Unique game ideas from flipping who you play
The fastest route to an original game is to keep a genre people know and swap the player's role. Dungeon Keeper (Bullfrog, 1997) made you the dungeon instead of the hero. The ideas below flip other genres the same way, and each one says why the flip is fresh.
Why flipping works
Players already know the rules of the genre, so they learn your game in seconds. Then everything they know is turned around, and that surprise is the fun. You keep a familiar base and get a new game, which is much easier than inventing a genre from nothing.
10 flipped ideas
- You are the dungeon. Place traps and monsters, then watch heroes try to reach your core. Fresh because you plan the run instead of playing it.
- You are the mountain. Climbers want your summit, and you play cards to send storms and rockfalls. Fresh because the level is the player.
- You are the shopkeeper who eats customers. Run a nice shop by day and feed by night without scaring the regulars. Fresh because the sim hides a predator game.
- You are the final boss. Heroes arrive in waves, and you choose your attacks and traps between fights. Fresh because losing means the heroes won.
- You are the obstacle. In an obby, you move the killbricks while bots or friends run the course. Fresh because you win when they fall.
- You are the ghost. Scare the ghost hunters out of your house before they trap you. Fresh because the horror is your toolset.
- You are the referee. Call fouls in a chaotic match while both teams argue. Fresh because the skill is noticing, not playing.
- You are the getaway GPS. Give directions to a panicking driver as streets close. Fresh because you never touch the wheel.
- You are the haunted house. Move doors and stairs to keep a family lost until dawn. Fresh because the map is your weapon.
- You are the zombie who wants back in. Sneak into the human camp without getting caught. Fresh because survival horror becomes stealth.
Play three flips on Roam
Roam has games built on this trick. Dungeon Core: Reverse Crawler says it plainly: the heroes are coming, and you are the dungeon. Be The Mountain is a card-based reverse tower defense where climbers want your summit. Eat the Customers is a shop sim: stock the shelves, smile at the fish, eat the fish. Roam is a free iPhone app, and you can type any flip above to play it.
Play it on Roam
Make your unique game with Roam
Pick a genre you love, flip who the player is, and write it as one sentence. Roam makes it playable on your iPhone.
Try: "I am the final boss of a fantasy game, heroes come in waves, I pick traps and attacks between fights"Questions people ask
What is a unique game idea?
One players can explain in a sentence but have not played before. Flipping the player's role in a known genre is a reliable way to get one.
Has anyone made a game where you play the villain?
Yes. Dungeon Keeper made you the dungeon lord, and Untitled Goose Game makes you the pest of a village.
How do I check if my game idea is original?
Search the one-line hook on Steam and the app stores. If something close exists, change one part: the role, the place or the goal.
Keep exploring
- Funny game ideas: make the controls the joke
- Video game ideas worth making, from tiny to big
- Horror game ideas: one rule, one place, one twist
- Mobile game ideas that play well on a phone
- Simple game ideas that still feel new
- Game name generator: build a name players remember
More on Roam: All Roam games Games to play, by kind