Your perfect game

I don't know that a perfect game exists. One that I think comes pretty close is Slay the Spire. It has a beautifully elegant and focused design, which you begin to appreciate as you play more and more and begin to understand the strategy better. It has a huge skill ceiling, and lots of room for you to learn. At first you may try to build a deck for synergies, or focus on what the best cards are, but as you play you discover that the "best" cards depend on your situation, and that success comes not from building towards a set synergy or by chasing the best cards but by building towards the challenges awaiting you based on the strengths you already have. At first, you may struggle to get through Act 1 without stopping to rest at every opportunity, but with experience you won't have to rest, or if you do, it'll be because you're proactively trading health for an even bigger benefit.

Another is Dishonored, for creating an amazing and intricate world, and for making stealth feel interesting, involved, and powerful.

first or third person singleplayer with a good story, many quests, openworld, NO boss fights ( i hate them), a fresh theme (hard to find), discissions are irreversible, growing up the character with backdraws during game - always linear leveling is boaring. Why not getting trapped, wounded or something else to loose a lot of everything, not to short, free way to get good or bad during game because the bad are the good at the end maybe, german language - good games with a lot of story and only subtitles is not the way i like to play, many many sidemissions with effects the main game - not playing a sidemission can block a way in the main game later and makes it harder, but not inpossible, to go on.

Metal gear solid 3: Snake eater i can past a lot hours playing it.

I am not sure how useful a survey like this is. All you get is information on some SG users, it's just not representative to people in general. Also as a creator it might be better for you to choose an audience, study those people and make a game for them. And don't forget to make something you'd also want to play.

Diablo 2 uncapped levels, more skills available to be used at a time.

Its been made already for me, its Dark Souls 1, whole interconnected world, w/o the ability to "teleport" at the beginning forcing you explore, oh and also challenging combat, not hard just challenging.

Perfect games are most often the ones made by developers who didn't listen to their players opinion about perfect games. ;)
Asking around instead of relying on your own vision is the best way to ruin the game (or any creation really), so if you're serious about gamedev you should take this into consideration.

Resident Evil 4 with a better last 3rd (Island level)

A roguelike crafting/farming game with turn-based combat 👍

I don't think there's one perfect game because there are many genres or varieties of games that require different things.
That said, what I crave is a complex RPG. And I think the future of RPGs will be all about world simulation.

• The world should be living and mutable. NPCs should essentially be AI with vices and virtues, desires and aversions, relatability and incomprehensibility.
• Time skips or accelerated time is essential for a satisfying experience of the world. Seasons change, people grow - politics, money, violence, love and tragedy.
• Your character should have its own desires and aversions which inform your gameplay.
• There should be less of a focus on combat. Combat mechanics in general have evolved greatly over the past 30 years, and that makes sense since it's like the "original sport", but there's more to experience in a world than combat. Why not greatly expand the mechanics of craftsmanship and harvesting raw materials, conversation, travelling and transportation (Death Stranding was nice enough to experiment in this direction)? You could view combat in some games as elaborate puzzles. Do the same for other things!
• Everything should be satisfyingly animated. Animations make a game way more delightful.
• Having multiple interwoven, mature stories of both tragedy and joy that are crafted and integrated into the simulation will make the experience memorable and impactful.
• The ability to be "set back" in ways other than dying. Losing a limb, going to prison, indentured into debt or even slavery. Have it affect your game.
• Have lots of text to read and ambient chatter to listen to.
• Have a great, dynamic soundtrack that works well with the ambient sfx. Windy, grassy plains; dark and rainy mountain paths; sloshing through muddy bogs; reaching the limit of some path during heavy snowfall; sleepy villages where most of the clatter is coming from the local pub, bustling towns full of market stalls; austere church cities with ringing bells; boisterous festivals in remote farming settlements.

Now if you go into the realm of multiplayer, the ability to commit large amounts of text is something almost all multiplayer games resist. Let people write and give them the ability to compose documents and notes.

One thing I've been imagining lately is the ability to have your character exist in a persistent world without your input. So in the example of an MMO, your character is doing things while you're offline, and if you essentially quit, you're just an NPC from then on. I guess that takes persistent resources on the part of the developer, but it's a nice fantasy nonetheless.

There are no perfect games but I love RPGs and FPS :)

Tetris

Something like Okami, where the story is strong, the design is very charismatic and unique, with cool gameplay features that are somehow fresh or unique. Also, a game that whatever ends up being, let's players decide how to battle, like in Okami, where players have so many options but you can pretty much use whatever you want!
Good luck on your game :)

GTA V without all the swearing and arcade driving
Resident Evil 3 without all the swearing and feminism
Assassins Creed Odyssey without all the propaganda, atrocious leveling mechanics and watered-down gameplay.
Need for Speed back in Europe...with all the beautiful scenery, and no more Michael Bay nonsense.
...you get the idea.

I would really like a game that does not pander to the ideas of an oblivious, unappreciative and propaganda riddled world.
I play a lot of older games because those were the days developers let their creative juices flow and each game was a unique treat in its own way, rather than a competition in cash-grabbing conformity.

Okami, Metal Gear

Top games
1-Witcher 3 Wildhunt
2-God Of War
3-Dark Souls
4-Red Dead Redemption 2
5-Bloodborne
6-Devil May Cry
7-Resident Evil
8-Bioshock Infinite
9-Batman Arkham Origins
10-Hunt Showdown
11-World Of Warcraft Battle Of Azerath
12-Assassins Creed Etzio parts
13-Prince Of Persia (like it cause im a persian but the game is a lie)

• Well-written, compelling story
• Exploration, metroidvania-style (lots of hidden things, some which you can't access until you have new equipment/skills)
• Fast-travel options. Having to go back to an area for those hidden things mentioned above shouldn't be aggravating.
• Tight controls (wonky controls will ruin a game in a hurry)
• Fun gameplay!
• Achievements (I'm an achievement-hunter!) Difficult is fine, but frustrating-to-get not so much.

Tomb Raider 2013 scratched all of those itches for me. I absolutely adored it, and the Arkham: Batman games are amazing, as well.

I loved Donkey Kong Country because of all of the hidden things to find, and fun gameplay.

DK64 was frickin' amazing to me at the time, and I still love it to this day. The story was fun, the gameplay was awesome, the way the characters each had abilities and you'd have to switch out to get to different areas; it all just worked.

Ori and the Blind Forest was really good, but frustrating gameplay. The gorgeous graphics really added a lot.

ENSLAVED: Odyssey to the West could have been much more, but I still absolutely loved it. The story, the graphics, the gameplay, the challenge of getting all of the baubles...

Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice was amazing because of the story, the graphics, and the care the devs put in to exploring mental illness. Just amazing. This is a game that didn't need collectibles.

The Swapper was amazing because of the thought-provoking story and innovative gameplay. Even the fuzzy-ish graphics added to the ambiance.

If you want more examples of games that did it right, let me know... I just know that's not what you were asking for. ;)

Auntie Pixellante said it best: we should make the games that we want to play. That said, I understand the value of something like this, because you can get some great ideas from others.

For me, it'd be Action-Adventure; something like the first Darksiders. Keep in mind that I'm being extremely fussy and an unpleasable jerk, because you said perfect; I know this is borderline impossible, but if this is my fantasy game, then this is what I want:

• Combat akin to Devil May Cry. Not Dark Souls, where you have an asthma attack after every few swings; not God of War, where you block and dodge more than you attack; not Bayonetta, where the hitboxes are sketchy and instant-death quick-time events come out of nowhere; I want wild, unbridled, adrenaline-pumping action. Of course, it'd be great if it could be balanced to accommodate multiple playstyles, but I want something where it's okay to be fast and aggressive. And jumping; I want to be able to jump on command.
• Along those lines, I want a variety of weapons, all of which are viable in their own way. Swords are lovely, but what about gauntlets, battleaxes, halberds, nunchaku, kali, a bat with some damn nails in it; get crazy! And that brings me to...
• An on-the-fly weapon forging system. I'm not talking about taping a knife to a broomstick to make a spear, but reusable objects and materials that you'd find along your journey. You'd find a thing that allows piercing or slashing, or a thing that allows heavy or crushing weapons, or a thing that increases the potential length of your weapon, and with those abilities, you'd make a weapon materialize, but could later break it back down to make a new one. For example, with just slashing and no length or anything, you'd have a dagger; get the heavy ability, and you have a kukri; get 2 lengths on that, and you have a heavy glaive. You could get better materials to make it progressively stronger, like starting out with bronze and working up to... I don't know; orihalcum. And colors; be able to make your weapons any color you want.
• A class system, where you can switch on the fly and learn new skills, a la Final Fantasy 5. Since it's Action-Adventure, these could work not only as combat skills, but also something to help you reach new areas or discover secrets.
• As an Action-Adventure, it's probably going to be broken up into different areas, each with their own dungeon(s), and instead of having to do them in a certain order, for fear that one will be too easy or hard if done at the wrong time, or for affecting the precious story, just make them contain equal, but different challenges; you can keep things more-or-less non-linear that way, and give the player freedom of exploration.
• Speaking of exploration, I want it all! Land, sea, underground, undersea, sky, and even outer space! Make the world big enough that you can really get lost in it, but not so big that you'll never possibly see it all; I don't need it to be the size of real-world England.
• If you're going to go all of those places, you're going to need vehicles; make them fun! Not many Action-Adventures give you a fully customizable motorcycle, but that would be so cool! Custom-build a submarine; pimp out an interstellar cruiser!
• Moving more into the game's world, make it visually interesting; there are more colors than green, brown, gray, and blue. And it doesn't have to look like Earth; give me something that I can't see just by looking out my window. Grasslands and typical biomes are even fine, so long as you do something interesting with them. I don't need to play in YET ANOTHER "World much like our own... except with WAY more robots and zombies and ninjas and stuff".
• Visual customization for your character: be able to style and dye your hair; play dress-up; accesorize! There should be even more clothes in-game to buy, with in-game currency, of course. Also, jewelry, maybe? I've always been bigger on clothing than jewelry.
• Coming right along to the story, if you're going to focus on it, make it something of worth. What I mean by that is that it shouldn't be about just a bunch of stuff that happens, and it shouldn't be about something really obvious. We all know that war is bad; we all know that racism is bad; even existentialism is starting to strain for new ideas. There should be some kind of lesson to come out of the story that really teaches them something, or at least gives them something to think about. Soul Blazer, for example, was kind of a hot mess of philosophy, but most every thing that talked to you had something for you to really think about. They weren't all winners, of course, but it was a neat idea. So, you can do that either through random NPCs, or through the general plot.
• When putting that plot together use your characters. Characters should be likeable and believable, of course, but even the lousy ones can be used to your advantage. There were characters that I couldn't stand in Celestian Tales: Old North, but they were often used to set up an interesting counterpoint in a conversation, even if just to say that this is not how it is, and here's why. Backstory is important, too; I identified very strongly with Cecil Harvey from Final Fantasy 4, Terra from Final Fantasy 6, Nina from Breath of Fire 2, and Asellus from SaGa Frontier, and aside from Cecil, that was almost entirely because of what they've been through, rather than what kind of people they are.
• Give it a unique style; it seems like most every game is dirty and gritty, anime, or Atari 2600 with eyes. I also like games that play it straight, instead of being goofy.
• Music should be something that you notice is there; it should fit the mood of the game, most importantly, but it should also be something you want to hear outside of that context. Orchestral music is usually bland and boring, though there are notable exceptions.
• Sound effects have to do their job, and make actions feel satisfying, but it's also nice to have one or two that are unique to your game; Zelda's got that da-da-da-DAAAAAA, but even Paladin's Quest has that weird noise that chests make when you open them.
• Honestly, I can take or leave voice acting, but I think most of us know what makes good or bad voice acting; you've got your Liam O'Brien playing a raging psycho, and you've got your dark souls being filled with LIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT! For me, I love a strong female lead with a deep, matronly voice.

Thank you for giving me the chance to be a demanding, impossible jerk. ❤

My perfect game is this: I put on a suit made from 100% Italian dog leather, tailored to my specifications by the ritziest tailors in Italy and Savile Row. The fit is just fantastic and the materials are second-to-none. Then I put on a pair of the most expensive headphones you can buy from Hammacher Schlemmer, they're noise-canceling by Bose, and they are playing the fanciest most expensive music you can buy. "World Music". Then my real fantasy begins. A game about an all-expense-paid safari hunting trip where I get to kill my own elephant. There is nothing more luxurious, nothing finer, nothing more fun than to take on an elephant in the heat of the hunt, just you and nature's finest beast. The tamtam (native helper) whips a stick at the tall grass, back and forth, imitating the sway of the elephant's trunk, to entice my prey out into the open. Then I see him, the majestic creature, with its giant grey head. The elephant becomes incensed and charges. I push the tamtam out of the way and it's only me and the elephant now. I quickly raise my golden .600 Nitro Express handgun with both hands and take aim right between her eyes. And as soon as it all began, with one pull of the trigger, it's all over - the great beast has been bested by a great new elephant hunter. That's the reason I do what I do, that's how I stay motivated, why I work so hard because I dream of a game where I get to kill an elephant with a handgun while wearing a suit made out of dog skin

Stardew Valley. I truly believe it's a game everybody can enjoy. ♥

Return to Krondor (but with updated graphics and controls)

I'm taking up game development

If you really are new to it, I would suggest not trying to make the "perfect game".

Do yourself a huge favour by not biting more than you can chew and start with something simple - being ambitious is good, but trying to take on a project that's very hard and complex will leave you out of breath, and you'll likely give up barely after getting started. Start small, learn from what you create, and once you're confident you have the ability to start working on something bigger, plan it out then go for it.

I'm only saying this partially from experience (I've made a few basic unfinished games/projects, all of which I've kept private) but I'm just repeating what mostly all game developers have said in the past, since by the sound of it, you seem to be new to game dev and also looking to creating something rather impressive.

If you're just trying to get an idea of what's enjoyed by people though, that's cool. Here's one thing I really enjoy:
Games (possibly dungeons/rogue-like) where you constantly progress a bit further every time thanks to gear/perks/upgrades. Basically I would love games like Enter the Gungeon if it wasn't a perma-death kind of thing and you would get to either keep weapons or earn something that gives you a significant boost in your next run. Other than that, pretty much any games with the same "grow in strength with every little bit further you go" mindset, including most RPG games, are very fun for me.

eroge

Long cRPG with choices that matter, good combat and no filler quests.

So like:

• Mass Effect combat
• stats / class checks like in Shadowrun or some detailed isometric RPG
• no useless crafting system like in Dragon Age: Inquisition
• no fetch quests like in Witcher 3
• interesting companions
• ending that is culmination of decisions made thought the game (especially with small touches like in ME2 suicide mission and whole Normandy thingy)
• easily moddable, so it's possible to remove some things that would annoy me