Salutations, my dear cybernaut!
Here are some ideas that don't really constitute a game idea, or even a story prompt, but more like an idea for an experience.
- watching and maintaining a fireplace inside
- watching a thunderstorm develop, from an ambiguously safe place
- hurrying to a safe place as a storm comes
- in a galaxy with life, watching the night sky and listening to random radio bands, possibly by pointing an antenna towards a star or nebula. Doing it by hand like a backyard telescope feels very exploratory in particular. See also: my post on FM radio
- exploring a rocky shore at low tide, hopping from rock to rock, finding small fish, crustaceans, colorful algae, ephemeral ponds, and ominous caves. I particularly like a landscape that changes dramatically with a tide or a flood
- a dusty music room with various forgotten instruments. Reminds me of the old drawer of obsolete cables, storage media, and other electronics. It could work just as well with acoustic instruments and devices.
I throw most of those ideas into my stories featuring the Notes, and sometimes in other stories.
And I wonder: sometimes, do we need anything more?
Challenge-free games, like walking sims
Maybe you participated in one of those game jams where you have to play a certain amount of other games, otherwise your own game won't be eligible. The Ludum Dare is a soft example: an algorithm makes your game stand out if you give ratings to others.
Let's be honest: after a dozen editions or so, playing 20 games sometimes feels like a chore. There is even anxiety about wasting your time on the wrong game or taking too long or what if it makes your laptop overheat or something?
I don't have a proper Steam backlog but how stressful that could be too??
Right after the jam's rating period is over (and after touching grass both figuratively and literally), my best itch.io discoveries are often challenge-free games. Walking simulators. Bitsy experiences. Things that are not considered games by everyone. Sometimes I also replay the past jam's games that fits those criteria. I guess there must be some logic about lifting the pressure to do something.
Sure, you can stick a fishing minigame to your tide exploration, or you can augment your radiotelescope simulator with fucking roguelike deckbuilder gameplay or whatever. But I, as a hobby game developer, have a separate full time job and that is kind of where most of my energy goes those days.
So the best thing I can do in this role is to find how players in my situation can best recover that energy and creativity.
Oh by the way, if you want places that can be explored both by telescope and by walking, you can set it in a hollow sphere world. It's easier to make and to map than full 3D, and cooler/more original. You'll need to explain gravity though.
Confusion confucean conclusion
Games that aren't games are actually games.
On that note, keep looking around, and see ya in the next one!