now what? Where do I go? Who do I talk to? I have no money to develop the game myself, and from what I have read around here, publishing companies charge 60-70% in royaltees, without giving you money in advance. Is there another way to get your game on the shelves? (also consider the abstraction that I DO have money to develop it)

as it's been said many times before i'll be brief. sadly, having just a design document will get you nothing from anyone. everyone and their mother has a design document. if you want any hope of ever seeing your game on the shelves you will need a pretty kickass WORKING game demo to show people. so assemble a team of volunteers and start coding! if you want your game to actually be published as in found on store shelves you will also need people on your team that have shipped completed games commercially before. publishers will NOT look even for a second at funding/publishing a team of people who have never shipped a big title before. they will of course publish a kickass completed game, but the chances of making it "kickass" on zero budget is very slim. you need a lot of people working full times for a long time (at least 1-2 years) to create anything considered "kickass" (at least as the publishers see it) these days.

if you are just starting out, your best bet is to shoot for producing a playable version of your game and releasing it for free or as shareware.

good luck

-me

[edited by - Palidine on March 30, 2004 2:31:38 PM]

papiot,
You didn't tell us anything about your level of skill/experience so it is hard to know if the document is even going to be of any use as a working tool for development.

Moving on from that issue I have to agree with everything Palidine said. No publisher will fund the development of your game unless it is being developed by an experienced development team. No experienced team will look at your idea (unless you can pay them to make the game) as they have more than enough ideas of their own.

You have three options
1. Win the lotto/borrow the money to fund the development* and hire a company to do it.
2. Try to assemble a hobby team to make the game. The chances of success are very slim and the chances that success will lead to a smash hit chart topping titles are even slimmer - but it might happen.
3. Get a degree and a useful skill (level design, art or programming), get an entry level job in the industry, work your way up for a few years and once experienced set up your own company and get a publishing deal.

Conclusion
If you aren't willing to put in the effort to get the game made it is unlikely that you will convince anyone else that they should make it for you. Your question is very frequently asked and a full run down of the reasons why no one is interested can be found at http://www.obscure.co.uk/faq_idea.shtml

Dan Marchant
Obscure Productions (www.obscure.co.uk)
Game Development & Design consultant

*This will almost certainly be in excess of US$25 million as people who "have a game design" always have an idea at least twice as large as any commercially viable project.

[edited by - obscure on March 31, 2004 2:54:05 AM]

i want to add to this discussion that it could be a good idea to develop a prototype of your game. this way you actually have something to show to investors and to hire future team members.
OTOH the prototype could even show that your idea actually doesn''t work out in the real world (i.e. too complex to develop, too boring,..), so it would mean back to the drawing board for a while.

however, there are many game engines available for free and some people might be willing to help coding and doing some art.

good luck with your project.

How about a game that is released online, and can only be purchased online? Sure, that would require much more marketing and advertising, but wouldnt it be a better alternative for low-budget game projects?

Also, another thing that I have thought about:

Reading slashdot.org for a long time, I came to the conclusion that if the game is worth it, people will buy it. And a huge market area would be Linux enviroment. If a game is good, and it comes ready for linux "off the shelf", then a lot of linux users would buy it.

I don''t think linux users buy anything. If you are looking to make money on it, go where people actually pay for stuff (rather than the crowd who thinks all software should be free as in free beer).

Online or self publishing are both options but you will need funding for sales/marketing/PR as well as development.

As for the suggestion of Linux I agree with AP. Linux users don''t pay for software. Stick to PC, it is a far better market.

Dan Marchant
Obscure Productions (www.obscure.co.uk)
Game Development & Design consultant

Interesting to read that publishers charge you 60% to 70% royalties. What do you expect if they use their money and reources to market it? I''m all for equality but only if you pull your own weight.