Okay, so I recently joined out of my interest in learning Lua coding and making cool little retro games. But I cant think of a good game idea and/or concept. Can you guys suggest some?

I like taking old arcade games and seeing how many of the game mechanics I can re-create in PICO-8. Like Frogger or Tetris or things like that. Once I have the basic mechanics working, it's easier to add my own style or spin on the game to make it not just a clone of the old game.

Not to mention, @MBoffin, your excellent top-down adventure game tutorials. Those are full of tips and inspiration.

@dw817 had a nice little series about recreating old Apple II games going on. Search for "Applecart"

Starting simple is always a good idea. A vertical space shooter is pretty easy and there are many great tutorials out there.

Good luck!

@nosnibor now that you say it, I have a pretty good idea.

ZooM, a dungeon shooter.

Sometimes, you just need an epiphany while brushing your teeth

Thanks for the mention, @nosnibor:

I'm here ... but it's very unlikely I'll ever get back into Pico-8. The current project I have is over 1700 lines of code and I have unlimited coding space, true 2000-pixels across for graphics and 32-bits for color pixels (including Alpha). I can have up to 256-graphic planes laying on top of each other. Really more but that's the way I coded it.

I can also import and use any number of WAV, OGG, Mp3, BMP, PNG, and JPG and compile the whole thing to a single EXE.

So, yeah, Pico-8 was a fun run. But now I'm getting down to serious coding.

For you though, @Just_Takashi, there are a great many games out there. What you want to do is write the next new game idea that no-one has ever done. Something unique, original, easy-to-play, and hard to master.

Myself personally ? I'm very fond of turn-based games, RPGs, Tactical, and Puzzles. Not so much for the racers, shooters, battlers, fighters, and platformers.

This might get you started:
https://www.gamedesigning.org/gaming/game-ideas/

You can do it !