Game ideas come from all sorts of places. You need to read lots of different things, watch lots of different things, play lots of different things. Go forth and consume!
I really like the Drizzt novels by R.A. Salvatore. The first one goes into Drow society in some detail, and I found it fascinating. I started thinking about a boardgame involving various factions of werewolves (I have a thing for werewolves) vying for control of a city. I thought it would be interesting to have the game divided into two phases; one in which the players were human, making business deals and doing other human activities, and one in which they were monstrous beasts, attacking each other in the streets.
Around this time, I got rather taken with the iOS version of Lords of Waterdeep. I thought it was a lot of fun, but not as "in your face" as I generally prefer my games to be. I decided to create what I was internally calling "Spartacus of Waterdeep," but with a werewolf theme. I quickly decided that it would be more interesting to have all different sorts of creatures as opposed to 4 factions of werewolves, and City of Lycans was born.
In City of Lycans, players take the role of werewolves, werebears, wererats, and wereboars, all vying for the Favor of the Great Mother, a deity who watches over all of them. They build businesses, both legal and illegal, gamble, build defenses, attack the human populace, and attack each other.
This is worker placement, F:AT style.
I'm currently testing and modifying the game, trying to polish it to a bright sheen before I show it to any publishers. It's a difficult process; each faction has special abilities, unique businesses and race upgrades. This makes for tricky balancing.
I believe in this game. It's the best thing I've ever produced. If I fail at the traditional publisher route, I will explore Kickstarter as a last resort. This will happen.