They must flip a coin to make those kinds of decisions, it certainly isn't based on experience, knowledge, or ability.  I am proof of that.

1 minute ago, Kavik Kang said:

They must flip a coin to make those kinds of decisions, it certainly isn't based on experience, knowledge, or ability.  I am proof of that.

 

Or maybe, just maybe, it's something else. One (or multiple) of a myriad of possibilities for things they can dislike. You are a single data point. You are not proof of how the entire game industry works. You not being hired as a designer is not proof of designers never being hired.

What there is proof of, is that there are game designers being hired, not only promoted from QA, programming or any other field.

Continuing to ignore this actual proof is something I would suggest you stop doing.

I don't want to get into this discussion, I will just get banned again.  Instead, I wasn't planning on posting this until next month, but I might as well go post my almost certain to fail attempt at assembling an indie team to make Space Hockey over in the indie games forum.  It's... obliquely relevant, and there is no reason not to post it here a month early.  I'll hold off on posting it to other indie sites until next month like I was planning.

All I'll say here is that if 40 years of experience, and the literal holy grail of simulation design that is the fundamental basis of "The Matrix", draws no interest at all and yet you will readily hire any 20-year-old... you must be flipping coins to make these decisions.

I think you already have a good idea on the realism of this project, BUT, I'm gonna tell you that I (and probably most people here) started with over the top dreams. One of my first game ideas almost 10 years ago was a Lord of the rings story driven MMO like a Witcher 3 online, but with better graphics and bigger world. ?

I actually put a lot of effort to reach that dream. Now, I'm still a million years from that, but it's the dream that kept me working hard and I'm now capable of making all kinds of simpler games. With that being said, it's not impossible if you work with other people. Huge games like Witcher 3 were really just kids dreams in the first place.

13 hours ago, Myopic Rhino said:

I don't know of any companies that would even entertain letting them pitch you an idea, unless you're willing to fund it. If they rejected it, but happened to develop something similar, they'd be opening themselves for a lawsuit.

Not a 100% good example (nor a success story, nor an individual): Ideas from the Deep (the predecessor of id Software) built a clone of Mario on the PC to convince Nintendo to give them a contract. As impressed as they were, the Japanese firm wanted the Mario series to remain exclusive to Nintendo consoles.

If you wanted to make a game of AAA quality, its basically impossible unless you have 100 devs and a couple million dollars. Game development is always going to be very difficult for one person, as they alone have to implement programming, writing, artwork, animation, AI, marketing, etc. Unless you have the money to pay people it is going to be a long, tough, frustrating road. Especially if you are starting from scratch and have no prior knowledge in Game Development. 

There is a silver lining to this condescending statement of mine though  

Many game engines such as Unity and Unreal offer a plethora of good, cheap (many times free), easy tutorials that can teach you everything you need to know. You can also find many experienced contractors around here who will help you with your game for free in exchange for royalties on your profits. It is a long, hard, wretched hive of scum and villainy that will only be worth it if you are truly passionate about making games.

So to answer your question: No you aren't dreaming too high, but it will take time and practice... and a little bit of help wouldn't hurt.

19 hours ago, Anri said:

One can only admire your dream to create a DS inspired game - I guess we are all here because of one game or another that inspired us to take up games development...

As soon as games began to add full motion video,  3D graphics and and enhanced sound and music, the days of a single person making a game were pretty much over.  The time that happened was back when the first Playstation arrived during the mid-90s.

That said, could not you scale your dream down to something more managable?  If you truly want to go it alone, then perhaps you could aim for something in the "16-bit era".   Dark Souls is obviously a 3D world hack-n-slash game, but I could easily see the possibility of an overhead 2D game.  Granted, it would be simplified in comparision, and you would have to put in some serious hard graft...but it could be done. 

what sort of game could i reasonably expect to create in 1 year?

What do know now?  Do you know how to make pixel art? 3d modeling? 2d or 3d animation? any programming experience? 

3 minutes ago, Infinisearch said:

What do know now?  Do you know how to make pixel art? 3d modeling? 2d or 3d animation? any programming experience? 

i have some knowledge of c#  not much more then the necessary to make pickups objects, i have some knowledge of 3d modeling but nothing spectacular i'm not on the level of making humans and i definitively suck at 3d animation

i have a lot of free time so learning stuff wouldn't be problem unless its something really hard to learn, i also don't mind using unity3d

2 minutes ago, ObjectivityGuy said:

i have some knowledge of c#  not much more then the necessary to make pickups objects

Is this a reference to unity?  If not what do you mean by 'pickups'?

3 minutes ago, ObjectivityGuy said:

i have a lot of free time so learning stuff wouldn't be problem unless its something really hard to learn, i also don't mind using unity3d

If you are using Unity the hardest part will be getting in game art if you can't afford assets from the unity asset store.  Art will essentially be your limiting factor.  If you come up with a game idea with a clear picture of the game rules coding it won't be that hard if you're using unity since there are lots of unity tutorials available on how unity does things.  If you're quick at picking up things and can be logical at breaking down problems I'd say you could make a pretty good game in a year, but only if you can get your hands on art assets.  But as is commonly recommended on this website start smaller... breakout, tic-tac-toe, space invaders ....  So spend year one on smaller projects that build up your skills and problem solving ability.  Then move on to something bigger.