You Have an Idea for a Game - Here's Why Nobody Cares

[Simurgh]

http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/AdrianCh ... _Cares.php

Interesting blog. Thought I'd share as it would be good suggested reading for some people :)

[Kaitocain]

Just read through the article, and I can't agree more.

This needs to be read by anyone who thinks about making a suggestion to FC. Srsly.

[FlowerChild]

Hehe...nice. At the same time though, I can't help but observe that the guy published this article in a place where the people that need to hear it, probably never will. It's not like the people that do these things actually follow serious sites about game development.

[Gilberreke]

Hehe...nice. At the same time though, I can't help but observe that the guy published this article in a place where the people that need to hear it, probably never will. It's not like the people that do these things actually follow serious sites about game development.

I think they do actually, as one of the few comments posted is actually one of those morons it seems.

That may be true in a lot of cases, but you don't really think it's impossible for someone to create their own intricate GDD that has potential for success, do you? What if someone actually DID send you something fantastic on the level of Portal, Half-Life, or Call of Duty? It's possible, isn't it? A creative-director-in-the-making could have outstanding ideas for the next block-buster game(s), but just not know how to program. Why do you feel the need to bash not only the lack of programming skills, but also the designs you haven't even seen yet?

Which is just moronic, as the answer to that question is the very article he answered. In fact, it gives one (and probably more) very specific reason:

Because there is not a single success story where a random stranger emails a game studio with his game idea and boom, they make a game based on his design. And yet somehow you don’t know that. And if you lack basic Google skills, how can we trust your game designs?

Imagine there's actually one or a few professional studios that did have that happen. Does that mean that it's suddenly a valid reason to actually take them seriously? NOPE. I'm pretty sure that back when science was more Newtonian, some idiot said "I think the sun is so massive that even light goes into orbit around it". He was sorta right, doesn't make him less of an idiot. Flukes do not make for good business strategy, or all businesses would be playing the lottery as part of their core plan.

[Utterbob]

People seem to get caught up in how their idea would be great in an 'ideal' world and overlook the reality of it.

I face that a lot in finance, someone will approach me with a potential innovation and despite me spending an hour telling them and their manager it won't work (I have been doing my job long enough to know if something is worth looking at or if it has no chance of making an acceptable return), I still have to do the figures up for them showing how much their 'great idea' will cost the company.

Always funny to see the jaw drop once they understand the real costs and the real (lack of) returns. Kind of hard to bite back the "Told you so!" though!

[FlowerChild]

I face that a lot in finance, someone will approach me with a potential innovation and despite me spending an hour telling them and their manager it won't work (I have been doing my job long enough to know if something is worth looking at or if it has no chance of making an acceptable return), I still have to do the figures up for them showing how much their 'great idea' will cost the company.

Ug. I can so relate to that man. So often I have found myself in the position of knowing instinctively that something is a bad idea based on experience but having to go through the motions of thinking through a boneheaded idea fully to provide the "proof" of what I already knew to a third party. That was one of the things I really hated the most about working in the game industry, as you inevitably wound up saddled with a manager that didn't understand games and would require that kind of hand holding. I had exactly one producer in my entire career where that wasn't the case, and it was absolute heaven while it lasted.

So yeah, just to say that I can empathize greatly with the above, despite it being from a different field.

[Gilberreke]

Yeah, and don't even try to resist bad managers. I made that mistake a few months ago and now I'm out of a job and doing pretty poorly financially.

Basically, I went against my manager in an important decision and he started a procedure behind my back to fire me. Meanwhile, my decision caused the software project to come out of a looming law suit and back into the clear. On Monday, they told me I was getting sacked and had a one week's notice. On Thursday night, I sprained my ankle pretty badly, so I called in on Friday morning saying that I couldn't make it. The only person free to come get me was upper management. So they sent a guy from upper management to drive through rush hour traffic, acting as a chauffeur to get me to my job, so I could spend my last working day making them a shitload (5 figure lawsuit) of money.

I could've just gone ahead and swallowed the manager's BS, which would have cost the company more than I earn in 10 years time. Instead I acted on my gut, proved my point and still got fired. I could've screwed the company and take a sick day for my remaining day, but that would have caused a major shitstorm, so they forced me to come to work on crutches for that last day.

Still glad I'm out of that place. Was hired as .NET consultant, was used as a simple 4GL database programmer, with no options to get a better position within 3 years.