Game Ideas

Iv heard hundreds of people saying that they have the best game idea. Then they follow up with, Im gunna send it to the company. I was woundering... Is there an address to send these ideas too, someone that will read them. Or are they all just hopeless dreams?

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Gmae companies to do not accept outside ideas. For legal reasons they simply can't.

I remember trying once, when I was like 9. Got back a very nice (but obviously pre-written) letter from Capcom saying thank you, but we can't accept outside ideas.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

A great game idea is like a great new invention; noone is gonna take you seriously unless you have something to show them, other than an idea scibbles onto a coffee-stained napkin. Maybe try to create a mockup level in a game engine that demonstrates your gameplay mechanic (there are plenty of well-documented editors out there now that are easy to use). If you could show a company something that works, they would pay more attention to the idea perhaps.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Yeah, they don't take unsolicited stuff, because mostly they have their own ideas that they can barely work on, but also for legal reasons.

The reason why it's like that, imagine this. Let's say you came up with a game idea called "Super Mario Bros." (I'm just using this as an example, so bear with me). Let's say that you send that idea to Nintendo, but they say they don't want it.

Then later, Nintendo comes out with a game called "Super Luigi Bros.". But the game is a lot like the idea you had. All of a sudden, you decide to sue Nintendo for stealing your stuff without paying you for it. You have your idea, and lets say you even have proof that you came up with those ideas before Nintendo made "Super Luigi Bros.". The court might find in favor of you, and suddenly Nintendo has to pay you lots of money (whether or not they "stole" your idea).

Hollywood works similiarly (which is where I got my analogy for the game, and it's often bad for movies because a lot of ideas are similiar, like when Rocky came out, I bet people were saying "I made a boxing movie like that, Sylvester Stallone must've stole my idea!"), but with a game it's often harder because game companies don't have the vast amount of money that most movie studios have, so if a game flops, or someone decides to sue them cause "they came up with a game idea similiar to that", they're probably in trouble financially.

Plus, ideas are a dime a dozen. Any Joe or Jane can come up with the next "big hit game", but unless you have stuff to back that up (like a game demo), then they probably won't take you seriously anyway (heck, even a lot of top game designers have trouble selling some stuff they want made into games).

Not trying to discourage you, just letting you know some truths. If you have what it takes to make the next "Mario" or "Halo", then by all means, pursue that path. Just know that it's a hard route, and not many make it. And even then, unless your game really roxxors, it may not do that well in the first place.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Originally Posted by The_Gerbil_King

Iv heard hundreds of people saying that they have the best game idea. Then they follow up with, Im gunna send it to the company. I was woundering... Is there an address to send these ideas too, someone that will read them. Or are they all just hopeless dreams?

If you're serious about it, create a prototype of the game. It can be done in many different ways, pen and paper game, shockwave, Java, some other programming language or even modding a game. You do that and then shop around for a publisher and they'll at least be more willing to take a look at it as you have something to show off.

Of course you may need a small team of people to help you out. And if you don't find a publisher you can go the self publishing route if you don't mind not making any money and doing a lot of hard work for it.

I was speaking idiomatically.