My hopes are that one-day GD will be looked at as an alternative channel for such market information.
Amateur developers usually don’t have any problems with giving away credit for other people’s influence on their work. When there is no money involved, things always get less complicated.
It might not have the fancy graphics of some commercial titles out there, but hey…they completed the game, which is quite an accomplishment and I’m sure they worked just as hard.
Screenshots
Game Ideas; just a gamer's wet fantasy? 10/16/2002
By: Dusty Originally a post in the old forums, but after 5 minutes of editing I decided it would do fine as an article. There are many myths about Game Ideas, but here are the cold hard facts from the webmaster himself.
No matter if you are the kind of person who thinks game ideas are as useful to developers as a Gig of hot Spam, or the person who still believes there are actually companies out there willing to pay one million US dollars in exchange for a semi-good idea. There is one thing you can’t argue about, and that is the existence of the phenomenon itself, the phenomenon of Game Ideas.
That’s right, every single gamer out there seems to have a game idea. While I am sure some of the book people have ideas for new books and some of the film people have ideas for new films, it has never really been a big issue. Though on the other hand the gamers seems to take the whole Game Idea issue rather serious, and while it is a bit simple to divide people into categories such as film people and game people you got my point so just shut up and don’t email me about it. So as co-founder and webmaster of GameDiscovery.com "the first and only Game Idea website" (though we now also cover other subjects), I will try answering a question that is as old as electronic gaming itself. Are game ideas really an issue or more like a gamer’s wet fantasy?
If you are a developer, game ideas at GameDiscovery.com are as useful as you self see them. If you don't care about what the potential users of your products might have to say about the kind of products you are developing (in this case games), then it's all nothing but an entertaining website to please the fans. I would believe that most major game companies do market research, and have active channels for user feedback. My hopes are that one-day GD will be looked at as an alternative channel for such market information. And I think GD can be a very useful for amateur game developers who don't have those kinds of feedback channels that bigger companies have. Also reading other people’s ideas often sparks off new ideas in your own head. You can't invent something from thin air; all ideas are a product of inspiration. I think many new ideas have come to life because of Game Discovery.
When it comes to receiving credit in terms of money for your game ideas, I wish to make one thing clear. GD is like an Open Source for game ideas. When you submit a game idea you must agree to that who ever pleases can freely use your ideas in their own games, without having to give you any credit for your work. Now some of you will probably think that this is highly unfair, so let's talk a little about reality and what your options are. Developing a game can be a costly process, people don't work for free (only webmasters do that these days) so lots of people are needing to get paid, lots of expensive equipment is usually needed too. But that is not the worst part. Let's say a game is sold for 30$, you'd be surprised to know how little the development team who did the hard work of actually making the game gets after everyone has taken their piece of the pie. So let's say they get 5$ per unit sold, which is probably a pretty good deal. And the even more important question; is the game going sell? You have all heard of amazing sails numbers, games selling in the millions, games like Final Fantasy, Resident Evil, Duke Nukem etc etc. This is NOT the case with most games. Usually if a game sells something like 50 000 units, it's considered a hit for the developer. Sometimes games only sell 10 000 units. Now if you put all these numbers and expenses together you'll see that most developers are not driving around in red Ferraris or eating grapes in 100+ square-meter-Jacuzzis. So are they going to split the 5 bucks with a stranger who happened to come up with this great game idea, certainly not. Not because they are cheap bastards, but because they are struggling enough paying their inside people if they are not also going to pay outside people as well. So can they give credit, like putting your name in the end credits or something? They could but then you could also do a lawsuit on them if you are a real *****, and how would they know that you are not? They would of course win in court as they have more money then you do, but going to court is time consuming. So again they better not. Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that it could never happen, just don’t hold your breath for your name to appear in the end credits of the next Final Fantasy.
In the underground community it’s a totally different story. Amateur developers usually don’t have any problems with giving away credit for other people’s influence on their work. When there is no money involved, things always get less complicated. Most of the game developers surfing GameDiscovery.com for ideas are in fact amateur developers. And to be honest it’s just as big an honour getting your name in the credits in a low budget game made by some no-name amateur development team. It might not have the fancy graphics of some commercial titles out there, but hey…they completed the game, which is quite an accomplishment and I’m sure they worked just as hard. And finally, what might also surprise some of you is that the audience for such a game can actually be bigger than for many of the commercial games. Because of the Internet such games can freely and legally be downloaded and played by thousands of gamers all around the world. So there you go, fame but not fortune.
So for the once of you who think you have an idea that is truly unique, and don’t want to risk the chance of somebody stealing it without giving you the proper credit, there are two options. Either you can keep quiet and take your dream project with you to your grave. Or you can take action and develop it yourselves. The first option is not really a very good one, and the second option though I praise the once of you who will, is not very likely for the majority of people claiming to have extraordinary ideas. Game Discovery might not be the option many of you are looking for, but when reality and facts hits the table, it turns out pretty good after all. And most importantly it’s fun.
