Hey everyone!

Just wondering if anyone can help me, it seems like I've hit a brick wall in terms of ideas for a new Arcade/Puzzle game.
I'm trying to make a spaceshooter game but i want it to be one of those simple yet addictive games.
Just trying to think up an 'original' idea is really annoying me.

Stupid block.
Thanks!
Scott.        

Well, if you're thinking space shooter, why not think of turning some classic games into a space shooter? Maybe something like a simon in space. You get a list of colors and you have to destroy enemy ships in the same order, dodging the ones that would put you out of order.

Or you could do some kind of bejeweled twist. You shoot ships and they turn into space junk. Line 3 space junks of the same color up in a row and it destroys them. Fill the screen with too much space junk and you'll be crushed.

You could even do some kind of beat matching space shooter, similar to the colors but each space ship type when destroyed plays a sound. You have to repeat the notes you just heard by destorying the spaceships in the correct order within a time limit.

Nothing that original, but maybe one of those will help you out. Hopefully you've made a game before otherwise ideas aren't really the thing blocking you ;)

I actually had an idea for a space color puzzle game not too long ago, but I never really fleshed it out because I got distracted with the RPG I'm now working on.

The basic idea was to use these laser satellite things to shoot at objects on the map, be they obstacles or other laser satellites.  Every object on the map would have a certain color associated with it.  So for example if an obstacle was red, you would have to shoot it with a red colored laser to destroy it.  If the object was another laser satellite, hitting it with a laser would add that color to your laser beam.  So if you hit a blue satellite with a red laser beam, your laser beam becomes purple and can destroy purple obstacles.  And finally, hitting a satellite laser with it's own color "overloads" it, destroying it, so you can have satellites that act as trickier obstacles too.

If that helps you any, feel free to run with it, I'm probably not going to go any further with the idea as I'm really more into the RPG side of games.

A game I was thinking of a while back:

 

Ballistic Planets.

You place orbiting planets around stars, and you try to place them so that when you remove the star (and its gravity) they'll hit specified targets.

It could be really hard if the star dissapeared in a time limit, but easier if you could choose when the star dissapeared.

I think the game would certainly have a niche.

I love all the ideas!
If anyone would like to give any more that would be cool,
Some friends and I are thinking up some ideas too, hopefully we'll get a team set up.

Thanks again!
scott.        

Sythen:

I love all the ideas!
If anyone would like to give any more that would be cool,
Some friends and I are thinking up some ideas too, hopefully we'll get a team set up.

Thanks again!
scott.        

Again, ideas are pretty worthless (which is why I never have any trouble sharing mine). The more important questin is do you and your friends have game development experience? Have you guys finished a game before? Before you start down the original idea path, it's a good idea to start down the standard game development path to build up your skill base first.

Sythen:

Just trying to think up an 'original' idea is really annoying me.

Wow, thinking of original ideas for games is the easy part, in my opinion.  It's getting those ideas into game code is the annoying part. 

For me the hardest part was having the idea, coding it all, and finding out the idea sucked. :) All too often I find ideas that sound so good on paper, but then actually prove to not be any fun at all. Now you've not only used up one of your ideas (and thus have to come up with another), but you've spent implementation time on something you more-or-less have to trash. (Usually there is reuseable code in there so it's rarely a total waste).

I think a space shooter game filled with a selection of team-based game modes (CTF, Attack and Defend, King of the... Asteroid(?), Team deathmatch, Escort the Freighter, Juggernaut, etc) and a Counterstrike-style pre-round upgrade screen would be rather addictive. The technology for the graphics is pretty much established in existing game samples, so the only barrier is coding all of the game modes and coming up with a fun, balanced upgrade purchase system.

Another idea that I like is to have a selection of radically different ships and weapons to choose from.  Star Control is the best example of this that I can think of.  The weapons can include your standard guns, homing missiles, flame throwers, astroid launchers, or whatever else your imagination can come up with.  Each weapon should have their pros and cons and they should try to be as different as possible from the others while still remaining useful for completing the game.

TRACTOR BEAMS. I think a game where players try to constantly tractor beam each other around for points could be awesome.

JohnWestMinor:

TRACTOR BEAMS. I think a game where players try to constantly tractor beam each other around for points could be awesome.

That does sound quite fun.  I could see using a tractor beam to slingshot someone into an asteroid or something.  Or using it to yank a buddy to safety from an incoming missile he didn't see.

sounds like it would be fairly simple to implement using something like farseer :-P I like physics based games