What makes a great mystery game idea?

A deep-dive into six factors that make or break mystery game ideas

Have you ever had an idea for your own mystery game?

In previous articles, I've written about dozens of ideas for new mystery games.

But the real problem is not generating ideas — it's filtering them down to the ideas that are actually worth making.

For example, from just this past year alone, I kept my own list of game ideas. Every time I had an idea, I'd quickly write it down (even if it’s only one sentence).

And looking at it now, I literally have over 100 different ideas for mystery games. Not just any ideas, but ideas that I think would be seriously fun to play (and fun to make). I have so many ideas that there's no way I could make them all — even though I desperately want to do so.

When I am talking about ideas, I'm referring to just a few sentences — like an elevator pitch — not an entire game design document of information. And when the idea is at such an early stage, when it is still so small, it can be really difficult to figure out whether or not it has potential, or if it's even the right fit for you.

Today's article, drawing upon the 15+ years of experience I’ve had making my own video games, is designed to help you avoid the mistakes I made and accomplish that goal. It’s also a sneak preview from my upcoming book on mystery game development.

So, here are 6 qualities every good mystery game idea has: