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General discussionGame concept for game companies(32 posts)(32 posts)
(32 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted November 05, 2015
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KneeTheCap: But is there any way for "normal people", who have no ties to the video game industry, have their ideas seen and/or approved by game companies?
The same thing applies to movies. Big studios won't read/recieve any scripts. The problem is this. You send your game idea to EA. Horror game, whatever. That game does not go anywhere, the script it's forgotten. In 5 years, EA release an horror game. You can woke up and tell that they've got some plot elements from you, as they read your script. So, at least in movie industry, if your script it's not recommended by an agent, big studios will never even hear your idea because of IP rights.
Anyway, in gaming industry, chances for something like that to happen are pretty slim, as there are not so many big, successful releases as in movies business, but they can happen.
Post edited November 05, 2015 by mindblast
Posted November 05, 2015
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KneeTheCap: I've completed writing a story for this horror game a bunch of my friends are working (with RPG maker and bought assets). I'm quite happy with it, it was easy to write and visualize. Fun stuff.

But that gave me a thought. I know many game companies don't take game ideas and scrips from people who offer those, they either use their own staff or contact an established party. Understandable. But is there any way for "normal people", who have no ties to the video game industry, have their ideas seen and/or approved by game companies?

For example, let's play with the thought I had a killer game concept, already written and brainstormed. But I don't have a team to make that game. How would I make that game a reality? It would be impossible?

I've always wondered this.
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skeletonbow: I think before the question can be answered adequately, one would have to know what your specific end-goal(s) would be. We know you'd like to work with others to see a game come to fruition from your ideas, but what is the driving force behind that, the why? Is it purely creative, or are there monetary goals as well? Any other aspirations to come out of it?

I ask because it's hard to answer such a question without making a number of assumptions that may not be true. For example, if you'd be happy just to work with some people on a game perhaps as a creative director or some other creative role, but profit is not a goal or motivator so much as creative expression, then I'd suggest exploring and hooking up with people in the open source community who might be interested in a mutual creative venture to just complete a project for the sense of achievement alone and put it out perhaps as an open source game. If the motive is profit based however, then one would have to probably reach out to existing indie developers or developers with aspirations of such.

It's important to frame the purpose/end goal, and the specific objectives first and then look at the options that might exist or could be created to work towards that goal.

Hope this helps.
Good points, thank you.

Well, the game my friends are making will, most likely, be a free game. I'm not getting anything, at least. Besides some experience with design.

As it stands, I'm not really looking to make a profit out of this. I do get a kick, however, when people talk about my story. And I kinda want to see my stories in visual form. But then again, I do need to eat. I'd be willing to work if someone paid my accommodation and food. So I guess the driving force is to get my stories out in the public?

Of course, I wouldn't turn down money, but I don't think that is the main point.
Posted November 06, 2015
2 kinds of people get their game ideas made into games.

1. People who can make a game, but need money (a producer) so he can hire a team.

2. A guy with a lot of money (a producer) who hires a team to make his ideas.

So, I guess we both either need to learn programming and get prepared for a LOT of work and to find someone with a lot of money, or we need to get prepared for a LOT of work to make a LOT of money to hire programmers.
Post edited November 06, 2015 by hudfreegamer
Posted November 06, 2015
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Sachys: Do what I did - hire a busker to annoy the living hell out of them until they meet you in the pub next door. I got hired.
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adaliabooks: Please tell me that's a true story... XD
Yarp!
Posted November 06, 2015
I'd say your best bet is to check out the forum of some Indie game developer community, post a sample of your story/game concept, and try to find a suitable team that way. Your chances to actually complete your game idea depend largely on its complexity and scale. I'd suggest to start small, and if you ( and your team ) are successful, maybe you can start some crowd-funding campaign for a bigger project.
Posted November 19, 2015
I spent quite a few minutes tracking down this thread to post about BrightLocker, an upcoming "crowd publishing" platform, where people can suggest ideas, others vote on them, pledge for their creation, and professional devs make them.
Posted November 26, 2015
Oh, that sounds pretty cool, hope it works out well, I'd like to submit some stuff there.
Posted November 26, 2015
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ET3D: I spent quite a few minutes tracking down this thread to post about BrightLocker, an upcoming "crowd publishing" platform, where people can suggest ideas, others vote on them, pledge for their creation, and professional devs make them.
God, that it's an awful idea. So, you go with your awesome game idea, you give it away to them, they sell it to the game developers and, those developers, if they feel like, they might consider giving you a free copy of the game or agree in taking you as paying partner. That's just idiotic. Why would someone do something like that?

"4. OWNERSHIP.
The Site, the Apps, and all elements and derivatives thereof (including, without limitation, all information, content, characters, stories, graphics, source codes, object codes, instructions, documentation, and expressions), as well as all copyrights, trademarks, and other intellectual properties of the foregoing, are owned, licensed, or permissibly used by Bright Locker. In no event shall you have or retain any rights, titles, or interests in or to the foregoing other than those limited rights expressly granted to you under this Agreement. You are prohibited from making any use of such trademarks (including, without limitation, use as meta tags on other websites, and use in any manner likely to cause confusion, disparagement, or dilution of those trademarks). You are also prohibited from cloning or otherwise creating unauthorized derivate works of any such works of authorship. No rights or permissions granted to you under this Agreement are coupled with an interest. Nothing contained in this Agreement shall be construed as a waiver or limitation of Bright Locker’s or its licensors’ respective rights and remedies under applicable law."

"5.3. Limited License – User Materials. All information, communications, and content that you submit to or publish on or through the Site or any of the Apps (including, without limitation, all text, photographs, videos, music, and statements) is hereinafter defined as the “User Materials.” By submitting User Materials to or publishing User Materials on or through the Site or any of the Apps, you hereby grant Bright Locker an irrevocable, non-exclusive, royalty-free, fully-paid, transferable, sub-licensable, perpetual, and universe-wide license for Bright Locker to host, store, reproduce, transmit, distribute, sell, resell, license, sublicense, market, modify, adapt, create derivative works, communicate, publish, syndicate, publicly perform, publicly display, archive, and otherwise use and exploit such User Materials, in whole or in part, in any manner, medium, or form, whether now known or hereinafter devised, as Bright Locker sees fit in its sole discretion."

You are way to safer in publishing your ideas anywhere else than on something like this. That's what's so idiotic about this website. You publish your ideas and you also transfer the IP rights to someone else by doing that. You don't do that by publishing them on your personal free blog, for example, but by doing it on their site, you do that, as you agree to those terms. So, for them, it's bullet proof too freely steal anything that's published there. I must say, it's pretty ingenious by them.
Post edited November 26, 2015 by mindblast
Posted November 27, 2015
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ET3D: I spent quite a few minutes tracking down this thread to post about BrightLocker, an upcoming "crowd publishing" platform, where people can suggest ideas, others vote on them, pledge for their creation, and professional devs make them.
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mindblast: God, that it's an awful idea. So, you go with your awesome game idea, you give it away to them, they sell it to the game developers and, those developers, if they feel like, they might consider giving you a free copy of the game or agree in taking you as paying partner. That's just idiotic. Why would someone do something like that?

"4. OWNERSHIP.
The Site, the Apps, and all elements and derivatives thereof (including, without limitation, all information, content, characters, stories, graphics, source codes, object codes, instructions, documentation, and expressions), as well as all copyrights, trademarks, and other intellectual properties of the foregoing, are owned, licensed, or permissibly used by Bright Locker. In no event shall you have or retain any rights, titles, or interests in or to the foregoing other than those limited rights expressly granted to you under this Agreement. You are prohibited from making any use of such trademarks (including, without limitation, use as meta tags on other websites, and use in any manner likely to cause confusion, disparagement, or dilution of those trademarks). You are also prohibited from cloning or otherwise creating unauthorized derivate works of any such works of authorship. No rights or permissions granted to you under this Agreement are coupled with an interest. Nothing contained in this Agreement shall be construed as a waiver or limitation of Bright Locker’s or its licensors’ respective rights and remedies under applicable law."

"5.3. Limited License – User Materials. All information, communications, and content that you submit to or publish on or through the Site or any of the Apps (including, without limitation, all text, photographs, videos, music, and statements) is hereinafter defined as the “User Materials.” By submitting User Materials to or publishing User Materials on or through the Site or any of the Apps, you hereby grant Bright Locker an irrevocable, non-exclusive, royalty-free, fully-paid, transferable, sub-licensable, perpetual, and universe-wide license for Bright Locker to host, store, reproduce, transmit, distribute, sell, resell, license, sublicense, market, modify, adapt, create derivative works, communicate, publish, syndicate, publicly perform, publicly display, archive, and otherwise use and exploit such User Materials, in whole or in part, in any manner, medium, or form, whether now known or hereinafter devised, as Bright Locker sees fit in its sole discretion."

You are way to safer in publishing your ideas anywhere else than on something like this. That's what's so idiotic about this website. You publish your ideas and you also transfer the IP rights to someone else by doing that. You don't do that by publishing them on your personal free blog, for example, but by doing it on their site, you do that, as you agree to those terms. So, for them, it's bullet proof too freely steal anything that's published there. I must say, it's pretty ingenious by them.
Hmm, good point.
Posted November 27, 2015
One other things: Ideas are a dime a dozen. It is very easy to come up with ideas, and it is very likely that others have come up with the same ideas that you have.

Actually making an idea into an actual game, on the other hand, is much more work. Even if someone does start making an idea into an actual game, it could easily turn out to not be viable.

One other thing: The whole concern about "stealing" an idea is overblown and tends to inhibit discussion rather than further it. People don't care about your ideas enough to steal them. See ethis article:
http://opensource.com/life/13/8/stealing-ideas
Posted November 27, 2015
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dtgreene: People don't care about your ideas enough to steal them.
Until they do. There's a difference between "idea" and "concept". If i say here "I would so like a game with zombies that are driving monster trucks", i'm not gonna get so crazy if one game with have that theme.

But, on the other hand, if i work on an whole concept, i write about how zombies will look like, what will they wear, how the game will act, what genre, what decors, i'm thinking some characters and i'm writing some backstory for them, explain in detail how the game will work, come with some innovative mechanics, then i'll be annoyed as hell if someone is taking my concept or even parts of it, and turn it into a game without buying that concept from me.

Because that's the whole point of that site. No one it's gonna up-vote my first one-phrase "idea", but people might up-vote an well developed concept. And that's why a site like that it's vile. Because it will promote good writes, good and well done concept. And those concepts might be done by people that don't know anything about IP and they might do that in order to get validation on their work. But when they will see their concept put in practice on next game that will make millions, there's nothing they can do about it.
Posted November 30, 2015
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mindblast: God, that it's an awful idea. So, you go with your awesome game idea, you give it away to them, they sell it to the game developers and, those developers, if they feel like, they might consider giving you a free copy of the game or agree in taking you as paying partner. That's just idiotic. Why would someone do something like that?
What's better, that you have a great idea and it's never made, or that someone develops your idea into a game and credits you for the idea?

At the end of the day, an idea doesn't have much value, it's the execution of the idea that counts. Most people aren't even capable of judging how good their idea is, and certainly aren't capable of converting it into a game. So a platform for converting an idea into a game is a good thing. It's quite natural for people to be protective of their idea, but that's mainly because of people severely overestimating the value of their idea.

I agree that it would be cool to offer some better compensation, but really, most beginners vastly overestimate their abilities. If they really are good, having their game adopted by others even without compensation could be a good way to get better known. Their next idea might not come free. But the first one, let it go.
Post edited November 30, 2015 by ET3D
Posted November 30, 2015
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ET3D: What's better, that you have a great idea and it's never made, or that someone develops your idea into a game and credits you for the idea?
Well, that wouldn't be a problem. A lot of artists work for free to get things started, but the problem is when they are sold illusions, like that site is selling. Being credited for the idea it's solely at developer's or even site owners hand. They can sell your idea by saying it's theirs, as you signed the contract before making your account on that website.

So, you might gain absolutely nothing by publishing your concept there. In that case, why would you do it? That's the main issue. You are saying that ok, give your concept for free, as you might make a name for yourself. But when they can, legally, replace your name with some of the owners of that website, your name will still be zero.

As i said, you are much safer by publishing your concept anywhere else, or even starting an Kickstarter campaign for your concept. Even if your concept does not get developed, as you don't raise funds, legally, no one can stole your concept, and as far as accessibility goes, you might end up with more people viewing your idea than on that website, maybe even big developers that might want to invest into it.
Post edited November 30, 2015 by mindblast
Posted November 30, 2015
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mindblast: Well, that wouldn't be a problem. A lot of artists work for free to get things started, but the problem is when they are sold illusions, like that site is selling. Being credited for the idea it's solely at developer's or even site owners hand.
They do talk about credit and even sharing revenue (see the video about 'earn'). The terms you quoted above are pretty standard for any site where people can post stuff. They're completely unrelated to the game creation process. It would be interesting to see detailed creator terms, but certainly it looks like idea creators will get something out of it if it's not a complete scam, and I see no reason why it would be.

Anything posted online by users is something that would get credit automatically, because other users see it posted by the idea creator. It's not something that someone can steal behind the idea creator's back.
Posted November 30, 2015
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ET3D: Anything posted online by users is something that would get credit automatically, because other users see it posted by the idea creator. It's not something that someone can steal behind the idea creator's back.
Actually no. As long as i post it on an public blog/website/forum IP it's mine on that idea/concept/whatever i wrote. But when i sight a contract that says that my work it's not mine, it is a problem.

Here's the part about Copyright on DeviantART:

4. Copyright
DeviantArt is, unless otherwise stated, the owner of all copyright and data rights in the Service and its contents. Individuals who have posted works to DeviantArt are either the copyright owners of the component parts of that work or are posting the work under license from a copyright owner or his or her agent or otherwise as permitted by law. You may not reproduce, distribute, publicly display or perform, or prepare derivative works based on any of the Content including any such works without the express, written consent of DeviantArt or the appropriate owner of copyright in such works. DeviantArt does not claim ownership rights in your works or other materials posted by you to DeviantArt (Your Content). You agree not to distribute any part of the Service other than Your Content in any medium other than as permitted in these Terms of Service or by use of functions on the Service provided by us. You agree not to alter or modify any part of the Service unless expressly permitted to do so by us or by use of functions on the Service provided by us.

Notice the difference. That's why that specific website works for making your art public. Once you post it there, you make it public and you own the intellectual rights over that piece. In a case of your IP being stolen, you have proof that you posted it first on DeviantART and that it's yours.

From Soundcloud:

Any and all audio, text, photos, pictures, graphics, comments, and other content, data or information that you upload, store, transmit, submit, exchange or make available to or via the Platform (hereinafter "Your Content") is generated, owned and controlled solely by you, and not by SoundCloud.

SoundCloud does not claim any ownership rights in Your Content, and you hereby expressly acknowledge and agree that Your Content remains your sole responsibility.

Those are well known platforms for young artists. On this kind of platforms you want your work to be published, as you are protected by copyright laws.

And same goes for thing like Blogger or Facebook. You own whatever you post there, not the website. In case of an lawsuit, you use your posting date as proof for your ownership and that's enough by any international laws regarding copyright.
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This is my favourite topic
Community
General discussionGame concept for game companies(32 posts)(32 posts)
(32 posts)