When you look at the current system it's flawed, and explains the failure rates. Its the gates, zuckerburg approach, where one person holds all the power, screws over their friends, takes all the profits. As a result, their not liked, the only way they acquire new ideas is by buying them from other people. Their approach is wrong, it's a 1 person show, the further from reality they get, the worse their companies do. This applies to video games also.

Many of you need to realise, angry birds was a fluke, most games require story. For real success requires more than a game or book, but a much larger multi media strategy, an example have a musician or 2, make some game themed music, can play that music in the animated shows you make, the game, maybe make them a music video. Your able to cross many layres of media content, helping further the general concept.

The approach i mention above is a winning strategy, it allows a dozen or more unknown people to come together and make the next star wars.

The idea being you map out the galaxy, you fill in a lot of the blanks, you create a time line. From that everything else is possible. You make your wookipedia page, which collects all content from all your projects. If I learned anything from star wars, after a while you slap a star wars sticker on something, and instant millions. The bigger picture, you in time are invited to comicon events, and raise the profile higher.

Look at star trek… they destroyed their timeline… it goes on, but many of the changes have ruined the franchise. Star wars, no one wants to say it, but strip out the special effects, and you wont have a coherent story. They have a zombie emperor return from the dead, it's all way over the top. They have lost the ability to relate with the average person. Its become a quest to make a bigger badder monster, of a person. They have fleets of star destroyers, they just destroyed a bunch of rebel planets, the leader didn't have the brains to send 2 star destroyers to defend the planet. The planet was done being useful after the 2nd time firing, it consumed both suns in the system… they would have needed the star destroyers to evacuate the planet anyways, it no longer could sustain life. This is a perfect example of why a time line and smart people are needed…

Launcher111 said:
When you look at the current system it's flawed, and explains the failure rates.

The failure rates for writers are just as high as they are for game developers.

Launcher111 said:
Many of you need to realise, angry birds was a fluke, most games require story.

Most game developers are not making Angry Birds or anything like it. Many are making games with no stories and there are several advantages to that.

Many games do however require story, and for those we employ narrative designers and writers to create stories for games. It is better to work directly with a writer who is familiar with games and is able to create the narrative around the technical constraints. Game development is very expensive compared to writing fiction and therefore if the two are working together the technical needs of the game take precedence.

Game developers are generally uninterested in books - or any other creative property - unless that work is already popular and comes with an audience hungry to see a game. Otherwise, there are no guaranteed benefits and several potential downsides.

The majority of start up games (pong, pinball, side scrollers, the atari and Dos style games) those games are not on the scale of a decent book. How ever by that logic, successful books become movies, which is a step higher on the book career path, that would be more important and powerful than any game.

The thought behind this is take my book… on its own is only a book, a one off game is simply that… The money is in tying these things together. The book sells games, and the game sells books. Both sides profit, and then i make another book, you make another game, in the process, make some animated videos. Make a few atari and dos type games. Dropping a game every few years is a slow process with the fan base with nothing to do in the mean time. Making a sustainable franchise is where a real career in the industry with the rewards of your labor are benefiting. You are able to self promote your own content, without handing your content over to other companies.

Launcher111 said:
The money is in tying these things together.

It's a nice idea - but that's not how the games industry works, sorry. Best of luck with your book.

Kylotan said:

Launcher111 said:
The money is in tying these things together.

It's a nice idea - but that's not how the games industry works, sorry. Best of luck with your book.

It's exactly that… Star Wars, Star Trek, the NFL, NBA, MLS, MLB, NHL, NCAA, jurassic park games, lego games, dungeons and dragons, world of warcraft, have the battlestar games, stargate games, farscape game, aliens and predator games. Just with the sport games, they have spanned decades, and will continue without end. Why? Endless content from year to year to update. It's the same basic game year to year. Other games wouldn't survive such a trick. You have fan bases established by the real on field games, which promote the game. If they made a game, using fake players, a fake league, their sales wouldn't even slightly approach that of the real leagues game.

I will put it in this context if you make a sci-fi game and your main characters last name is skywalker with a flash light checking out house levels in tattoine, or an unknown made up character in the best built indie game of the year… which game would sell more copies?

Many of them games are 7 or 8 figures for the rights to make them. Madden 7 years ago reportedly spent 50 million dollars a year for the players rights to use them in the game, and 2 million for the madden name, and exclusive rights to use the players. Can anyone here afford that? That was 7 years ago, its likely 70-100 million dollars now.

This is the top of the video game pyramid. The cost for quality content isn't cheap, and yes the content sells these games more than the game.

What i need is a smart development group, controlling both sides of the equation, the content and the game, but smart enough to realize one aspect on its own is pretty screwed. The other side holds you hostage. The concept of reasonable expectations, my book wont be compared to the illiad or the odsey, on the other hand, i highly doubt the coders i would be working with are making the next skyrim. Together our final projects would be far stronger together, than apart.

Having no story at all, or content? The ability to get noticed though multiple pathways increases your ability to make a living at videogames.

Launcher111 said:
It's exactly that… Star Wars, Star Trek, the NFL, NBA, MLS, MLB, NHL, NCAA, jurassic park games, lego games, dungeons and dragons, world of warcraft, have the battlestar games, stargate games, farscape game, aliens and predator games.

These are examples of tying a game to an existing successful product. When you have an existing successful book, I'm sure you will find a video game developer who is interested.

Kylotan said:

Launcher111 said:
It's exactly that… Star Wars, Star Trek, the NFL, NBA, MLS, MLB, NHL, NCAA, jurassic park games, lego games, dungeons and dragons, world of warcraft, have the battlestar games, stargate games, farscape game, aliens and predator games.

These are examples of tying a game to an existing successful product. When you have an existing successful book, I'm sure you will find a video game developer who is interested.

Of course, but as your aware, the average developer group can't compete with these companies offers. They buy exclusive rights, if not the entire franchise. I receive my mountain of cash and let my concept be dragged into the mud, I have my name in the credits. And a nice small mansion somewhere. I actually do care what my name is stamped on, i know my book and galaxy i constructed is awesome. What direction Im coming from is do I take others on the ride to the top with me. An example sitting on a comicon stage with an interviewer… it sounds dull… can start each sentence off with “back in my day”… the temptation to sell out is lessened when you have a group.

I've had developer friends buy “help”… lets just say lack of quality…. You hire developers, its like any contractor… if you have no clue how coding works, all of the sudden that 2 month 100,000 game is in its 21st month of development at 380,000 in cost.

The truth is I enjoy what ive created, and would like to spend decades filling it in.