rragnaar said:It seems like the Shin Megami Tensei games, as well as the Persona games should be easy to pump out, but Atlus sure is dragging balls. I want an HD SMT/Persona game sometime this gen.
Oh what I meant is, what genres or game types should be easy to emulate aka copy like Saints Row/GTA etc.
I hate to say that any type of game is easy to make these days. Nintendo is bringing out Wario Ware: Make It Yourself, where you make the game -- that should be pretty easy for a developer 
I think that point and click adventure games/ phoenix Wright would probably be the second easiest to develop after FPS games. Both genres are pretty basic in format and devs have been making them longer than most other genres.
Now I'm thinking more about it a decent turn-based JRPG should be a snap as well. I mean RPG Maker was on the PS1! Why are tehre no good stories in JRPGS?
SteelAttack said:So, if not GTAs and Oblivions, which games would you consider to be difficult to make?
Probably a good fighter like Bayonetta/DMC ones with elegant, twitch reflexes but which are perfectly balanced in gameplay, pacing, reactions that sort of thing.
Or Shenmue.
I'm just talking, if you were to take the basic concept of a game and try and make your own version, what's easiest to copy and come out with a relatively good version?
Aspro, I think doing a Phoenix Wright game would be tough. The actual 2D and menus are easy enough but the way the script is woven like a spiders web shows some pretty genius planning there.
gamingeek said:I'm just talking crazy,
fixed.
or maybe the answer is...
heh.
angrymonkey said:gamingeek said:I'm just talking crazy,
fixed.
Feed my delusion.
People underestimate games like Wii Fit and Wii Sports
Sure you think it is easy once you see an example, but you have to think of it first. Plus both have also hardware that need to be developed in conjuncture, like the Wiimote and WM+ for Wii Sports and Wii Sports Resort and the balance board for Wii Fit.
SteelAttack said:So, if not GTAs and Oblivions, which games would you consider to be difficult to make?
Also probably a game like Metroid Prime, who has managed or even attempted to do a game like that? It's so meticulously designed you couldn't come up with something as good unless you were some sort of master level designer. The way the labyrinth style environments link up and weave and yet, are still easy to navigate is pretty impressive.
I wonder why no one can get off their asses and do a decent modern sidescrolling beat em up these days? What if the SFIV team did a Final Fight game with those graphics? I would get it.
in practice though i imagine it must be a bastard to get the balance all right (and few of them do) and it would require countless hours of play-testing and tweaking
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Listen to Wu-Tang and watch Kung-Fu
bugsonglass said:fighting games should in theory be very easy to develop. simple premise, done time and again. choose a set of characters, decide their move-sets, have them go head to head, endy story.
in practice though i imagine it must be a bastard to get the balance all right (and few of them do) and it would require countless hours of play-testing and tweaking
Some would be simpler than others. A Soul Calibur or Tekken must be f****** hell to do. How do you have all these characters with all these moves and animations and have everything react accordingly?
Streetfighter style would be easier.
angrymonkey said:Or maybe I'm still thinking too complicated. Maybe I should look up all the variations of robotron or frogger.Hey gg this site sure times you out quick sometimes. How can I have just finished a post and then have to login again?
That's what you get for calling me crazy
I get logged out when I run spyware scans but thats because its removing cookies etc.
angrymonkey said:Or maybe I'm still thinking too complicated. Maybe I should look up all the variations of robotron or frogger.Hey gg this site sure times you out quick sometimes. How can I have just finished a post and then have to login again?
Check your browser settings, I've not had that problem with Opera, Firefox or IE. If you have continuing issues post them in the Site Bugs stickied thread in the non-gaming forum and maybe we can figure it out.
On the topic, I don't really think of types of games being particularly easy or difficult. Where there are simplifications, though, I'd say anything with a grid is simplified, because you've eliminated the need for character physics, collision detection, even any animation at all, really. It becomes possible to represent the game entirely in text, and build assets on top of that.
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Tell me to get back to rewriting this site so it's not horrible on mobile
Easy to make Metrodi PRime 3.
*Leo casually ducks Vader's left hook*
Did anyone feel a breeze just now? Huh. Strange.
I always thought GTA games should be easy to make, make a city, get a half decent script writer to write some funny situations, slap on some recognisable real world tunes and you're good to go.
Not to say that it's easy to make but it's harder to make a game with meticulously planned level design and gameplay?
How about a stat based game where you dive into menus like Oblivion or fallout? Most of the game is very basic combat, talking to people and then clicking on objects to read menus based on stats. Apart from the large overworlds, it doesn't sound like something that should be hugely dificult to replicate.