but not playing…. programming !
Or not even that, ´cause first of all you need to make up you mind what the game should be like.
So, to give you a better idea what I am talking about: basicly I am a programmer and I earn my money by programming webstuff like shops, cms and individual programming. And basicly I like my job… BUT what I really would like to do is GAME Programming. Indeed I have read more books and articles on game programming technique than on any other topic I ever dealed with. The big point on games is that I first of all have to make up my mind on what kind of game type I would like to create. Over the last years I only spend poor time on really `playing` games as spending time with my lovely wife and beautiful daughter is ‘coolest game’ I ever played. 
But in former times I was ( and I am still ) a big fan of the x-com series ( Ufo – enemy unknown , Terror from the deep, Apocalypse, Aftermath ). Now you may guess that I am a big ‘alien killer’ but that was never what kept me playing that games.
Isometric map
Gameplay and Idea ← this is what I always liked about that games and what kept me in front of the pc and playstation for weeks and month. I always really liked this isometric game stuff so my first try outs in game technique were isometric. And I really was impressed how fast you get a payable isometric map by just using win32 API and it´s GDI Functions.
But technique and graphics is by far not enough when writing a game. This is what I had to learn as I wrote my very first own Browser ‘Minor Earth’ www.mounchain.de. This is just one of these games where you have to build up your own little empire by starting with only a small village. And than its building up resources and army’s and spreading all over the land. It took me about 3 years to get this game to a technical level that I could settle with. But than I realised, “It has all the features I planed, It looks as I wanted it to look, BUT it´s no continues fun playing it !! ARGH**** “. So what’s the deal ? The Game itself is ok but after at least 3 days of playing you may say to yourself “So, what’s next …. gets boring by now!” ( I may say that as it is my game ). It also misses the “love at first side” effect that a game should rally have.
So I really learned my lesson on this on, to really be sure that the game will be like a drug for ever player before even writing the first line of code. And this is where I got stuck for years no. “Missing a good idea”. I spend time improving my skills on 3D programming with DirectX and OpenGL just to be up to date if one day my mind spawns the ‘Perfect Game’.
Although I like the isometric look best I the game may as well be 3D ( where I like OpenGL best ).
And thats the point where I may just ask you to share and discuss some ideas for games with me.
So game story ideas are just as welcome as game playing ideas.
So far, out of my lazy chair.
uwi