What and what not?

As I've been developing the story for my game "Rebirth" I have come to the realisation that I'm creating a game that I would love to play myself. Is that a good thing though?

As a very keen gamer that has been playing for as long as I can remember, I grew up on platformers, RPG's and adventure games. I have huge love for

JRPG's despite their decrease in popularity this generation with western games dominating the market. My point is that, is my taste more acquired than that of the average gamer? Would my game idea be more popular if I just came out with a military themed FPS? It seems that the best selling games of the modern day don't offer much in way of originality. There are exceptions of course but it's not often that I can pick up a new game and experience something completely different to anything I've played before.

As a game designer do you try to make your game as original as possible and give players a new experience (hoping that it doesn't crash and burn and doesn't sell) or do you throw together a game that is similar to whatever is selling and cash in on the popularity of the games already on the market?

A game that I'm looking forward to is Dark Souls. Although, its release seems to be overshadowed by Skyrim's release, Dark Souls looks like a good game with a lot of original ideas and I'll be interested to see how well it sells. Like Ben has said in class a couple of times, knowing the current state of the market is important to being a good game designer.

It makes me wonder what the market will look like in a few years when we actually come to designing our own games because I know I'd rather make a game that I actually believed in and would want to play myself. I'd definitely want to put something new out there that could offer a memorable experience to some nerdy little kid out there somewhere.

In terms of the art direction of my own game, I don't really know yet. I have only ever pictured it one way but maybe that's something I need to give more thought.

My world has been inspired by many different things but in terms of how I wanted it to make you feel, there is a part of Final Fantasy XIII that takes you to a place called "Pulse" and to me, this world screamed EPIC!

Peace out