Quote:Original post by xdj1nn
but a good GD should have enough convincing skills to change publishers minds

Sorry, but no. An idea (a GDD) is not enough. Read, read, read. Start with this forum's FAQ (the small blue "View Forum FAQ" atop this page).

To sum it up in one sentence:

No company looks for outside game designs.

It just does not happen in this industry -- When companies begin, they have an idea in mind that turns into their first product, otherwise they would not have started a game company in the first place. They either fail and go to dust, or succeed and tap into one of the other ideas they have internally. If they continue their success they staff up and eventually hire designers, but its essentially unheard of that they would seek out designs.

You're simply not going to get your game made from the outside no matter how good it sounds on paper. If you want to break into the inner circle where getting your ideas taken seriously is possible, then you're going to have to work hard at it, not just guffaw at the fact that things don't work the way you thing they should.

Pick something you're really good at -- a tangible skill related to design, say level/campagn design or "gameplay" design (gameplay features and systems, not overall game design) and try to work your way up. Doing so will display that you are organized, driven, capable, and that you understand "fun", "challenge" and "balance" in these contexts, and as all design is collaborative will allow your work to influence the overall game experience. That is how you convince a game studio that they can give you the reigns to a larger part of the game(keeping in mind that most large games have many designers -- Character design, game design, single-player design, multi-player design, sound designers, writers, etc).

Even to get your foot in the door you may have to display your skills through independent work, and that work has to be tangible -- ideas and GDDs, no matter how detailed, are not tangible. You need to be making levels or mods to existing games, or creating small scale games on your own or with a group. This in turn means that you might have to pick up some programming skills and/or graphics skills (though there are some tools which make the bar pretty low, as long as you can be reasonably technical -- I'm talking about things like Flash, modable game engines, RPGMaker-type programs, and XNA).

If you aren't willing or able to do those things to demonstrate your worth, then you will find that the game industry is going to be closed off to you.