A little game called Demon's Souls would be the new guy's favorite example. If you haven't played it here you go. A spiritual successor to a relatively unknown game series (console alert!) King's Field. So Sony gave FromSoft (the dev) a call and said hey! this Oblivion game is doing really well, can you make an exclusive like it for us? This guy named Hidetaka Miyazaki thought maybe I can't go toe to toe with Oblivion, but hey let me do my own thing. So he started working on a project that had already been discarded by directors before him, so he thought what the hell, how worse can it get. And so after 3 years he came up with Demon's Souls. How was Demon's Souls inventive? The game doesn't hold your hand at all, just throws you into a vague tutorial section. You don't learn through hints or tips, you learn through playing the game. All those numbers on your inventory screen? Good luck figuring them out. How do all these mechanics work? Play the game and find out? What's the story about? Pay attention to the game world, talk to NPC's and read item description. Still can't make sense? Join the dots. Still can't make sense? Watch Vaati. Chances are still you won't make sense of it all because maybe it is too vague, only slightly implied and you can never be too sure, but that's the charm of it all. Tried to play the wrong level and got your ass kicked? Will the game tell you that? No. Now coming to combat. Each weapon is unique, has different damage type, different move set, different speed and so on. Everything from A to Z is incorporated in the lore, from the bosses, the enemies to the dying and re-spawning mechanic. Has a single currency system which is used to upgrade your weapons, armor, buy new stuff OR use as experience points. Did you die? Oh sorry now you've lost all your currency and have to pick it up from where you lost it, and if you die again, its permanently lost. Too bad. The game is challenging and needs you to be very methodical in your approach, but hey if its too tough, summon a coop partner and defeat the evil together. Getting cocky? Get invaded and have fun. Each level is meticulously crafted with extremely interesting lore and environments. This game was not made for everyone, or to attract a ton of players. The dev knew it for what it was and had belief in their craft, even though the difficult nature of the game would have scared players away. Sony's president thought the game was "an unbelievably bad game", an unbelievably bad game which single-handedly spawned an entirely new sub genre, shipped more than a million units and gained critical acclaim. Now that's inventive my friend. Everything doesn't need to be Demon's Souls. But devs surely can take a leaf from Miyazaki's book which is being creative, doing your own thing and still being able to inspire people. That's really it. The Tim Cains, the Richard Garriotts, the Ken Levines certainly did so.