one way is to build up a strong relationship with somebody that looks up to you and trusts you and is able to get things going from a technical point of view.
This could be a friend, a partner (marriage of interest of course ) or somebody from the internet that is well impressed by your writings.

It is very very very unlikely to happen, but there you go, not 100% impossible.

My suggestion is to make games, find some place to start that isn't too overwhelming and start supporting your ideas with facts.. this will make the process above more likely to happen and it will teach about videogames development, that, after all, is software development at his heart.

If your idea is for something bigger than a simple mobile game doable in 3-4 months then I think your chances get closer and closer to zero the bigger the project is.

Suppose, I actually had a great idea for a game, and suppose, that were it to be produced, it would not only be hugely successful, it would be really big. Just suppose.

A common answer will be: If it's successful, it will be due to the finesse with which it is produced, not the idea which spawned the process in the first place.
e.g. If Stephenie Meyer was given the notes/summary for Tolkien's LOTR trilogy (and he didn't write it), it probably would not have become the timeless classic that it did. Likewise, if Michael Bay was chosen to direct the trilogy of LOTR films, they'd be shallow explosion-fests with a tiny bit of cheap fan service.
If you gave you idea (and funding) to 10 different student game-dev teams, and 10 different professional games studios, you'd end up with 20 different games -- some of which would be hits, and some of which would be flops.

What would you suggest I do with it? Send to Eidos? Approach the bank? Slog away in my own time for the next 12 years?

Ideas that are sent to games companies are quarantined -- by accepting to read them, they're opening themselves up to spurious lawsuits from you, when you accuse them of stealing your generic ideas, so, they don't want to read them.
To approach an investor/bank, you need a business plan, which means you need to understand the business of running a studio, an analysis of the market for your game and it's competitors, proof you'll make a profit, and a full plan for producing the game. This includes having a list of names that make up your core team, so you'll need to do some serious networking in order to have close colleagues in a variety of different professions (biz/tech/art/audio/production) that trust you enough to quit their job and come and join your start-up studio as founders...
To do it alone is the same as the investor/bank line above, but you get to do it all slowly instead of having to plan up-front.
Alternatively, you can change your mind about making your fortune from an idea, and instead try and use it to gain experience by publishing it, and trying to recruit a team of hobbyists / open-source enthusiasts to work on it for free...

If the idea is simple enough to be made as a "small game", then refine the idea down to it's core form and plan how to implement that in it's simplest form, then start working on that in your spare time.
If it's a huge idea that requires a huge game studio, then keeping refining it in your spare time while you work on getting a job elsewhere in the industry. Use your years in the industry to make many friends and contacts, so that by the time you've got your business plan ready and enough funding to quit your job and found a studio, you've got a list of other's who will join you. Then you can go back to the part about getting investors.

So what do they do that's so different?[/quote]

They stop asking and just start making it. Check out places like TigSource and ScreenshotSaturday.com to see what other "nobodies" are doing.

If you lack skills, acquire them. Then practice.

Suppose, I actually had a great idea for a game, and suppose, that were it to be produced, it would not only be hugely successful, it would be really big. Just suppose.

How does someone like me (a little knowledge of c++ and a good idea of how to develop this game IF I had a big wad of cash) actually go about getting it done?

I'll bet that almost everybody on Gamedev.net has some idea that'll sell huge if he or she just gets it made, hehe. The idea is to actually get it made, as has already been pointed out above. Don't worry about finances, just focus on getting the basic functionalities of the game made and a steady job to pay your bills if you can't afford to go full-time dev.

Games are, according to Game Design - Theory & Practice (Second Edition) by Richard Rousse III (a highly recommended book to any game designers), typically designed in a highly modular way - you design some base functionalities for a game and then elaborate on that later on. However you're filling in the wholes depends on how much and to which user group(s) you want the game to sell and what you're looking to convey (main pitch, side features etc). Successful games are a fine balance between business sense and expressionism.

E.g. from having 1 resource in a game to having 3, from having no animations on ugly entities to having full animations on your amazing artwork, and so on. My biggest lesson in my own path towards game development is to not have too high expectations of my early builds - that'll come with time, trusting your own ability to make it shine. Initially, your main concern should be to just design that bad-looking, shallow game that works. Then you'll focus on the finesse and aesthetics in order to make it feature complete and sellable.

If there's something you suck at, e.g. artwork in my case, then you can just pay someone to make it for you (or just make games that don't require as much art, until you get better - which is what I'm gonna do). Consider FIFA Football Manager 20##, a successful AAA series with almost zero artwork (just a bunch of menus and lists). In either case, hiring for specific, smaller jobs shouldn't be too costly. But one method that I'm going to pursue, is to not even attempt making my most ambitious project until maybe 5-10 years from now. Instead, I'm making a bunch of Java games that'll (hopefully) be semi-successful and then use their success as my backbone towards that monster title.

Heck, maybe your current idea of a monster title is even vastly inferior to what you'll end up with (the way I understand the industry).

You need to start somewhere. Just start mapping out your game with some kind of design document for your own perusal. A document can help you become more systematic and also to remember that big "wall of crazy" ideas that you just can't wait to implement (eventually haha ). And let me tell you, my main project has a gargantuan wall of crazy . But first though: Basic functionality ftw.

Good luck!

1. Suppose, I actually had a great idea for a game, and suppose, that were it to be produced, it would not only be hugely successful, it would be really big. Just suppose.

2. How does someone like me (a little knowledge of c++ and a good idea of how to develop this game IF I had a big wad of cash) actually go about getting it done?
Suppose I have a great enough idea for a game (an some idea as to how to execute the design), that you're convinced it will, if made, be a phenomenal success. What would you suggest I do with it?
2.a. Send to Eidos?
2.b. Approach the bank?
2.c. Slog away in my own time for the next 12 years?[/quote]

1. Of course. I have absolute faith that your idea is awesome. All ideas are awesome. And all ideas are worth the recycle value of the paper they're written on.

2.a. Since you're a nobody, they won't make your game. Why should they? It'll cost a lot of money to make your game, and you can't make it for them so they'd have to hire someone with experience.
http://sloperama.com/advice/lesson11.htm

2.b. Since you're a nobody, they won't give you money. Why should they? You have no business experience, and no experience in the game business, and no contacts.
http://sloperama.com/advice/lesson29.htm

2.c. Since you have only a little knowledge of C++, you can't make it yourself. You need a team. But since you're a nobody, only nobodies will be willing to work with you (and not all nobodies, at that).

Some other options:
3. Get experience in the game biz, and get contacts.
4. Get money.
5. Both of the above. One way you can do this is by getting a job in the game industry.

I can't think of a single indie success-story that started out like this:

"So here, I was, this nobody with no skills and no resources, but I had this great idea. So I got to work, put pen to paper, and sent my GDD to Nintendo and some other big players 3 weeks later. Someone bit, and 6 months later I'm living it up in the Bahamas."

Every indie success story I know of involved the originator of the idea (most-usually) acquiring the the skills needed to produce, or at least begin, his great idea; or, more uncommonly, convincing other people with the requisite skills to produce their idea while taking on the role of designer and producer. The common thread, though, is that its the originator that drives it through. There's no success here without your own hard work and commitment.

No one's going to make it happen but you. No one else will carry the torch, much less hand you a bag of money for the privilege.

How does a nobody successfully take a game idea all the way to release?

Become a somebody.


As has already been mentioned, established developers do not accept design submissions from the public. Unless you have (or are able to establish) personal relationships -- along with a very compelling case that your idea would be successful enough to be worthy of pursuit -- to get around this, submitting your design to an established developer is therefore out of the question.


This leaves you with a couple of options:

1. Hire people with the skills to create your game for you.
   
2. Get into the industry in some entry-level position, and then work your way up until you're able to have your idea considered.
   
3. Create your game yourself, probably with at least some help (which you would likely have to pay for) from others.
   

Looking at #1, you would want to have a well written design document and a solid business plan before you begin. Given this approach is going into business, you would want to consult a lawyer, and would need to either learn about or hire someone with business management/operation experience. At minimum you would need a programmer and an artist, and would probably either out-source your audio or make use of stock content.

This approach gets pretty expensive (and is also very risky) for larger games, and unless you can hire an experienced team mistakes would almost certainly be made. Ideally you would want to start out with smaller scale ideas, or for a larger idea might concentrate on producing a demo which you could then pitch to a publisher or other investors to secure additional funding.

#2 is a very long-term project, and begins with you gaining some skill (and the matching qualification) to be hired in the industry. You would normally expect to spend several years working your way up the food chain before being able to have your idea considered. Your idea would be competing with the ideas of others for attention.

#3 is a whole topic of it's own: learn one or more skills (programming is usually the most practical) to create your own game, and work with others to get it done. You'll find our For Beginners forum filled with topics on how to approach this.


Useful links:
Tom Sloper's Game Design FAQs.
Obscure.co.uk FAQs and articles.

Hope that helps!