After many years working on Wall Street, I've though of an idea for a iphone/android/online game which I'd like to explore. Given I have 0 development experience and don't have either the time or money to learn how to bring my idea to life, I'm looking for some help. I'm based in NYC and have reached out to a couple "web/app development" companies but am wondering if this is the way to go. Does anyone have any experience working with any of these? If so, is this a good way to have my idea created? If my idea turns successful, I would want to market the game and it would require a full-time team.

I'm bouncing you to the Business forum, where you should get better coverage.

... idea for a iphone/android/online game
... I have 0 development experience
... I don't have either the time or money to bring my idea to life
... I'm looking for some help

Analogue:

I have an idea for building a mansion.
I have no experience with architecture or real estate.
I don't have any money, and I don't have any time to do it myself.


When it comes to custom software like your own games, you need to either build it yourself or fund it yourself.

Ideas are practically free; I have a few hundred ideas I'd like to see made into games. Many people on the board similarly have their own collections of ideas.

You cannot sell an idea by itself. You can only sell an implementation of the idea.

See this forum's FAQs for more on the topic. It is one of the most frequently asked questions.

So you have a game idea. What you need is a business idea -- a plan for what to do with your game once it's made. Because making the game is easy, compared with the rest of it.
http://sloperama.com/advice/idea.htm
http://sloperama.com/advice/lesson11.htm
http://sloperama.com/advice/article60.htm

This is what we think every time someone comes with "an idea" (skip to minute 2:00)

After many years working on Wall Street, I've though of an idea for a iphone/android/online game which I'd like to explore. Given I have 0 development experience and don't have either the time or money to learn how to bring my idea to life, I'm looking for some help.

This is a bit contradictory; many years working on Wall Street should have granted you access to people more than capable of funding a game development team; or orienting you towards recommendations to the right contacts to start up. Anyway, Tom Slopper's advices are right on spot and very complete.

This is what we think every time someone comes with "an idea" (skip to minute 2:00)

"You called me Nancy for three years"?
"Jimmy wasn't the reason I wet the bed"?

At time 2:00; the bully throws his idea about a pair of glasses that can make any movie you like into 3D; although he has no clue how to do it, he's expecting to get half the credit. A bit extreme of what we usually see, but makes make the point.

At time 2:00; the bully throws his idea about a pair of glasses that can make any movie you like into 3D; although he has no clue how to do it, he's expecting to get half the credit. A bit extreme of what we usually see, but makes make the point.

I suppose it makes a point about how an idea can sound to the person hearing it -- but from the wording of the link, I was expecting to hear a game-applicable funny quip in reaction to the bully's idea. My bad for letting "this is what we think" raise my expectations too high!

Perhaps a better example of how ridiculous the Big Bang bully's idea is, is the story of Frank Herbert (author of Dune). A good friend of his asked Herbert to author the friend's idea and split the profits 50/50. Herbert refused, even though the guy was a good friend -- Herbert's reply was basically that ideas are easy; the writing is the hard part. Think about it for a minute -- his friend would utter a few sentences, then Herbert would have had to spend months hunched over a keyboard turning those few sentences into the Great American Novel. Not an equitable exchange.

Finance guy + idea = slim to no chance making game (devs don't need your ideas)
Finance guy + idea + money = better chance of making (devs will listen to your idea and maybe build it in exchange for cash)
Finance guy + idea + money + biz plan to market game = much better chance (devs + investors will listen to your idea and possibly want to fund it)

There are numerous designers, consultants, marketers, producers and strategists who will talk your ears off about the hazards of game development if you buy them a beer at GDC. Or you can just read Tom's website which covers more ground then most.