I have an idea for a video game. How do I get it in front of the right people so one day I can play it?

Answer 1

HAHAHAHAHAHA! That's the exact same thing everyone in my class said (including me - I'll admit to it) when I was studying video game design.

Here's the likeliest way to happen: Buy a lottery ticket every week. When you hit the jackpot you can buy EA and force them to make your game.

Sorry to burst your bubble (and double sorry to poke fun at you) but the fact of the matter is that unless you develop the game yourself it is very, very, very, very, very, very, unlikely you will ever get to play it.

Part of the issue is legal. Even if you write your brilliant idea to the video game companies, they will probably throw it in the furnace as soon as they realize what it is. This is done so they can't be sued by you if they do develop 'your game' and don't give you royalties (they may already have something like it in development or they may develop the great idea independently of you anyway). Comic book companies do the same thing.

The second issue is practical. EVERY gamer (just about) has a great idea for a video game. Some of them really are great, most of them are really bad (ask me about the fighting game someone told me about. It was based on Midsummer Night's Dream and called Ill Met By Moonlight). They can't sort through everyone's ideas to find the great one.

The third is financial. It costs a LOT of money to make a video game (if you're someone like EA or Blizzard) and it takes hundreds of thousands of man-hours. Why take a chance on a guy off the street like you when they have a 'guaranteed' success with a sequel or a movie franchise. They pay market researchers a lot of money to come up with what people will want to play.

If your idea really is brilliant and if you really want to play it, you can develop yourself. There are a wide variety of programs and you can do anything from throwing together a Flash version to composing an elaborate and professional appearing game. (There was even a Fighter Maker and RPG Maker 'games' for the PS2). XBOX 360 has a program called XNA that you can make games with (I've heard good things). You can even get a bunch of your friends together, buy a suite of programs and make a very 'professional' looking game.

Now, not only can you play the game you have just made, but you can market it. You can put it on a website for download, you can distribute it on CD-Rom annnnd you can try to take it to the big video game companies. The odds of them making your game after they see a working demo are astronomically better than if you just tell them your great idea (it's still a very, very, very, slim chance). The fact that you thought that your idea was good enough to put YOUR time and money into speaks volumes.

I know this is pretty much the exact opposite of what you wanted to hear, but I hope it helps. (And I'm sorry I laughed)

Answer 2

1. NOBODY WILL BUY A GAME IDEA

I don't know why so many people think that game ideas are a sellable commodity. Have you ever heard of an industry outsider selling a game idea?

Finished games, now, that's an entirely different matter! A game idea may not be a sellable commodity, but a finished game is. Lots of guys have made their ideas into finished games - and those you can get paid for.

But first you'll have to be in ... guess which industry? That's right! The industry of making video games!

WHY NOBODY WILL BUY YOUR GAME IDEA

The game biz is... a business. And business is all about managing risks.

It would be bad business policy to give a million bucks to every guy off the street who walks in with an idea. After all, what guarantee does the game company have that their money will be well spent?

They want to see a finished game. Or at least to know, if the game is not yet finished, that the presenter (the guy pitching the game idea) is capable of taking it all the way -- of making it into a finished game. And that the presenter will proceed in a professional manner (a manner that takes the realities of the industry into account).

Everybody in the game business has ideas for games - and there isn't enough time or money to make them all. So on the one hand they have a lot of free ideas already sitting there not being made, and on the other hand there's this idea that comes in over the transom, for which they would have to pay royalties. It's not hard to see why they'd be reluctant to pay for ideas from outside. Especially when the submitter does not have industry experience.

2. NOBODY WILL MAKE YOUR GAME FOR YOU

I assume that you are thinking mainly about console games. PlayStation 2 games, GameCube games, Xbox games, Game Boy Advance games. Or commercial-quality PC games. There are lots of folks who make their own little PC games, but that's an entirely different endeavor than a console game or commercial-quality PC game.

Commercial-quality games are hugely expensive to make. You can read about budgets and schedules in game magazines, especially developer-oriented magazines. It may cost a million, or two million dollars, or even more, to make a commercial-quality game. It takes teams of dozens of people a year or two, working nonstop, to make a commercial-quality game.

While all those people are making your game idea, they can't work on their own ideas. Everyone in the industry (the programmers, artists, designers, producers, marketing managers, sales managers, and corporate executives) has more ideas than time to work on them all. Ideas are a dime a dozen (and that's probably an inflated value!). I have several ideas myself, and get more all the time. But because it takes so long and costs so much to make one game, it just isn't possible to make them all. So when an outsider comes to a game company with an idea, all the pros should just drop their own ideas and make that idea instead?

The making of games is a business. And business is all about making a profit. There are always risks in making any game - nobody can predict whether an idea will succeed in the marketplace. It's all about managing risks. And industry pros are a better risk than outsiders and wannabes.

3. GETTING INTO THE INDUSTRY

It's not hard to get into the game industry if you have the appropriate education, abilities, and attitude.

For starters, get a college degree
There are also a lot of things you can do at home to build a design portfolio and to flesh out your resume (assuming that your college studies and youth have thus far prevented you from getting professional experience to fill your resume):

· Play a lot of games.

· Discuss their strengths and weaknesses with other gamers on bulletin boards and newsgroups.

· Host multi-player games (act as dungeon master or perform other such roles)

· Build levels for games that come with level-building tools

· Volunteer for beta testing

· Write and draw

o Write about whatever interests you. Anything that inspires you to work and create. You need to develop habits of working on projects, and finishing them.

o In your writing, develop good writing habits - use punctuation marks, complete sentences, and the shift key.

o Draw whatever interests you so you can polish art skills

o Write your own game designs (see Lesson 2 at my website)

· Follow your interests! Read, write, research on the internet and at the library. Get out there and do, participate.

Answer 3

What helped me at that age was that i would take him out on a special day. Take him out to theme park and have fun. Walk near store sometimes and buy him something that catchs his eye.