No, developers typically do not even take idea pitches from external designers.Unfortunately I don't have $200k - $20m laying around. If the game designer is reaching out to the game studio to have their ideas constructed/developed into a game, would've they provide the funding? I suppose in indie development, that's not exactly how it works since funding is scarce.
1) it's risky - what if you pitch them an idea that they're already working on, and then try to claim ownership.
2) ideas have no value. They're worthless. The capability to implement ideas, and the skill im continuously changing the idea along the way (as practice tramples on theory) is valuable.
Developers themselves are looking for funding, just like you. Strapping two sinking ships together does not make them buoyant.
In my experience with the typical developer/publisher business model, it works like this:
* a publisher identifies a product that they want to sell - e.g. "Marvel's Ultraman the movie the game".
* they do the business groundwork - market analysis, marketing plans, sales projections, licensing the IP, etc. From this they estimate a budget that they can spend on development.
* they inform developers that they have a relationship with, that they will need to be shipping a new 3rd person action adventure during 4th quarter 2016.
* as an interested dev looking for work, you put your hand up and try to get into their good books.
* they then tell you what they want (an adaptation of Ultrman the movie, as a 3rd person action/adventure, to be released alongside the film).
* you then go away and produce a draft game design document, technical design document, concept art, milestone timeline, budget, and resumes of your key staff. This is your pitch to them, showing you have capability, describing your detailed vision of the product, and naming your price.
* if you're lucky, you and them then negotiate on the specifics. After a month of meetings, you've changed the female lead character to a white, buff millitary man with a shaved head, the unique fighting mechanics have been changed to "copy what arkham did", and the budget has been reduced by 50%.
* while negotiations have been going on, you've been pre-emptively paying your team to start building the game, because if you're going to be feature complete by November, you need to have started a month ago!
* if you're very lucky, you finally go into a "green light" meeting and come out with the publisher's signature on a contract saying they will be paying you monthly as long as you meet the agreed upon progress milestones.
** if you're unlucky, these greenlight meetings drag on for months and eventually another developer gets the contract instead of you. Congratulations, you just spent $100000 on a failed pitch.
* in the good case, you're now legally obligated to keep up with the agreed upon schedule. If you're late delivering a milestone, then you'll be late getting paid. So you better have a good alternate cash source to keep payroll going.
** if you're unlucky here the publisher simply cancels the project, maybe because the movie got some bad press... Too bad.
** another unlucky situation is that maybe now that you're half way through building your action/adventure game, the publisher suddenly decides they want a side-on fighting game. Or maybe the film director decided that your main hub, the planet Wondersphere, is no longer in the story, so you have to cut it from the game and build a new level to replace it. No extra time/money is assigned, so there goes your profit margin. You hope your team is ok in doing overtime for free...
* if you're late at the end, you could be liable for damages - if the publisher's sale projections were based on simultaneous release with the film, but you're late by a month, their projections could be off by 100% and maybe they'll try to sue you for those losses.
* finally you finish the game and it ships to shelves and sells millions of boxes, congrats! Anything after this is none of your concern though, because you've already been paid for your work. Sure, you did sign an agreement stating you'd get 10% of the profits as royalty payments, but the publisher's accountant has valued their internal publishing services at $100M... So even though the game made $50M in revenue for the publisher, they're calling it a loss and refusing to pay you any royalties.
* meanwhile, because of the rushed schedule and unflexible shipping date, quite a few bugs slipped through. Your studio is being personally attacked by fans and critics for these bugs, so you'd like to release a patch... However it would cost you $50k to build the patch and then $20k to ceritify and publish it, which you can't afford, and the publisher isn't interested in paying for it either.
* now it's time to get started on the next pitch for the next publisher...
Unfortunately, a studio with an idea, no capability and no money does not fit into that business model.
