CU
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Skullpture Entertainment
#40842461
New Game Idea
No idea will bring you to the top of the industry. Creating a game with incredible graphics, a nice story and good gameplay will bring you to the top, but there are that few people that can develop such a good game. Only the idea is nothing worth, there are thousands of good ideas, but only a few games sell really well.
I beg to differ...
There may well be thousands of ideas out there, most of them may even be brilliant... But few of them are reaching the market. If you look at the games appearing on the shelves, there wouldn't be more than a grudging handful of interesting new ideas each year.
To justify this somewhat, I think Wolfenstein 3D was a new(ish) idea... Quake, Quake II, Heretic, Half Life, the list goes on... none of these are new ideas, they're just improvements on old ideas. Not to say they aren't great games (or not) in their own right 
, but there's nothing or very little fresh in them.
The industry needs more new ideas, imho. And if as you say there are thousands, then they should be delivered.
Having said that, I realise that the resources just don't exist to implement most of the ideas out there. Ahh, well.
White Fire
I think the real problem of the ideas reaching the market are that ideas that are drastically different (or sometimes even just unproven), are not any kind of good bet that they will make money.
On top of that with the current costs to actually create a game, if the game totally flops it could ruin the company who made it in one swoop...
Thats the biggest issue, if you have a risky product, you may lose money. And you can only do that if you are in a position to, which few people are.
-Geoff
unluckly I have to agree almost no new ideas come onto the market because if they don't make it the company loses big so they think why risk it. this makes only small programming teams often hobbyists the only ones that make games with new ideas. Even if you look at the major games that have new ideas I bet a small group made it almost completely then a big company bought it for cheap spruced up graphics a little and put there name on it.
personally though I doubt your idea would hit big even if it was well made no matter how well done it is there are no melee weapons like most rpg's use so people have to get near one another, and it would have to have lots of fighting for it to make it big in the combat area and npc to pc relations aren't good enough yet to make it a non-combat based game.(these are only my views ?I could easily be wrong)
personally though I doubt your idea would hit big even if it was well made no matter how well done it is there are no melee weapons like most rpg's use so people have to get near one another, and it would have to have lots of fighting for it to make it big in the combat area and npc to pc relations aren't good enough yet to make it a non-combat based game.(these are only my views ?I could easily be wrong)
You will undoubtedly have trouble pushing your idea. Coming up with the idea is the fun part. Programming is all the work (art also). Most game programmers will already have their own idea of something they'd like to make, if they are picking a project. Best thing to do is to learn to program or learn computer artistry really well so that you can put your own backing behind the idea. Then you will find it much easier to convince others to join you.
-Gilderoot
The blunt of this post is about the ideas themselves, but skip to the end if you are interested in my question and opinions on the western idea (who can resist the desire to pontificate endless as if the whole world hangs onto our simple opinions).
I think there are an uncountable number of great ideas, so the idea itself is worthless. BUT having said that, I must explain. I mean that the mear THOUGHT of something seemingly original is too common to have value, but because most people in this world are very lazy and are much more interested in thinking of many ideas than in actually seeing any to fruition there is a lot of room to make you idea into something great. People constantly grumbling that they thought of some new thing before whatever company finaly brings it to market, and they think that this merits some reward or sympathy. I'm here to say I have about 2500 pages of notes and explorations of ideas that i've acumulated in the past 5 years, but I'm not claiming credit for ideas that lie gathering dust on my page while some boy genius makes his first million on it. Thats how development works, in numbers. Thousands of people get the same ideas every year, because most ideas are the product of our enviroment. In fact, if this weren't true you could NEVER make money with an invention, cause no one would understand why they'd want your new product that they'd never thought of before.
Now, on to the idea at hand.
I must say that I think there is probably quite a market for a western themed game, but you didn't give enough information about the TYPE of game it would be. The one thing you did mention was UO, so I can only assume you are thinking of a real time persistent RPG. I'm not sure about this particular market, but knowing that the western theme is always big in both America and abroad, I would bet there is SOME type of game where a western is just what they are looking for. I would recommend considering turn based strategy (or tactical), turn based RPG, and perhaps some hybrid sim (where perhaps you form and direct a band of outlaws or their nemesis the "lawmen"). The advantages to these genres are primarily related to the cost of developing and hosting a game like UO. The hosting requires many expensive computers and an extreme amount of bandwidth, while the development requires you to understand or even improve the absolute state of the art in networking software.
Another post. After thinking about it some more, I got really enthusiastic about the prospects of a 3D western game. I personally can see 3 subtypes of 3D westerns that might benefit from your development of detailed weapons, characters, etc.: first person 3D RPG where you play out the role of a hero or villain(could use a quake style engine), third person RPG where you control a single character (ala Darkstone) or a group (ala Fallout or Baldur's Gate), or a group combat sim (ala Rainbow Six).
Tell me what you think about 'em.
Ideas aren't what make games successful. A good game, is what makes a game sucessful, or a classic. These days, too many games are just ideas. Not enough of them are just good, solid games. Take one of my favoutites, for example. I'm a big fan of Blood. On the surface, it's the same game as Duke 3D, but the atmosphere, balancing of weapons and overall well crafted design of the game is what makes Blood a game that deserves to be where it is right now- a game that still has fans who are playing it, and love it as much now, as they day they bought it.
The Western UO game idea sounds good, but it isn't going to be a good game based on that idea alone. If you find some very tallented people to help make the game enjoyable to those who buy it, your game will become a classic, for sure. Don't let anyone shoot you down in flames because they don't think it'll work. Put your heart and soul into everything you do, and make it work
Lastly, if the only reason you're designing a game is because you think it'll be worth some money in the long run, you're in the wrong industry. Let the work you do speak for itself, and design a game you think will be fun, above all else. Good luck...
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-Reactor
Planetblood.com
Gamesiege.com
Money makes the world go, but it is artistic passion that pushes the envelope of game development and design. At least, this is I would like to envision how I develop games.
Unfortunately, it hasn't worked like that in any of the real-world game development situations I have taken part in.
Four years ago I was part of a development team working on a space combat game. The idea itself was very cool, new and inovative. Frankly, it had the potential to be a really cool, and very large game.
The hard part was secure funding. Without the money, we couldn't retain good programmers and without good programmers we found ourselves far behind schedule. We eventauly had to take a hit and chop the idea to shreads. Without the money, it just wasn't going to work.
The motto at the company I work for now is "Does this line of code make us money?"
So, I am under the constraints of the buck again. Cash flow is the most important thing in the game industry, and that is why I think that most good ideas never see the light of day. The good ideas that make money, do.
Being a good game designer is less about how "creative" a game is and more about how well a game can market to a demographic, creative or not. I hope that companies at least _try_ once and a while to push the envelope of creativity.
Skott
The game industry is going through a change. It is not that I love what corporate america is or anything, but you have to admit that without it the level of technology we enjoy today would not be here. There isn't another country on the planet with as many resources as the capitalist USA. That patriotic statement aside, I believe there is a place for money, risk, and financial analysis in the game industry.
Prior to this time, venture capitalists were excited about the prospect of having hollywood like revenues from a new and growing industry. They poured money into the gaming industry and were immediately burned by all the developers out there that thought they could get by on passion alone. As a result of this VCs do not lend to the gaming industry in the same quantities anymore and have become much more risk adverse when approached for new money.
I love gaming period. The passion I have for it is embodied into the hours I have put into a MUD for the past nine years. In order to see my idea take flight, I knew I would need to be more business savvy. I now have a degree in Business Management and the programming skills to put together a game. It is sad to say that this is what it requires to get your idea to market, but I can not blame the VCs at this time who gave the industry a chance and were subsequently burned by overzealous passionate developers.
If presenting my idea in a framework that means something to a business VC will get me the funding, then I am willing to do that because not seeing the game published is a worse mistake in my eyes.
Kressilac
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Derek Licciardi
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