Have you guys seen this

http://software.intel.com/en-us/contests/levelup2010/contests.php

just a little ironic that you guys are posting all this fluff about how useless a game idea is etc etc but Intel is going out of their way to get people to enter their ideas in some comp.

tend to lead me to the conclusion that ideas are worth nothing agreed, but good ones are worth LOTS AND LOTS!

at ease gentlemen!

If i have not made myself completely clear, ill try to clear it up again...

I just want some ideas on what to do with my idea?

Options:

- Share it with you all
- Enter it into the Intel Game Design Contest
- Pitch it to a large company
- Make a prototype myself
- Get a crew together to make it indy style

etc etc

so if anyone out there can offer some more info (i.e. a good way to go considering the Pros adn cons) on these or suggest any others then please assist.

P.S. >WavyVirus< To say that i have no credibility is also insulting and untrue. I have not made any games alone granted but i do have a Bachelor degree in Games from a credible college, have my name on a 15 million dollar AAA game, and have a long list of personal achievements related to Design, IT, Art etc. SO please watch what you imply when posting here.

Something else to say, but i wont bother becasue id rather keep my knowledge to myself judging from the quality of the last few posters.

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Original post by TarickTDS Have you guys seen this http://software.intel.com/en-us/contests/levelup2010/contests.php just a little ironic that you guys are posting all this fluff about how useless a game idea is etc etc but Intel is going out of their way to get people to enter their ideas in some comp.

The Intel competition actually requires a game demo to be submitted - it's not just based on a game concept. Also, all entries have an overview of the gameplay ideas posted publicly. In fact, I think you need to read the judging criterea again, as this competition is squarely focused on the implementation of the game:

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Level Up Contest Rules Entries in the “Best Game for a Desktop” category will be scored based on frames per second, thread scaling, and use of available cores to enhance the user experience via physics, artificial intelligence, or perceptible improvements.

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Original post by TarickTDS The motivation however for one of the lucky dip proposals is that if you are willing to spend a measly $0 and a few moments to read over and sign an NDA you may get in on the ground level of a great idea. And it is a gamble, but man get a grip dude, its not like im asking them to divorce their wife and sell their house before they can take a look at the details.

I didn't mean to suggest that it would require a massive amount of effort to sign an NDA, just to point out that it does impose an opportunity cost which, when you consider the number of team-assembly posts, many indies are unlikely to accept on the off-chance that the idea is truly a great one. There is also nothing really to suggest that a private idea is likely to be better than the ones which are made more public, so most of the indie's time will be spent investigating these games instead. So, while you offer the developer a chance to "get in at the ground level of a great idea", the developer statistically has a better chance of getting involved with a good idea by spending their time reading lots of open proposals and choosing the most attractive one than by applying to a handful of these closed ideas, which probably take 10-100x as much time and effort to investigate.

My point was not about the massive cost of signing an NDA, but the fickleness of internet users, which I think you underestimate. Consider the amount of work that advertisers and web designers put in to ensure that their products are are accessible as possible - web traffic is like a flowing river of people with very short attention spans, where even a tiny barrier to entry can reduce click-throughs massively. To gain attention you have to present something shiny enough to hook some of this passing traffic, and requiring the signing of a legal document before revealing any of the attractive features of your proposal doesn't seem like an effective way to do this. By all means give a brief pitch and require an NDA to access the GDD.

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Original post by TarickTDS P.S. >WavyVirus< To say that i have no credibility is also insulting and untrue. I have not made any games alone granted but i do have a Bachelor degree in Games from a credible college, have my name on a 15 million dollar AAA game, and have a long list of personal achievements related to Design, IT, Art etc. SO please watch what you imply when posting here.

I didn't say that you had no credibility. I suggested that you didn't have a track record of coming up with the kind of game-changing ideas which would automatically give your non-disclosed idea a level of credibility which might warrant such guardedness - don't take this as a personal attack, I would consider only a few industry leaders to actually have this kind of track record. Also, while your work in other areas may well set you apart from the people making the other myriad proposals, success in one area does not automatically transfer to game design. Not to belittle your achievements, but while a game credit would certainly help you to attract some great team members if you were a bit more open with your idea, I doubt it's enough to convince people of its quality before they hear it.

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Original post by TarickTDS Something else to say, but i wont bother becasue id rather keep my knowledge to myself judging from the quality of the last few posters.

It just seems like you don't like what you are hearing, but have you considered that these same low quality posters are precisely the indie audience your pitch would be aimed at? The fact that we fairly unanimously suggest you might be on the wrong track is worth considering, or do you expect the members of another game development forum to give you a different answer? We are simply being honest and speaking from our own experience, which includes several non-disclosed game ideas which received precisely zero interest.

[Edited by - WavyVirus on June 6, 2010 11:42:47 AM]

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Original post by TarickTDS I just want some ideas on what to do with my idea? Options: - Share it with you all - Enter it into the Intel Game Design Contest - Pitch it to a large company - Make a prototype myself - Get a crew together to make it indy style

1. You can do that if you want. It's unlikely anybody will steal it.
2. Sure, you can do that if you want.
3. Did you read that link I gave you before? Also read http://www.sloperama.com/advice/lesson11.htm and http://www.sloperama.com/advice/lesson21.htm
4. Sure, you can do that if you're able. Read http://www.sloperama.com/advice/lesson56.htm
5. Sure, you can do that too. Read http://www.sloperama.com/advice/lesson16.htm and http://www.sloperama.com/advice/article60.htm

Sounds like what you need to do is gather information about those 5 options (read those articles for starters), then make an informed decision. Read http://www.sloperama.com/advice/m70.htm

Is it just me, or are there a lot of super-secret billion-dollar ideas floating around cloaked in mystery this summer?

TarickTDS, your art looks pretty good, and I like your haircut, but you are presenting a bit of a paradox with the rest of your information. You claim to know nothing or next to nothing about how games get made, but you bandy about estimates for team size and project duration and difficulty of the work as though you've done all this before.

My advice to you is to get in touch with the folks you worked with on past projects, see how they get their ideas realized, and use their experiences to inform your plans.

And of course read all the links Tom offered you. His stuff is very accessible and contains a lot of good insight.