Any Cool Ideas for new Gaming Fansites?

[Ascendancy]

Myself and a buddy recently launched a video game network called Bodhum. We want to build a collection of digital products(websites, mobile apps, fansites, video playlists...) and launch them all online as resources for gamers.

The problem is that we don't have a ton of ideas to move forward! I'm very comfortable coding with HTML5/CSS3/JS/PHP/MySQL so it's no problem building a website. We also have plenty of space on our web servers, and we do have some extra money to purchase domain names.

But ultimately we are really short on content builders. Neither me nor my friend are super knowledgeable about many game series, even Pokemon. So we want to work with passionate gamers who may want to launch their own website but need some help getting online... we can offer practically everything to get a new brand online!

If you want to share some ideas I'd love to hear anybody's opinion! Either post in this thread or shoot me a PM if you'd rather chat in private. Additionally if e-mail is a better alternative you can get in touch via the Bodhum contact form.

cheers!

[Ascendancy]

Oh I'm thinking this may belong in programming/dev not web design.. maybe a mod can correct this?

it may be fine in here actually

[TurtwigX]

I'm not the person with the best ideas, or good ideas, or ideas...
But I know a lot about the Mother/Earthbound series, Sonic, and Zelda.

[Ascendancy]

Originally Posted by TurtwigX

I'm not the person with the best ideas, or good ideas, or ideas...
But I know a lot about the Mother/Earthbound series, Sonic, and Zelda.

yeah that's huge I was thinking of building an Earthbound fansite. Immediately I think of Earthbound Central but I know we could build a very similar resource. Maybe even launch forums and stuff..

if you have time brainstorm some cool domain name ideas. like ******.com that would work with the theme of Earthbound. that seems like such a great series... never had the chance to play except for emulation. although I do have a SNES! Maybe one day I can find the $100 to purchase a copy on eBay

[TurtwigX]

Originally Posted by Ascendancy

yeah that's huge I was thinking of building an Earthbound fansite. Immediately I think of Earthbound Central but I know we could build a very similar resource. Maybe even launch forums and stuff..

if you have time brainstorm some cool domain name ideas. like ******.com that would work with the theme of Earthbound. that seems like such a great series... never had the chance to play except for emulation. although I do have a SNES! Maybe one day I can find the $100 to purchase a copy on eBay

Yeah, those carts are unreasonably expensive XD
Maybe for the name you could use something like a special place in the series, like Magicant, or Chaos Theater? Maybe even Tanetane Island?

[Quadcentruo]

Maybe this could help you out.

A small guide to game design by me    

In designing a video game, you have to ask this question first: What genre of video game do I want my game to be? RPG? Shooter? Puzzle? Platformer? Or even a mix of multiple genres.



Then it would be a good idea to find very successful games in that genre and play them to find out what made them so successful. Doing this can generate some ideas into your mind, but do not take an idea directly off the game you've just played. This will make your game seem less original (and everyone loves originality).



At this point, it would be a good idea to design a main character. What kind of person is he or she? Is he/she a very outgoing person who loves to help others? Or is he/she a bit of a hermit and prefers to stay away from others? Maybe even something else.



Now you should be working on other characters and the story. If you can make characters have some sort of back-story, it will be that much easier to make the plot of the game. You need to decide who the antagonist is and what the plot is. You also need to think about how the main character will go through changes throughout the game (this is called "Character development"). The best stories are usually ones with a deeper meaning behind it, have a plot twist or two, and maybe even a few cliff hangers that make gamers want to keep playing your game to find out what happens to the main character. (Note: It's best for me to mention that everything I said so far has been mainly leaning towards RPG development. Other genres may need to have different designs)



Now for technical parts that essentially make the game what it is. Game mechanics makeup how the game plays out. This would include things like health, combat, skills, physics, movement, and other fairly basic things. If you make a game that has players engaged in combat at anytime, you need to make a formula for damage, which requires health stats, defense stats, offense stats, and maybe a couple of other stats (depending on what kind of game it is).



Lastly would be music. The best music in a video game is one that fits very well into where it starts playing. For example, if you design an area to be a creepy place, the music should sounds ominous and give players the idea something horrible is about to happen. This keeps players driving and adds a very strong effect to a player's thought process. But that only works if the music sounds good too. If you have fitting music, but it doesn't sound good, it isn't very effective when it's played.