While there are games such as upcoming titles like Forspoken and Hogwarts Legacy that focus more on combat and story progression, there are many others out there that concentrate on boosting player creativity. Not every game needs to be a long slog against thousands of enemies, after all. Some rely on player imagination rather than having them shoot everything in sight.
The best kind of games made to increase creativity are the ones that offer the most freedom for players to express their imaginative side. Games like Minecraftand Terraria offer an almost endless amount of building options, while other games like The Sims have massive communities that can share their own mods with creative, yet realistic gameplay. The more ability that players have to create, the better these types of games are.
Minecraft
Minecraft has easily become one of the biggest video games of the century and shows no sign of slowing down anytime soon. While the game does feature a good deal of combat, much of the focus is on building and creating along with defense against various monsters.
The game provides a fantastic way to create monumental structures and challenges players to be both creative and strategic. Not all materials are as strong as others, and there are many threats on the map that could be problematic, forcing players to become more creative and strategic in their building and crafting. Minecraft remains a comforting game to play, and the amount of things that can be built is beyond incredible. There seems to be an almost endless space in a constantly forming world, offering more and more materials for players to use in their own creations and bases.
Scribblenauts
Puzzle games that require the summoning of various objects to complete them usually only have a limited amount of things that can be used. But in Scribblenauts, that is far from the truth. To solve the puzzles in this game, all players have to do is type what they want to use, and it will appear. Not only that, but players can also use adjectives to modify what the objects look like.
The only limit to this amazing puzzle game is imagination, as there are thousands of different items that can be formed, all with an almost infinite amount of different looks to them. There's almost nothing that the game can't create, which makes it extremely creative and unique. There aren't very many other games out there like the Scribblenauts games that allow players to make whatever they want just by typing it in, which leads to people being able to be as creative as they want to complete the game.
Terraria
At first glance, Terraria may seem like a 2D platform ripoff of Minecraft. And, while both games focus on mining for materials to build things like bases, there are a few key differences between the two games that sets Terraria apart, such as a focus on attracting NPCs to player bases to help acquire more powerful materials and the best magical weapons available to use in building and combat.
However, the game is able to stand on its own as a great game to help with boosting creativity. The crafting tree to make some of the game's most powerful items is massive, with multiple ways of getting these items out. But it takes a lot of strategy and a creative mind to accomplish everything needed. Plus, with the ability to create mods for the game, the variety of gameplay allows for even more creativity and fun to be had.
House Flipper
As the name of the game implies, House Flipper is a simple simulation game inspired by the act of "flipping" houses in order to get them to sell - only in this game, it's the players themselves that are doing the renovating. The renovating comes through painting, laying down tiles, and even knocking down walls, making it a true real job simulator.
While there are many games out there that involve fixing houses or cleaning things, House Flipper takes the full experience of flipping the house and puts the power into the player's hands. Every choice that can be made to fix up the house is done by players. Nearly all the houses can be modified and renovated in highly creative ways, and with multiple different DLCs that can add gardens, pets, and luxury homes, there are plenty of possibilities to be explored.
Brick Rigs
Brick Rigs seems like a LEGO game, but isn't associated with the franchise at all. However, that doesn't mean that there's no creative aspect to this popular video game. In fact, there are plenty of things that people can do to express their creative sides in this sandbox game that gets everything right.
The game offers multiple different vehicles that can be modified in various ways, including adding weapons and rockets. Not only that, but players can create their own vehicles and buildings for use in one of the various worlds that the game offers. Gamers can both drive and fly in vehicles that they make, and can even fight off a zombie apocalypse in one of the game modes. Many have found creative ways to play various custom mini-games with different vehicles. New updates are always coming and can contain even more opportunities for fun, destruction, and imaginative building.
The Sims
For those wanting to be in charge of their own simulated family, controlling what they do and how they act, the games in The Sims franchise are perfect to get. Players can create their own Sims and give them incredible, high-paying careers, while also helping them through life. They can also make them do almost anything they want, even if it's detrimental to them.
What really sets The Sims apart from other life simulation games is just how much the franchise has expanded over the years. There have been multiple different games, each with a large amount of both DLC content from the game developers and custom-made mods from the community. All these expansions have grown the world of the franchise exponentially and offer new and unique ways to give the Sims in the game the best - or worst - lives imaginable.
Jackbox
The various games within every collection in the Jackbox Party Pack franchise all contain some level of creativity within them thanks to wordplay or drawing skills. It helps that all Jackbox games are best played with friends for more fun and creativity. Many games, such as Quiplash and Survive the Internet, require a creative prompt or phrase to be formed by players. Other games, like Bidiots and Tee K.O, let players draw pictures and pit them against one another.
Either way, gamers need to think outside the box in order to come up with the best or funniest answers, which often win the round. Even the fact that the other players and audience members vote on the winning answer gives a lot of player participation and creative liberty to the games. With so many to choose from in each pack, players looking for a fun and creative time will not be disappointed.
Garry's Mod
While, at first glance, it seems as though that Garry's Mod doesn't offer much in the form of creativity, it does offer many chances for players to show this side of themselves. After all, there are thousands upon thousands of different creations players can download and use during gameplay.
Alternatively, they can simply just create their own models. The opportunity to roleplay in different universes is clear with all the different player models that can be worn, and the capability to create and modify various game modes, such as Prop Hunt and Trouble in Terrorist Town, gives everyone the chance to go nuts with creating things. While these game modes are often the highlight of Garry's Mod, the ability to build various models and go on awesome adventures with friends and family cannot be more understated. It is a game that solely relies on the creativity of its players, something that few games can claim.
Planet Coaster
For gamers that want games that do building better than Minecraft, or are big fans of simulation and CMS games, Planet Coaster does a great job of letting players create their own amusement parks. Players can spend hours building, modifying, and running their theme parks to get good ratings and more funds to add even more to their parks.
Using the game's sandbox mode definitely provides the most amount of creative license, as it lets players have unlimited funds, which allows for an almost endless potential of attraction builds and creations. It even allows for various destructive scenarios to take place, such as crashing rides into visitors or using certain cheat codes to make security ram into them. Despite all the hilarious chaos that can come with modes like this, the creativeness of the game and the imagination that players use to make their rides work is still the best part of it, overall.
Cities: Skylines
Being one of the best city-building video games, Cities: Skylines lets players create their own cities and run them however they want to. Players can build roads, houses, schools, and just about everything else a city needs. They can also decide where the districts are, how much taxes need to be paid, and where the public transportation systems need to run.
There aren't very many city builder games that feature this level of management, giving Cities: Skylines that extra boost of creativity and strategy that it needs. Player modifications can even expand the playable space further. Just about anything imaginable in terms of how to run a city is featured in this game, giving players a wide variety of opportunities to go wild and create the massive cities of their dreams.
Source:gamerant.com