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Creating a game concept
AcidDK
Member Posts: 82
I have an idea for a MMORPG which I think is truly revolutionary and would make the MMORPG-genre interesting to play again. I would be willing to create a project developing a concept idea, but I would never be able to actually establish a development team for such a game. I would be willing to send the concept idea to any game company wanting to implement it, but that makes me wonder.. Would any company actually care? I'm not special, so I think it's fair to assume that most MMORPG companies have thought about the very same idea as I have, yet come to conclusion that it wasn't the way to go for whatever reason (budget mainly is my guess). But if they haven't, would they even care to read a report about a game concept idea? Would I be wasting my time if I did this?
Comments
Yes, sorry.
Everyone wants to design games. Only the select few actually get to do it. What you say has very little weight, even if you have been in the industry for a long time.
Even if I was able to get a huge community to support the idea?
I'm not saying I'm able to do that, but -IF- I was?
Where's it at?
Godspeed my fellow gamer
Do you mean the state of my idea? Currently it's just in my head, where it has been for a couple of months now.
Well, "south by southwest: interactive" has a whole award just for innovative game concept. You could at the very least enter your idea there. It has to be official, though. I'm in the process of learning how to make an official draft in class right now. I'll get back to you on that.
That sounds really interesting. I will have to look it up!
Depends on what you want to get out of it.
Obviously I would want my idea to influence the industry. If you are thinking about me wanting to score cash on a game concept or anything like that, that's not relevant. I would do it for free just to see a game like what I have in mind.
Yeah, get it down on paper or whatever and I'll look at it. I love checking out concepts and brainstorming over them.
Like mentioned, there are contests for game concepts. Atari just had one and IGDA runs'em all the time. I even saw a gaming website that took concepts and gave away prizes every month. You may want to be mindful about doing this as there is no way to really protect your concept/s. They can just take the idea and run with it.
But don't let that discourage you, you gotta tell someone if you can't do it yourself.
I'm gonna make an educated guess and say that to get some sort of protection you should write the story out and copywrite it. Which is as simple as writing it on paper and dating it. But even copywrite or patents can't completely protect it.
So before you disclose, be sure it's not something you would hold close to your chest first.
Lookin' forward to seein' it
Godspeed my fellow gamer
Well, honestly the odds of that are pretty much zero unless your design is capable of being developed by you, personally, in your spare time. At least to a demo/prototype stage.
Don't forget in the industry ideas are cheap.
Don't let anybody tell you that you can't do it. It's true, a lot of people want to make games, most do not succeed, but it is not impossible. You simply need to inform and educate yourself. This is where most young people give up on their dreams of game development... They realize what actually goes into making a game, and then decide "Oh...this isn't for me."
So, here's what you do... Go over to GameDev.net and Gamasutra, and read every article and feature you can, learn what game development is all about, learn the industry.
If you feel that you really do have an amazing and revolutionary idea for a game, then you can absolutely pitch it to different companies. But first, you'll need to flesh it out. And, when I say amazing and revolutionary, I don't mean an idea that just sounds good in your head. My idea for the perfect awesome game would be a cross between old Dark Age of Camelot and Starship Troopers... Doesn't mean anybody else would want to play it. If you're pitching this to a company, the game has to be, first and foremost, profitable.
Anyways, as I was saying, you need to flesh out your idea. What you'll need is a design doc. So, here's the first thing you do:
Go here: http://www.gamedev.net/reference/list.asp?categoryid=23
Read the first two articles, Primer for the Design Process, along with the Design Document Template.
You'll notice that in the design doc, EVERYTHING about your game is covered. You have to know exactly how the whole thing is going to work. Aside from the general overview of the game, you'll need to know the tech you're going to use, the engine, the layout of the world, the audio, the interface, EVERYTHING. Once you have all of that figured out, and a nice little doc written up, THEN, you'll be ready to make games...Provided that, once again, you have a truly solid idea.
So, it is definitely possible. But it is going to take A LOT of work. If you still feel you're up to it, then gtfo and get to it, you could absolutely do it.
In order to have a game concept you're going to need a few things.
1. High Concept Document - Which is essentially the meat to the bones of the project. Your audience, the engine you want to use, world design, class design, race design, combat mechanics, quest mechanics, AI ect.
2. Art Bible - This is the style of art in which you'd want to present for the characters, game world ect. Possibly some animations of how characters would move would be put in this document as well.
I'd research more on the format of which both of these needs to be presented.
He's not asking for advice on how to get a career in game development, he's asking if there is a chance that he designs an MMO which then gets made. The answer to that is 100% no, unless he can do it himself (or with friends, etc).
In his original post he wrote:
I would be willing to create a project developing a concept idea, but I would never be able to actually establish a development team for such a game. I would be willing to send the concept idea to any game company wanting to implement it...
I'm just telling it how it is, that's not how it works. Now, if he already worked for a game company, and had proven himself with a released title, and then forwarded his document on to the CEO... then sure he might want to look into how to pitch a game. Or, if he was willing to set up a development team himself, that is also a valid path to - lets be honest - a small scale, maybe browser or XNA based MMO.
But game companies categorically do not accept external submissions. That's just not how it works. And if that's what he's looking to get out of it, then he's just setting himself up for disappointment.
dupe