So late last year I had an idea: What if there was a speedrun that required no user input and was determined entirely by RNG? So I made a game in Scratch based on this idea, then let it run on my computer extensively, bringing the WR from 6:13 all the way down to 3:32 in about a month.

Then recently, someone on Discord told me about Barney’s Hide and Seek Game’s “No Controller Any%” category, which was the same idea as my idle speedrun game, and was an effect of the game having an autoplay feature along with some RNG. Although it’s kinda disappointing how little variation there is in the times you get; apparently according to a guide on SRC, you can get the fastest possible time on an emulator in around 5 attempts. But still, it was interesting to learn that my idea has already existed since the 90s.

So yeah, just thought I’d tell this little story about how I can never come up with original ideas :p

[quote=Allisima]So yeah, just thought I’d tell this little story about how I can never come up with original ideas 😛[/quote]

I'm pretty sure there hasn't been a truly original idea in a few decades now. A few months ago I was bored and (completely originally) theory crafted an "ideal" wish from a genie to have save states irl like video games, with the ability to freely travel between them. When I mentioned it to a friend, I was quickly informed that someone else was already writing a book with the same premise.

In my opinion, nothing is ever truly 100% original and most of the new stuff you see are rather innovations (ie. new ideas that feed off/work on already stablished concepts). As creative as we might think we are, we are always inspired by something that already exists in some shape or form (or subconsciously drift towards the same conclusions somehow), and there's really nothing wrong with this.

In the case of your "no user input category" idea, even if there's already a game that put this idea to the test you could implement it for other games that don't have it yet. Sure, the category concept was already out there, but that doesn't mean you can't play around and put a new spin on it :)