, but not bite-sized gaming.

Ah, sorry, I skimmed, rather than read your post. Minecraft is a bit like that with multiplayer, even on the mobile. No story there, just an open world where you can build with other people. I personally haven't found anything like what you're talking about, but would definitely be interested in something like that also!

I must admin, I've funded every Humble Indie Bundle, but haven't had time to play all the games, so perhaps there is something out there, and I might even own it, and not know it.

I would have to say a game that would allow me to explore the whole world, Like GTA and SIMS mixed together to make a reality to explore.