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I have an idea for a triple-A game. How can I share it with big developers like Sony or MS?
- Thread starter Kanethered
- Start date
This is constructive advice. You would not believe how much work goes into all the little details. The things you don't think about until you have to do them and then it hits you.
If you really think that you might have an unique and fun game concept, get a small team together and work on a vertical slice. Or try to do it all by yourself.
Unity and Unreal are free too use and there are tons of amazing tutorials for it.
If it doesn't have to be 3D you could also try one of the 2D engines like GameMaker which is quite wasy to use. But gotta warn you,whatever you do, developing a game is hard work and can often be quite frustrating. On the other hand it is a great feeling when things come together.
Unity and Unreal are free too use and there are tons of amazing tutorials for it.
If it doesn't have to be 3D you could also try one of the 2D engines like GameMaker which is quite wasy to use. But gotta warn you,whatever you do, developing a game is hard work and can often be quite frustrating. On the other hand it is a great feeling when things come together.
For legal reasons, nobody can accept a pitch that you just shoot from the hip like this.
Also, watch this: 30 Things I Hate About Your Game Pitch.
Also, watch this: 30 Things I Hate About Your Game Pitch.
Lottery winner takes to Kickstarter to fund pie-in-the-sky MMO
Some Kickstarters do 'ave 'em: here's a crowd sourcing plea from a lottery-winning millionaire for $1.1 million dollars…
www.eurogamer.net
I'll be nice, and give you a genuine reply:
That doesn't sound very good.
There's this misconception gamers have that more is always better, but a combination of action, RPG, FPS, TPS, and RTS just does not sound fun.
Everyone seems to have the idea, when they're young, of what I call "the Everything Game." It sounds awesome. But it's just not an idea that lends itself well to a good gameplay loop. It's too broad and it's virtually impossible to execute all those components equally well — and even if you do, not everyone is going to like all those genres.
Do you want to know what kind of ideas I actually value, the kind I wish I thought up myself? Stuff like Untitled Goose Game. It's easy to see the appeal and the reason why Panic (the publisher) actually reached out to the House House (the developer) to offer to publish it, which is something that almost never happens. Those are the kinds of ideas you should try to have, creatively. Baba is You is another one. You hear that pitch — a puzzle game where the rules of the game world are manifested physically in the environment and are able to be interacted with to solve puzzles — and it's just like, whoa. Those are the kinds of ideas both players and publishers actually want, not weird unfocused Everything Games. And, not coincidentally, they're actually ideas you can build a demo of as a solo dev or small team.
I'm not saying that to discourage you. If you have a passion to make games, go for it. If you just have a passion for this specific idea, well...lots of people have passion for this specific idea, when they aren't very familiar with what makes games actually fun to play.
Everyone has a novel inside them. Only a tiny minority do the hard part of writing it.
Get into indie dev =) Lots of fantastic engines out there. Your game doesn't AAA visuals to be great. Just look at Undertale.
Get into indie dev =) Lots of fantastic engines out there. Your game doesn't AAA visuals to be great. Just look at Undertale.
To give a somewhat sincere answer, you have two options. Get hired by a studio/publisher and work your way into a position in which you can pitch game ideas, or make it yourself.
To expand further on the latter, the chances of you actually making a commercial project like that are slim. However, that doesn't mean it has to be for nothing. Learning something like UE or Unity (both of which are free and friendly to non-programmers) and slowly building things out over time, regardless of whether or not they meet the ideas in your head, can still be an extremely worthwhile experience that satisfies your creativity.
It's what I do. I make small prototypes and games in UE4 and share them either on YouTube, as part of game jams, or just randomly on Itchio. I know I'll probably never make something that lives up to my dreams, but it's a truly fun and rewarding outlet for someone that has loved games their entire life and will probably never get the chance to actually work in the industry.
To expand further on the latter, the chances of you actually making a commercial project like that are slim. However, that doesn't mean it has to be for nothing. Learning something like UE or Unity (both of which are free and friendly to non-programmers) and slowly building things out over time, regardless of whether or not they meet the ideas in your head, can still be an extremely worthwhile experience that satisfies your creativity.
It's what I do. I make small prototypes and games in UE4 and share them either on YouTube, as part of game jams, or just randomly on Itchio. I know I'll probably never make something that lives up to my dreams, but it's a truly fun and rewarding outlet for someone that has loved games their entire life and will probably never get the chance to actually work in the industry.
People like this are real all the time. There's a reason why hearing anyone describe themselves as "more of an ideas guy" causes a visceral reaction in almost any creative industry.
The people who do the work of developing skills also have their own ideas! And they're more likely to understand what works and what doesn't.
As with anything ideas are the easy part. Now one cares about just an idea without at least a fair amount of the legwork already also taken care of by the person with the idea.
It's like ok I have this great idea for a movie. Ok, write a screenplay. Then write like 100 more. And then get an agent or do months or even years of legwork actually getting someone who matters to even think about biting on even one of those screenplays, much less actually biting on it.
It's like ok I have this great idea for a movie. Ok, write a screenplay. Then write like 100 more. And then get an agent or do months or even years of legwork actually getting someone who matters to even think about biting on even one of those screenplays, much less actually biting on it.
Yeah as mentioned it's actually against policy to even review these types of things within game companies. If I ever got a written pitch it would never get opened and forwarded to legal. In cases where people would email me things I would have to sent it to legal and there would be a formal process and notice to the person who sent it.
You (may not) be surprised how many game or gaming ideas get sent to companies. I personally received hundreds throughout the years.
It was so serious that I would even have to say no to young kids and teachers who just wanted to assign writing assignments about gaming. I couldn't look at any external ideas for games, hardware, or anything.
I appreciate how passionate and excited you are about this idea so sorry to be a dream killer. Your best bet is to actually start building games (easier today than it's ever been!) and/or work your way inside a development studio.
You (may not) be surprised how many game or gaming ideas get sent to companies. I personally received hundreds throughout the years.
It was so serious that I would even have to say no to young kids and teachers who just wanted to assign writing assignments about gaming. I couldn't look at any external ideas for games, hardware, or anything.
I appreciate how passionate and excited you are about this idea so sorry to be a dream killer. Your best bet is to actually start building games (easier today than it's ever been!) and/or work your way inside a development studio.
Should be timestamped for the relevant part but the gist of it is "idea guy" isn't a job in the industry and ideas aren't actually very valuable. If you want someone to take your game concept seriously you need to have a marketable skill that can help realize your idea, as well as the means to actually make that concept a reality. If you want to know some skills that can get you into the games industry the video goes over that a bit, but it's unlikely that you'd have full creative control over something that wasn't a passion project you can do yourself.
I too am just an idea guy, so I understand the frustration you're probably feeling. Your idea will never get the attention of any big company you just have to do it yourself.
- Hire others to make it: This requires a lot of money. I would not recommend trying to take out a loan, but if you're lucky you might find some up and coming people willing to work for little to nothing. I've learned they are not the best because you pay for what you get.
- Make it yourself: Tons of free dev stuff out there. Scale down your idea, make it OC, and go from there.
- Use your skills and don't make it a video game: If you're like me, and can't grasp some of the programs and aspects of making a game, then maybe it's not a game. Maybe it's a book or screenplay. I've had a friend get a movie script optioned before, and I myself have self published a book recently. Use your skills rather than relying on others.
Best of luck, OP.
- Hire others to make it: This requires a lot of money. I would not recommend trying to take out a loan, but if you're lucky you might find some up and coming people willing to work for little to nothing. I've learned they are not the best because you pay for what you get.
- Make it yourself: Tons of free dev stuff out there. Scale down your idea, make it OC, and go from there.
- Use your skills and don't make it a video game: If you're like me, and can't grasp some of the programs and aspects of making a game, then maybe it's not a game. Maybe it's a book or screenplay. I've had a friend get a movie script optioned before, and I myself have self published a book recently. Use your skills rather than relying on others.
Best of luck, OP.
Great advice. I wanted to improve my programming skills a few years back and tried to make something that resembled Space Invaders without looking up too much online. I got stuck and never finished it. I cant even imagine the complexity of modern games; it really is rocket science.
I'm sure there are many mean comments in this thread without reading them, but one thing to point out is that big companies actually will not solicit these kinds of ideas because of fear of legal tie ups that could arise. As in, they outright have no avenue available for people to submit ideas, for liability issues. It's not possible to submit an idea to a game company, unless you're making a pitch in which case you're offering your services to actually develop the game. Said pitch usually comes with some sort of demonstration already built.
