I have a good concept for a game and I have got everything down on paper. I feel that the game has new and fresh ideas and I was wondering where I can go next from here? Is it worth me sending it out to companies? The advice would be most apreciated! "Even a stopped clock gives the right time twice a day!"

If you only have the idea and it all written down there is no need to send it to a company. That would mean that they would have to do all the implementation/art/music for you are would have t ogive you money to fund that you do it. They have lots of ideas themselves, the problem is that it costs money to implement them. Giving you money is too risky business if you have no prior publishing record so they won''t do it.

The way to go is to gather some people and get at least demo up and running and complete some of the artwork. Then show this demo to a company if you want a contract to complete it. This will heighten your chances a lot as a first time developer. And before sending in the demo make sure that it really can compete - publishers have experience in seeing what projects have potential, but a poor demo is worse than no demo.

To get people to help you costs money, so you have to find investors for the demo or put the money in it yourself. Or you can get some people to help you at no cost, but the risk of failure is very high if you do this as people have to live while helping you. It is especially hard finding qualified people this way as they usually want wmoney for doing work. Promising them money when the contract is there is usually not enough to attract the right people.

"An idea is not worth more than an tenth of a cent if you cannot realize it. Any game designer worth is salt has more game ideas that he can possibly ever implement."

The more ambitious ideas you have the harder it usually is to realize them. Many developers have many good ideas but are afraid that they will fail to realize them so they do something safe that has been done a hundred times before and that they know will sell.

Jacob Marner

Basically I should really either work on it myself from start to finish. I know C++ and certain graphics packages but I am not to good when it comes to art.

I have a software package called dark basic which is quite good but a little tricky with coding wise.

The other option I guess is to first get a job as a tester or programmer and work my way up to becoming a game designer.

"Even a stopped clock gives the right time twice a day!"

I know Dark Basic very well, and to say it frankly it is quite crap:

* It is very slow.
* It does not provide proper programming abstractions like C++ or Java.
* Its IDE is a pain in the a** to use.

Avoid!

You will never be able to build any proper game using Dark Basic and don''t think that those small samples included with Dark Basic prove that big games can be made. It is only suited for small gamelets.

But if you think Dark Basic is hard to use (besides its limited flexibility) then maybe you are not ready to become a programmer. Learn C++ in depth and make some smaller games first and become really good at it is a better way.

I hear it many times that people want to become tester and then programmer/designer latter on, but in reality this rarely happens. Today developers need people with that is educated in the area they are focusing on.
To become a games programmer you will have much better chances with at least a Computer Science B.S. degree.
The times are over when one or two people sat in garage and made games. It is a multimillion dollor industry requiring skilled people and a lot of time and resources.

Jacob Marner

Ok..here is my situation. I was born and lived in England for 20 years and then decided to study and move to the US. I heard of a college here that is very good for CIS studies.

At the moment I am in my 3rd semester and have learned visual basic, SQL, RPG, C++, CL/CLP. I am gonna take advanced C++ in my 4th semester. I really want to become a game designer but unfortunately I live in Wisconsin and I know of only one major game company and that is Raven software (Soldier of fortune). I don''t really want to move but I guess I am gonna have to.

Yeah I agree that dark basic is limited but it is good for getting the basics and such. I have so many ideas and have been playing games basically all my life. In England about 2 years ago all I learned at college was QBasic which did me no favours as it is stone age programming.