By Tom Sloper
"I have a Great Idea for a video game... how do I sell it and get rich and famous?"
The short answer is: "Great, you have an idea. Now start writing. (But, by the way, nobody will buy your
idea, don't be silly!)" The long answer (why you need to write, what to write, and what to do with what you wrote) is below.
So you want to get your idea made into a working electronic game. There are two ways for you to follow up on this dream.
1. DIY -- Do It Yourself. Execute the idea into a game yourself, training yourself along the way as a game designer and/or programmer and/or artist, etc.
2. DIFTI -- Do It From The Inside. (You're "outside" the game biz at the moment.) Write your idea into a formal game design document, training yourself along the way as a game designer.
Write more design documents too. Then, with those designs in hand, go to a game company (a developer or publisher) and take a job -- ANY job. The designs will help you get your foot in the door,
but it's unlikely that anybody will want to make your idea into a game or hire you as an apprentice game designer.
The designs may never get made, but now you're in the biz -- and you can learn & grow within it, and eventually make other original designs if you're good.
- Both of those paths (#1 and 2 above) require the same first step: writing a formal game design document.
- Both of those paths require passion, perseverance, & perspiration.
- Either way, when you've finished, guess what profession you're in -- the games biz.
The latter path (#2 above, getting a job in the industry, DIFTI) also requires a good attitude -- you'll need to be a team player, a professional who works on projects without letting his own ambitions get in the way of doing a game other than his dream idea.
DIY: You're on your own if you want to DIY. Go forth and teach yourself how to begin, once your design is written (that's still a necessary first step). You will need to learn about programming and about management and business and marketing.
Read the postings at the game design newsgroups, the programming newsgroups, the graphics and animation newsgroups, and go get a bunch of books (see the recommended websites mentioned in the game design newsgroups' FAQs). Research. Learn. Create. Do it all, all by yourself.
DIFTI: A well-written game design is a great way to present yourself to potential employers in the game biz.
They won't buy your idea (they already have great ideas up the wazoo, or they think they do anyway) but
they might well give you a job (it might be an entry-level job, but hey, it's a job in the biz).
That's how I got started, 20 years ago. I made a board game design, and I tried to get it published. Eventually (2 years later) I gave up on that, and used the board game as a part of my portfolio to get a job at a think tank for electronic toys.
I took an entry-level job as a toy modelmaker, and one day I had a chance to design an electronic game. Next thing you know, I designed two games for the Vectrex game system. Then I worked at Sega and Atari.
In other words, I went the career route. My first board game idea has never been published. But I've designed and produced a number of electronic games, and have a great job.
So, now I need to tell you a little more about the topics raised above.
A. Why nobody will just buy your idea from you (or otherwise execute it into a playable game).
B. Writing a formal game design document.
C. Working in the games business.
Here goes:
A. Why nobody will just buy your idea from you.
You didn't expect me to be talking about these things, did you? You just wanted somebody to take your idea and run with it, while you sit back and wait for the end result so you can play it, right? And maybe make some easy money.
Forget that right now, it's not going to happen.
Pretend for a moment that you have a great idea for a novel, not a game. How would you go about getting it written and published? Would you go to a bulletin board and advertise looking for an author to write it for you? No, you would have to get off your butt and write it yourself.
I have heard that a friend of Frank Herbert (author of Dune) 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 -- would YOU want to have a friend come up to you, tell you a few sentences, then have you spend months hunched over a keyboard turning his few sentences into the Great American Novel? I doubt it. If you did spend months writing that book, would you want to give half of the money to that guy? I don't think so.
Now pretend for a moment that you have a great idea for a movie, not a game. How would you go about getting it made into a movie? You would have to begin by becoming a movie industry professional, get several movies under your belt, become a producer or studio executive, and off you go!
That's the DIFTI route ("Do It From The Inside"). There's also the DIY (Do It Yourself) route: spend a lot of money (tens of thousands at the cheapest), write and direct it yourself, with the help of actors and technicians you hire. The end result may never get into theaters everywhere but could well prove your worth to a real studio.
Either way, (DIY or DIFTI) by the time you're done, you're in the movie biz. And you earned it by hard work, not by waving your arms for a few minutes in front of a cigar smoker who then throws wads of cash at you -- it don't work that way.
Okay, enough pretending. Your idea is not for a novel or a movie -- it's for a game. How do you go about getting it made? First step: write the game design yourself. Then you can either make the game yourself (DIY) or use the design to get a job as a game designer (DIFTI).
B. Writing a formal game design document.
There is no one standard format -- every game design document looks different. Look upon it as an exercise in writing.
Before anything can be done with your idea, it needs to be described in writing. It needs to be well illustrated. It needs to be well written, with good spelling, grammar, punctuation, and with a coherent and well-organized outline.
It needs to tell what is special about your game (why your game will stand out from the other games in the market), told in a clear and informative manner -- you need to understand the competition, and express that understanding in the document.
The document needs to describe your game's look, the tone, the gameplay, the user interface, and go into exquisite detail on what the game will be. It needs to be thorough and entertaining to read.
It needs to take the vision that's in your head and communicate it fully to the reader.
It needs to get the reader interested in your idea, and especially in you as a designer. If you are not ready to take your idea and go to this next step (writing a detailed design), then your idea is not going to go anywhere, and that's too bad.
If you are not ready to take your idea and go to this next step, you are not a budding designer -- you're just a guy with an idea that will never go anywhere. Don't let that get you down, just come up with completely different ideas until you find one you are willing to put passion, perseverance, and perspiration into -- then you'll have found your calling.
C. Working in the game business.
The principles discussed in this article apply equally to computer games or any other kind of game (if we're talking board games, substitute "artist" or "modelmaker" for the word "programmer" and you won't suffer too much of a paradigm shift!).
The cold hard reality is that it's extremely difficult to get a game made. If your idea is for a board game, there are tremendous manufacturing and marketing costs involved that you need to learn about (it's those costs that are behind companies' reluctance to just make your game).
If your idea is for a video or computer game, the costs are even higher. It costs millions (at least hundreds of thousands) of US dollars and anywhere from half a year to 3 years to create a hit computer or video game (one-man-band games cost considerably less, but such an endeavor has an extremely low probability of becoming a hit -- just look at the competition). It also takes a lot of people and a lot of know-how to get a competitive commercial-quality game made.
The making of games is a business. And business is all about making a profit.
It seems to me that the typical bright-eyed wannabe imagines that game producers sit back in their plush leather chairs, yakking on their cell phones. An imaginary conversation (as envisioned by the wishful would-be game designer) might go: "I need to find a game idea for the next project. Everybody here has just more me-too ideas -- I wish a good original idea would just fall into my lap."
Far from it. Everyone in the industry (the programmers, artists, designers, producers, marketing managers, sales managers, and corporate executives) has more ideas than they have time to work on. Ideas are a dime a dozen (and that's probably an inflated value!).
There is an involved process for deciding which ones to work on. Each person in the process has ideas about what other projects the company's resources should be used on. This process is not standard from one company to another, and this process is not standard in one company from one project to the next. This process is often, in fact, mysterious to its participants!
Usually, the purpose of the first company meeting is to discuss a direction that has already been in the company's plan for a while. They do NOT sit down and start, "Okay, now we have a slot we need to fill. Anybody got any project ideas? How about that design that Quincy wrote up?"
Usually they sit down and start, "Okay, Project Q was a spectacular success -- let's do a follow-on," or: "Company Q is killing us in the marketplace with their Game Q -- we got to do something similar, with our better engine, and with a cooler universe."
Or: "Okay, legal got us that great license Q. Now let's plan what the game will be, and present it to the licensor for concept approval so we can get started on it." Or the initial impetus for a project might come from a variety of other directions.
At the end of the first stage of this process, some producer is usually given a direction. He or she is supposed to work on Project Q. He or she has not sent out to "go forth and find us a great idea." He/she already has an assignment.
Producer goes to designer and asks for creativity upon demand. Usual real world conversation (NOT in these exact words): "No, don't give me your ideas -- here is the project I need designed. Go design it for me…Oh okay, then, give me your ideas -- I'll read them and get back to you. Go design this new Project Q -- oh, and here's your paycheck."
Designer works like that on several projects, proving his abilities, and perhaps (if he/she really good) eventually gets his/her own ideas greenlighted. He/she may never make that original dream game though.
My first board game idea still hasn't been published. But you know what? It doesn't bother me! I have other games out there -- and I have a great job. I went the DIFTI route -- I work in the industry. Some people prefer to do it themselves.
Remember what I said about the guy with the Great American Novel in his head -- the only way anybody else will see that novel is if she/he writes it himself -- she/he can't get somebody else to write it for him or her.
It's darned hard work to write a novel -- or to design a game! But it's worthwhile -- if nobody thought it was worthwhile, we wouldn't have any novels to read. Or new games to play.
Tom Sloper is a designer and producer of video games, best known for his work on the Shanghai series of games for Activision. An engineering designer and modelmaker/draftsman by training, Tom began his video game career in Southern California in the late-1970s.
He designed games for the legendary Vectrex game system (Spike, Bedlam) and other platforms at Western Technologies and Sega Enterprises before joining Atari Corporation, where he was involved in revitalizing the 2600 and 7800 game systems.
Tom is currently a global consultant for game developers, publishers and educational institutions. To learn more, visit Tom's Web site at www.sloperama.com.