Honestly, game ideas are worth very little and are not often stolen unless it is coming from some high profile company.

My point is ideas for a game are a dime a dozen. I could share with you 20 game ideas I have that would make wonderful and possibly profitable games.

If you are worried about getting an idea stolen draw up an NDA (non disclosure agreement) with the publisher...they should have a standard one that they use often.

Josh




Game Designer/Producer -(unannounced project)
Former Designer and Producer of Starfleet Command II and Orion Pirates

Not to sound too harsh, but Jinxx is right. Almost every gamer who truly loves playing games dreams about making them for a living. For most, this idea remains a dream and they never take any actions toward achieving it. Still a large number decide that they will try their hand at game development. The go out look around and find that there are 3 major occupations that game makers seem to fall into: Programmer, Artists, and Designers.

For most of these individuals Programming is too difficult and art requires some weird super power that they soon realize they don’t possess. This leaves the third occupation open by default. Most people end up trying to fill this designer role. That''s one of the reasons why the “Game Design” forums and “Game writing” forums get so much traffic. To the typical gamer Game Design seems like the most interesting and rewarding position. The typical thought is "I can plan out all the cool stuff I want in the game and then everyone else will go make it and I can take the credit for designing it”

The end result is there are a ton of people in this "design only" occupation. As it turns out Artists and Programmers like to design games as well. If they are going to put work into a game design it''s likely going to be one they come up with on their own. (in the independent community anyway)

Unfortunately for every designer job in the game industry there are 5-10 programming and art jobs. So the demand for game designers is 0, actually more likely negative ( ) because most companies don’t higher designers from the outside, the promote them internally. As a result there is a great over abundance of game ideas generated more then could ever be implemented given the development resources. Thus the only thing that is of any value is an actual implemented idea, or the ability to implement one. Since there are so many people generating ideas every day, the ideas themselves are virtually worthless. (Without being paired with the ability to implement them)

It happens more often then I would like when someone finds out I can program games (if they’re a gamer) the first thing they start telling me about is their idea for a game that''s a sweet cross between Diablo and Counterstrike (or some such nonsense) and ask me if I would like the privilege of developing it for them. I’m sorry but if I’m going to spend 6 months to a year implementing a game it’s going to be one of my own design.

quote: Original post by Ironside
It happens more often then I would like when someone finds out I can program games (if they’re a gamer) the first thing they start telling me about is their idea for a game that''s a sweet cross between Diablo and Counterstrike (or some such nonsense) and ask me if I would like the privilege of developing it for them. I’m sorry but if I’m going to spend 6 months to a year implementing a game it’s going to be one of my own design.

I have to second that one.. although I have made mini games and such when they''ve been suggested but not much further than Pong clones with unique points and point+click shooters featuring pictures of friends

Philip Lutas
Optical Realities

Game Design is HARD. Anyone who tells you otherwise is an ignoramus.

Game Design is harder than journeyman-level programming -- pretty much anyone can be taught to code competently. (Getting them to code brilliantly does require innate talent.)

It''s harder than basic graphic design -- again, the basic craft can be taught to anyone. (As with programming, to be a truly brilliant artist requires innate talent.)

It''s harder than creating a cheesy pop song -- ask anyone who''s spent some time with Acid Pro 3. (Once again, innate talent is needed to be a great composer or brilliant musician. And a musical ear certainly helps.

A Game Designer MUST have a thorough grasp of all three of the above subject areas. He needn''t be a shit-hot coder or artist, but he must know enough about each subject to recognise bullshit when he hears -- or designs -- it.

A Game Designer MUST be able to understand *why* great gameplay works. A certain talent for rule-of-thumb psychology is a requirement for this: if you can''t understand why your last game was a hit, you''ll never be sure if your next one will be too.

A Game Designer is constantly being assailed by wannabe designers. It is certainly true that everyone *thinks* they can design a game -- just as everyone *thinks* they can write a bestselling novel.

(And by the way, I can''t tell you how insulting this is to a professional game designer: programmers and artists have no more right to claim game design skills than the receptionist: merely knowing how to draw a cute rabbit or code a 3D engine does not make you a game design guru, just as knowing how to criticise a movie doesn''t make you the greatest latent movie director on Earth. I may have developed entire 2D games single-handed in the past, but that doesn''t mean I''ll go around telling a 3D graphics engine specialist how to do his job, so I''ll thank him to butt the hell out of mine.)

Thinking about being able to do something requires absolutely zero effort. Ideas are just thinking, so they''re automatically worthless. It''s *doing* it that''s hard: the craftsmanship is the key. That''s why good art is so highly regarded -- and why certain ''modern art'' attempts are generally laughed at as there''s often no obvious craftsmanship involved.

Fundamentally, the only difference between a wannabe game designer and, say, Chris Sawyer is that Chris didn''t just talk about "Rollercoaster Tycoon": he actually went off and *made* it.

Ideas are nothing.
Implementation is everything.

Also, don''t waste your time sending game ideas to publishers they will destroy your letter before it is even opened (It''s in their policy).

Stimarco brings up a good point. In my first post I referred to the fact that most people consider game design the easiest and best job in game development. Game design IS difficult. As someone who has been involved in different game dev projects since my teens I still can''t just take and idea and tell you if it''s going to be fun or not. Who''d have thought Diablo would be so much fun? it''s just left clicking right? yet it''s oddly addictive. Fun is a seemingly intangible quality that emerges from many carefully designed systems and interactions.

It''s easy to say "I wanna make a game that crosses Diablo and Counterstrike", but as they say "God is in the details". Or as I like to see it the general concepts are easy, the true life of the idea exists only in the details. When you start approaching all the decisions that must be made before a idea can really be considered a game design, you start to realize that design wasn''t quite as easy as you thought. I still can''t do it without prototyping

I remember reading an interview with Tim Sweeny, and he was talking about the most important attribute they looked for in their designers. It was a good "Bu*lSh*t" detector. The ability to look at a design problem and detect which solutions and ideas were BS and which were actually workable and fun. That type of ability, in my experience, is only built up over time and experience trying different implementations. Very few of the would-be designers out there every really develop the skill to this level.