The new forums will be named Coin Return (based on the most recent vote)! You can check on the status and timeline of the transition to the new forums here.
The Guiding Principles and New Rules document is now in effect.
I have an idea for a game... where to start?
Molotov
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
So i've been working on this book for the past 2 years and just recently started showing it to friends and family for feedback. Someone suggested that it would make an awesome RPG, but instead of dragons you have 200lb Rottweilers chasing you through the city.
Gaming has been my hobby since i was 5, but im an Accountant and have no idea were i would start if i wanted to make this game a reality. Any suggestions on where I can get more information?
Gaming has been my hobby since i was 5, but im an Accountant and have no idea were i would start if i wanted to make this game a reality. Any suggestions on where I can get more information?
"I must've broke a mirror at three and had bad luck for seven
Cuz pops slid, and mommy died before I turned eleven" -50cent
Cuz pops slid, and mommy died before I turned eleven" -50cent
Molotov on
0
Posts
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
Second step would be to forget the game and go live on an island.
And actually be good at it.
Edit: Sorry about that, but since you aren't giving us any information about said idea, well I really have no reason to even think its good. I mean I believe myself to have sweet ideas, but never actually write the ideas out. One idea was an Angel MMO. You deck out your own angel and then go fight the good fight during the fictional battle between Heaven and Hell. Base it off of the Divine Comedy with the 9 different levels of Heaven/Hell. So, there would be nine different "worlds" each. PVP would be all throughout special sectors from each level, and whoever controls those sectors controls the entire level of heaven or hell. Each level would change accordingly, so you could have Satan ruling over Levels 1-4 in Hell, and 9 and 3 in Heaven, etc. Special quests would open up during these times, Like raid against the Archangel. And it would all be based on a Real-Time fighting engine that let you zip around with your angel during battle, because what's the beauty of being an angel when you can't friggin fly? Sounds sweet to me anyway.
So, unless you have some friends who are willing to help write a game, I wouldn't hope too hard.
If you don't want to go through the trouble (and, to be realistic, unlikelihood) of having it published, it might be quite feasible to teach yourself Flash and create it that way (or, find someone else who knows Flash and would like to work with you).
And heck, if you manage to really pull it off, maybe you can wind up having some success with it (See: flOw).
I second this emotion. Pick up a couple books on Flash, work yourself into a flash community (Newgrounds is a great place to find animator/programmer teams), and just produce the game yourself. Good games, regardless of format (web/console/etc) speak for themselves.
I forewarn you however, an unbranded RPG is virtually impossible to place with a publisher. Its slightly depressing but anything that doesn't have a brand tied to it isn't very appealing to publishers. In short, the best way to get your game made is to put the idea on the backburner, focus on getting an industry job, and from there begin to pitch your game.
My suggestion is to learn a coding language (unfortunately, game programming is the last thing you'll learn to do - you probably have to understand the language as a whole to program one), such as C++. Or use a game-building engine (such as Game Maker or RPG Maker) and make your game there, as you can always "upgrade it" to a new language.
If you have a small idea and have a knack for hiring a few good, young people on the cheap.. you might be able to make enough headway that you could at least shop your shit around to publishers.
Pokemans D/P: 1289 4685 0522
If I'm reading that correctly, couldn't he also continue on his current path? That is, finish the book and get it published. If it's a best seller (or at least sells decently), then he has a brand that he can market with proof that there is interest in the story.
That being said, I would get the idea, storyline, and mechanics written out in a formal manner and get it copyrighted. A lot of mediums, such as screenwriting for instance, are very strict on the guidelines and format before anyone will even consider it or read the first sentence. I'm not sure about what the exact guidelines are for a game, because as it's been stated and discussed before here, most writers for games are existing employees, it's not too often that a company goes outside for ideas or writing. But just getting those ideas down, as well as some business-plan like assessments (the demographic it will target, how approachable the game will be, examples of similar games in the genre and their success, etc) should be a good start. And definitely an agent or at least a copyright before you submit it to anyone.
Once that is done, getting into flash is a good way to make that idea presentable, as has already been mentioned. Also there are some good 3d animation and graphics rendering programs (Lightwave, Vue, Zbrush to name a few) that would be good to start with. The goal is to make this idea presentable, to make it stick out as not just an idea that looks good on paper, but something that can actually be made into a game.
As far as where to go from there, one of the hardest parts is actually getting someone to look at the results. Like the movie industry, not many companies will look at unsolicited ideas. Being persistant can help, getting in touch with someone at the company and convincing them to take 5 minutes to look at what you have. This is where an agent can help. Also there are some contests for freelance game creation and 3d animation, and many times entering these is a good way to get some attention. Some companies will actually look at the winners and entries in the contests for ideas (as well as for employees), and sometimes it's at least something to add to your resume and convince somebody that your idea is worth taking a look at.
Good luck, and regardless of whether or not you succeed, doing something like this is always an invaluable learning experience.
I've been getting some very good feedback on my book (which is loosely based on my life experiences), so in a way the game would be based off it. The basic plot is about a kid grows up to be a product of his environment, in this case his environment is not the healthiest or one that lends itself to "success" as defined by the american dream. As he gets older he sees how those choices as a youngster shaped his life and he now wants a taste of a different type of "success." I'm imagining a cross between Fable and The Godfather games, were your actions affect your environment, businesses being taking over or destroyed and in the end you decide if your character will be good or evil. I wish I could provide more details, but i've just began focusing on translating the book into the game.
Cuz pops slid, and mommy died before I turned eleven" -50cent
http://www.garagegames.com/
http://www.greatgamesexperiment.com/
Not really. When I say "branded" I mean "branded with a valuable license". If the brand is virtually unknown its not really all that valuable.
However if his book became a best-seller then, yes, that you be a valuable license (though not necessarily for the interactive space).
I don't mean that snidely, I'm honestly curious. The only ones I can think of are the books that became movies, then games (or games developed at the same time as the movie). I can't think of any novels that became games without having a movie first.
Edit: and to add some content, I would say that the first step would be to get your original story read by people other than friends and family. They are the most likely to lie to you to make you feel good about yourself. If you haven't already, get it to someone (ideally several someones) whose opinions you respect and who wouldn't pull any punches.
1.)If it's just for the satisfaction of doing it, you could make it in Flash and put it on NewGrounds, but it would get lost among all the other forgettable garbage regardless of how good it is. Since you're doing it just for yourself, that doesn't matter much, and is a satisfactory option.
2.)Do you want to make it "big" in the indie game scene? Flash is respectable, but not impressive. You may want to upgrade to a game maker like Game Maker or Torque. You can only expect modest profits, but you'll get recognition from people more palatable than the general audience of NewGrounds. The downside is that you'll need to learn programming yourself (even if using something like Game Maker) or pay other people to code it for you.
3.)Do you want an established developer to make your idea into a game? It's so unlikely that it's essentially a waste of time. Most develpment studios trash game ideas without even looking at them as a company policy, because they don't want to be accused of plagiarism if your idea contains similarities to something they already have in production. If you want to shop your game around to publishers, you'll need to start out independently as I described in the previous paragraph, and create a working demo of the game to show people.
Regardless of which of those three options you choose, you're going to first need a design document where you describe everything in very specific detail. From the title screen to the ending credits, write down exactly how everything will work, look and feel (even down to color choices and button assignments). Then, your lead programmer (probably you) will write out a technical document of proposed implementations to everything. Your artists (also you), will be working in parallel to the programmers in achieving a coherent art direction compatible with your design document. Of course, you could completely abandon documentation, but that doesn't go over very well when working with a team or a publisher.
http://www.gamedev.net/reference/start_here/
GDnet is one of the best game developer sites on the entire Internet. If you plan on creating a game on your own, you should check it out, because they have a heavy emphasis on programming. There are also a number of industry vets on the forums that answer common hobbyist questions. I do encourage reading the "start here" page and forum FAQ before posting, because there are tons upon tons of questions answered in those documents that people crowd the forums with anyway.
LotR games were made LONG before the movies, but thats all I can think of.
It's a heck of a lot of work, though. My projects are 2d and they are moving slow.
1- The big studios and publishers aren't interested in your idea. They'll rarely even look at the ideas of the game designers under their employ, so you have virtually no chance there.
2- Smaller studios might be interested, but at the same time, these studios are usually running under tight financial constraints, which means they rarely consider "risky" projects, and mostly go for "safe" stuff, like branded/franchise games, or clones of hit games.
3- Trying to sell an RPG idea is a losing proposition, because RPGs are among the most costly types of games to make, because they tend to take a lot of time to play through (it's not uncommon for RPGs to require 20-30 or even 60 hours to play through) so all the design, art and QA tend to cost a lot and take a lot of time.
I'd say you have two worthwhile options (apart from just finishing the book and hoping it becomes enough of a hit for someone to want to make a movie and/or game out of it) :
1- Try and make it yourself using easy-to-learn tools such as Flash, the Torque game engine, Game Maker or RPG Maker (there are many other options.) Except for Torque, the other toolsets tend to be very limited in features, so that the results will look dated. For example, RPG Maker makes games that look like SNES-era RPGs. Torque would require more work, but the results can be more modern, which means if your game is good enough, it could go up on services such as XBox Live Arcade. You will likely need to at least hire one artist to create the artwork in your game, and maybe find someone to create the sounds and music. Also, if your story is long and involved enough, it will likely take you many years to complete the project if you're the lone developer/designer, and you run a major risk of quitting before your project is done. Such projects are littered all over the internet.
2- Keep working at your accounting job for a while, but keep all your expenses as low as possible, and set aside as much money as you can. Then, build yourself a core team of 1 programmer, at least 2 artists, and one sound person who is capable of creating all the sounds and music for your game. Plan out your project (make sure your plans are flexible and can adapt to surprises-- I've never heard of a game project going exactly according to a precise plan, there are always surprises) and make a budget (you should already be good at that.) For the rest, this will be exactly like running a business. You can start the project without real offices, but once any real work starts, get yourself a real office, because very few successful game projects have been released that were created from various people working from home. You'll need an external source of funding to keep afloat while you develop your game: this could be through public or private grants, investments, or if you can, have your team also work part-time at creating smaller, simpler games that can be sold quickly and bring some money in. Take a look at Popcap.com for examples of smaller games like that.
It all depends on how serious you are about wanting to see your story as a videogame. If you'd like to make money off it, the last option is better (but riskier!) whereas the first option will require less effort, and if you keep your game simple enough, could be completed more quickly, but it likely won't bring in much money, especially if you go with the Flash option.
An idea for a game is almost worthless, unless you can actually make the game. There are literally millions of game ideas being created, discussed and ultimately rejected every year (month? day?) so you're the only person who can get the game made (nobody else cares, basically.)
Just take a look at my blog (in my sig) where I share my game ideas. I have no illusions that any of these games will ever be made, but I'll keep posting my better ideas up there as long as I keep getting them. There's always the tiny, microscopic chance that someone will actually want to put up money to have one of those games made, and in the meantime, it makes for a great showcase of my game design ability (it's helping me get back into the industry...)
Check out my new blog: http://50wordstories.ca
Also check out my old game design blog: http://stealmygamedesigns.blogspot.com