Admittedly, I stole this idea from someone else’s post, but whatever.

1. Abandoned – Explore an abandoned building. You wake up in a hospital with no one else in the city (cf. 28 Days Later). You must abandon the grudges and doubts that hold you back.
2. Alone in the World – Crash-land on an alien planet. A plague wipes out humanity. Deal with social anxiety.
3. A Map Will Be Useful – Explore a labyrinth with many sites you must return to at various times. Explore a non-Euclidean maze (cf. Antichamber). Go out exploring, make maps, sell them in town.
4. Attraction – Puzzles featuring magnets (cf. Magrunner Dark Pulse). Go on dates. Come out to your parents.
5. A World in the Skies – A utopian city in the clouds (cf. Gunnm). Olympus/Heaven/the abode of the deities. Learn astronomy.
6. Beyond the Wall – A dystopian city that lets no one leave. An experimental ship that can travel to alternate dimensions. Building a mental wall to separate you from the rest of society (cf. Pink Floyd’s The Wall).
7. Build Your Way Out – You have fallen down a hole, but fortunately there are rocks and wood at the bottom. A platformer where you have infinite building materials but cannot jump. Escape the heat death of the universe (cf. Marathon Trilogy).
8. Can’t Stop Moving – Infinite runner (cf. Canabalt and many other games). Puzzle game where you slide blocks along ice. Command a band of desert nomads.
9. Chain Reaction – Puzzle game where you set explosives. Put chemicals together to form reactions. Escape from a serial killer who has put you in literal chains.
10. Companion – RPG where you are weak but recruit strong companions (cf. Pokemon). Recruit people to your party and date them. A book contains knowledge about everything (cf. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, The Junior Woodchuck’s Guidebook).
11. Day and Night – When night falls, monsters appear (cf. Minecraft). On this world, the sun is so hot during the day that all life must hide underground. Deal with depression.
12. Death is Not the End – Sacrifice and resurrect yourself to solve puzzles (cf. Planescape: Torment, and other games I can’t recall). Play as your descendants (cf. Rogue Legacy). Explore afterlife worlds and the celestial bureaucracy (cf. Dragon Ball Z).
13. Destroying Yourself – Tear off your limbs to use as weapons or solve puzzles. Kill clones of yourself to solve puzzles. Overcome addiction.
14. Expanding World – With each quest you solve, the world grows larger (cf. Legend of Mana). A society builds layers of cities upon their planet. Go on trips, meet new people and have your preconceptions challenged.
15. Growing Things – Farm (cf. Harvest Moon). Enemies that grow (cf. Creeper World). Breed and grow monstrous “things”.
16. Limited Capacity – Survival horror. Eating contest. Design circuits with various capacitors.
17. No Enemies – Kill all the enemies so there will eventually be “no enemies” left. Broker peace between warring nations. Fight your own murderous impulses.
18. One Rule – Each level adds a rule that you have to obey (I know there was a game that did this but I can’t remember its name at the moment). One ring to rule them all. Debate philosophical systems.
19. Power Supply – You are a robot that wakes up in a junk heap and must find power supplies to survive. Take control of a nation’s energy policy. Manipulate the nation for political power.
20. You are the Monster – You become a monster (cf. Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde). Play as a monster in a dungeon, facing heroes. You contract a disfiguring disease that results in you being ostracized from society.

I may be using one of these ideas, for whatever theme gets voted in, but you all are free to use them too.

Tags: LD33