Game design journal ideas

So I LOVE game design, and have had a few games rattling around my weird brains, so here's me doing some design notes and ideas.

Inspiration: Jetfighter 2, Sky Rogue, Zone 66

Name: No idea, Jet Rogue for now =D or Zone 69

Core idea: Semi-Technical flight sim with a tiny bit of crunch, optimized for keyboard play ala Jetfighter 2. ((Though a modern console controller could be fun), where there are a variety of islands with anywhere from a couple to dozens of targets to destroy, air and ground.

Jetfighter 2 still is a fave game of mine, but I'd love a Jetfighter 2.5. Maybe punch it to 640X480 ^.~ (OK, thinking vector style flat shaded polygons). Ensure all mechanics do things (WTF, does flak do ANYTHING?! Same with the jammers. And bomb bays don't seem to modify stealth) perhaps a simple stealth/heat mechanic.

One fun one is you carry a bit less weapons than Jetfighter 2, but expected to do a few sorties back and forth. Also, gun lead targeting, cause holy feck I have gotten 1 combat gun kill in 20+ years of play, it's just STUPID hard. Also make the planes a touch less aggressive, dogfights are just 'loop loop loop' wildly.

Sky Rogue is almost this game actually, just a bit less technical, and no gun targeting lead >< so again guns are kind of a pain in the ass. Also if I did go that way, afterburner boosts should always come with the plane =D also flares and chaff =3

I want some fun carrier landing time but in a nice 15-25 minute window of play like both games play.

Probably NOT anything I'd make, but fun to muse on design notes of what I'd add/remove/tweak of other game designs. I do need to start using my Zenva classes.

Magic Tactics
See, I told you I'm addicted to tactics game. So this one's a mishmash of things, and won't go crazy deep into design as that could get spammy, but I'm gonna do some rambling to show a bit how game design goes in my weird brains =D

Generally it's "ok, imagine playing it, what do you do."

So, a big grid map probably. miniatures maybe. I did have an idea of miniatures in mind, and now 3D printing makes that actually probable (neat!) But options for paper counters. I'm trying to sort of simulate a magic the gathering match in spirit, but if played in a physical world.

First thought was, summon base was a slow moving crystal, and each faction had a cool design (like bronze blades around a ruby, or rose bushes surrounding an emerald. Yes, this is the 'respawn crystal' of Bottomless Gorge game idea, but had this game idea aroudn 2001?

You then summon monsters from your hand. If i was doing it now, I might have something like 'draw 7' 'you may exile cards from your hand to add to mana, getting 1 mana (or more sometimes) of the color identity on it. Probably 1 a turn, but who knows, I could see just dumping it all a turn and a bit of 'more small things, or one big thing.

If I redid this a bit now, I might skip the crystal, and just stick your summoner out there. You still drop in troops around you, and some of it is a 'hang back' or 'try and push aggro and disrupt them'

Otherwise, try to ensure plenty of counterspell/reaction abilities to keep play interesting. Probably a 'summoner phase / monster phase' turn play style. One quirky thought is even using playing cards with a table for what the summons do >.> Which means you could use some of the deck for RNG rolls too.

((Heart = Creation Magic/green, Spade=Destruction/black mana, Diamond=law/white magic, club=chaos/red mana? I'd need to look into what motifs and symbology each symbol has,. Plus thoughts of say, using a french tarot or alternate country card suites))

Otherwise plays out like warmachine, trying to KO the summoner to win primarily. Adding objectives might be neat too, plus group play fights could get wild. Really try to get that magic 'mess with reality/play field with abilities' vibe going too.

Abuse

Yeah, I just wanna make my own Abuse =D that game was sweeeeet. For those who've not experienced this beautiful jank, it was a fast paced platformer with mouse aiming for shooting. It wasn't perfect, but it was very interesting, lots of quirky weapons. It LOVED monster closets worse than Doom3 though, good lord you just constantly went "ok, 3, 2, 1, *alien scream* (ALIEN SCREAM noise plays at stupid high volume right on cue) cause every 5 seconds the game dropped a dozen aliens on you.

For thoughts on my game idea: WASD movement, arrow aiming platformer. Maybe a mech with some jumpjets to give a touch of jumping safety and explain the 360 firing silliness. Mech means a few more mechanics like heat/energy/shield are potential, and other weird mechanics twisting potential

This one I MIGHT eye making with one of the Zenva tutorials, but probably not fully polished. A tile based level editor could be fun.

Omake: I was thinking about track creation tools and the fun of slotcar track assembly. A slotcar track like assembly oif a box full of pieces you drag and drop for a quick little racing game could be neat. Bonus points if you get it real toyetic, double bonus points if you add the flint and sandpaper spark shooters on guard rails like I actually had. Oh 90s toys, never change!

But just some sort of road rash/custom track assembly racing/combat(?) thing could be fun.