I've seen post on here before "ZOMG best idea ever!!!1" talking about wanting to sell it to a big name company and have it made. The resounding response is, "Not going to happen, they will never even listen to you due to legal implications". My question is, suppose I happened to have a fantastic idea, and I went through getting it all set up so all I need to do now is have it developed. But, I don't want to sell it or care at all about making money off it. I just want it to be made, and correctly. So, I would just sign over all rights to the game free of charge, which gives no legal issues to the company I'd propose it to. The only catch being that they have to agree to make it. Coming from people who may know a thing or two about this, is that something that could realistically happen? Thanks for your time.

I'm not in the industry, so take this with a mouthful of salt.

Im assuming (but maybe im wrong) that you have not written hundreds of pages detailing this idea into a full game. If you haven't then there is nothing special about what you want to give away with the assurance of it being made. They have lots and lots of ideas and don't need more. If you have papers written well enough, with illustration to show what you are envisioning, then you might ba able to knock their socks off and get them to make it, at which point they might be willing to pay for it. But I doubt there is room under that for them to want to make it but not be willing to pay you for it. Besides. to get there you will have to do a LOT of work, if you are willing to do that, you are probably able and willing to make the game yourself. If you arent, then the likely hood is, the industry wont care about your idea.

fdom wrote:
>I don't want to sell it or care at all about making money off it. I just want it to be made... is that something that could realistically happen?

No. Read this: http://www.sloperama.com/advice/lesson21.htm. Read it thoroughly - your precise question is addressed.

I have about 20 pages written thus far, and I'm only into the beginning of the game, I fully intend to finish out and do an entire design document, my problem is that I'm no artist, 3D modeler, animation expert, or computer programmer. I know what I want the game to do, what I want it to look like, where I want it to take place, the whole story. So,.. yes. I'm going to finish writing this story in its entirety, write up the design documents, make some sketches of what I want, to the best of my ability. Then I'd like to get some studio to create it. Is that possible?

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Original post by fdominek The resounding response is, "Not going to happen, they will never even listen to you due to legal implications".

That's the response when the idea is something like "i want to make a new chrono trigger game" where you want to use someone else's IP in a new project. (hence the legal implications) If this is the type of idea you have, then yes it will most definately be shutdown, and the company won't even listen to your proposal. And if you go ahead and make it on your own, and it gets any sort of publicity, then you will most likely get a cease and desist letter (IE stop or we'll sue). If its an original idea, than again no, a company won't hear your idea and make the game for you. What if you pitch them an idea that they were already thinking of themselves (fairly unlikely, but still possible). Now they have to pay you for an idea they'd already thought of. So why would they even want to hear your idea, unless they've already hired you as their idea guy.

So, no, most companies won't make your original game for you, or even hear a pitch for it. And if its an idea involving someone else's IP, then not only will noone listen, but it will be shutdown if you attempt to get it made.

So here are your options; A) develop it yourself, in private, for your own enjoyment, and don't let anyone know about it. B) meet one of the bigwigs of the company on the street or at a restaurant or something, make friends with him, and casually reveal your idea so that he can then have the company make it for you. C) learn to program and come to an understanding that the number of new ideas is infinite, the actual amount of work that goes into a game is enormous, and that companies are generally interested in making lots of money; true artistic integrity, especially for an entire company, is exceedingly rare.

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Original post by fdominek I've seen post on here before "ZOMG best idea ever!!!1" talking about wanting to sell it to a big name company and have it made. The resounding response is, "Not going to happen, they will never even listen to you due to legal implications". My question is, suppose I happened to have a fantastic idea, and I went through getting it all set up so all I need to do now is have it developed. But, I don't want to sell it or care at all about making money off it. I just want it to be made, and correctly. So, I would just sign over all rights to the game free of charge, which gives no legal issues to the company I'd propose it to. The only catch being that they have to agree to make it. Coming from people who may know a thing or two about this, is that something that could realistically happen?

Unfortunately, the answer is still almost certainly no.

The thing is, even if you're giving your idea away, the actual implementation of a commercial game still takes a considerable amount of time and money.

Now, place yourself in the role of someone in a position to make these sorts of decisions. Suppose you have sufficient cash to fund the development of one AAA game. Whatever you spend your money on has to be sufficiently commercially successful to recoup the money in full, accounting for inflation over two years, interest, support costs etc, and have some left over for profit. Do you

a) Spend your cash to develop a game idea from a seasoned veteran, who has several successful completed games under his belt, has already got an established working relationship with you inside your company, has demonstrated a good understanding of the marketability of his concept and his target audience, and is going to be working full time to see the development of the project through from start to finish, making concessions and modifications where necessary to meet budget, time and marketing constraints, or do you:

b) Spend your cash to develop a game idea given to you by some random guy off the internet who just wants you to do it 'right'.

Looks like my only option is going to be posting in "Help Wanted" a few months or year from now, hopefully picking up some people who want to contribute, and build my own development team. I appreciate all of the input from you guys, though naturally it wasn't what I hoped for. (How often do you get what you really want easily in life :-) ) I look forward to possibly discussing aspects of my game on here in the future.

Add C) Spend it on a game that is almost sure to fail, but you're getting paid by Hollywood.

Then you got a good list going there.

Anyway, it seems too much like a no. But I'm guessing some of the people here might do it, if they're bored and think your idea is good. Emphasis on might, since everyone got their own ideas and using another's is not preferred as they might no think its as good as their own.

Odd, I always assumed the legal implications were from happening to make a game similar to the pitched idea (which has some serious copyright implications). You could probably avoid this with licensing it under Creative Commons public domain (a side, unrelated thought, I really wish the government would establish a damn public domain patent system). Note, of course, you can only do that if you don't have licensed characters and such in your GDD, and furthermore my solution is irrelevant if my assumption was wrong.

The only way I really see you getting close to your goal is establishing a personal relationship with a professional game designer. Then maybe you might chat about an idea he thought was super-cool and he might use it. If what you care about most is the game mechanics, then you could make a demo, and if it's clever enough, someone might really like it and put it in a bigger game (see: Narbacular Drop and Portal).

Still, the best way to get your game done the way you want is to either
a.) Make it yourself
or
b.) Keep it perfect in dreamland

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Original post by fdominek Looks like my only option is going to be posting in "Help Wanted" a few months or year from now, hopefully picking up some people who want to contribute, and build my own development team.

Good to see you've got a positive attitude - you're going to need it. Making it yourself is probably your best chance of success, but it is still going to be far from easy.

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my problem is that I'm no artist, 3D modeler, animation expert, or computer programmer

Before you start thinking about a team, you need to figure out exactly what your contribution to the realisation of your game idea is going to be. A pure 'ideas man' is largely deadweight in a small indie team, and if you cannot contribute something concrete to the actual realisation of your idea, you may well find it hard to actually get a decent team together at all. Developing a game is a lot of work, and it's not easy to ask other people to sacrifice their time for your project if you're sitting around with your thumb up your arse daydreaming.