What to do when your idea was already taken

I need some advices before I move on or continue, thank you! smile.png

Every game you will think off will most likely already exists in a similar fashion. If games where truly unique, no FPS since castle wolfenstein would have been released.

Every game you will think off will most likely already exists in a similiar fashion. If games where truly unique, no FPS since castle wolfenstein would have been released.

Then according to you, should I try to give my concept project a go even if it's a but similar to another game? Considering it being a not so small project I'm gonna have to invest some time in there so I don't want it to be a loss.

Then according to you, should I try to give my concept project a go even if it's a but similar to another game? Considering it being a not so small project I'm gonna have to invest some time in there so I don't want it to be a loss.

If you think you can do a good implementation then yes do it. Ideas are worthless without a good implementation. There are almost no games that get released that are truly unique. If everybody who wanted to do an FPS said "oh wait we can't do that because ID already did Doom" then there wouldn't Half Life, Halo, COD etc..

Personally I'd never heard of Outlast but from reading the description it doesn't sound much different to any other First Person survival horror.

If you think you can do a good implementation then yes do it. Ideas are worthless without a good implementation. There are almost no games that get released that are truly unique. If everybody who wanted to do an FPS said "oh wait we can't do that because ID already did Doom" then there wouldn't Half Life, Halo, COD etc..

Personally I'd never heard of Outlast but from reading the description it doesn't sound much different to any other First Person survival horror.

Thanks for the heads up and the info, I'll keep working on it and see how far can I go.

While the core idea might be the same, your execution may well be very different. Taking the example of REC and Outlast, look at Dread Out--a very similar basic principle (wander a scary environment with a camera as your main tool), but with a very different execution (it's ghosts instead of "zombies" or mental patients, the camera is a means of detecting and defending against threats, and the setting is Asian, with local supernatural entities, rather than Western). (As the above-linked page points out, Dread Out is also very comparable to Fatal Frame, but again has its own personality and story.)

If I recall correctly, this is somewhat of a truism in writing: Execution is everything.

While the core idea might be the same, your execution may well be very different. Taking the example of REC and Outlast, look at Dread Out--a very similar basic principle (wander a scary environment with a camera as your main tool), but with a very different execution (it's ghosts instead of "zombies" or mental patients, the camera is a means of detecting and defending against threats, and the setting is Asian, with local supernatural entities, rather than Western). (As the above-linked page points out, Dread Out is also very comparable to Fatal Frame, but again has its own personality and story.)

If I recall correctly, this is somewhat of a truism in writing: Execution is everything.

Thank you! this really helped as I skimmed through the different horror games in found footage style I found out it's all about execution as you said. Having the bonus of my country having a lot of traditional tales and unique settings I might take that as a general direction to where should it head. I'm gonna to contnue writing now :)

I've found that when you initially copy someone else's idea, it only leads to more ideas of your own (and helps you understand their design decisions). That's where you branch out into your own creative, original IP. These sources of inspiration are a launching point to help you get started.

Do worry about copyright infringement though: Don't copy someones assets without their consent!

I've found that when you initially copy someone else's idea, it only leads to more ideas of your own (and helps you understand their design decisions). That's where you branch out into your own creative, original IP. These sources of inspiration are a launching point to help you get started.

Do worry about copyright infringement though: Don't copy someones assets without their consent!

I'm okay with the assets since I can model flexibly if I invested my time in it, but I agree with you, when I learned 3d modeling, I used to copy other people's work by trying to recreate it, then I slowly understood the way they worked and it made me even better and better and added my little tweaks in there just for exercising, the same way goes for storywritting etc.

Thank you all for the heads up, I'll update when it amounts to something presentable.

If you base your idea on some movie etc., it's not your idea in the first place.

Backing up a bit

Let's say you wanted to make a game adaptaion of the movie "REC"

Then you would contact the company who owns the rights to the movie. And you would negotiate a deal with them. And they would license you the game rights to their IP.

If another company has already acquired those rights, you would still get in touch with whoever has the rights and negotiate a deal, typically offering money or services or brand recognition, assuming you've got some of those.

Usually these are deals measured in millions of dollars. Subcontracting deals, where you subcontract with whoever already acquired the game rights, are often measured in hundreds of thousands.

Aww, Ninja'd by Graelig

Backing up a bit

Let's say you wanted to make a game adaptaion of the movie "REC"

Then you would contact the company who owns the rights to the movie. And you would negotiate a deal with them. And they would license you the game rights to their IP.

If another company has already acquired those rights, you would still get in touch with whoever has the rights and negotiate a deal, typically offering money or services or brand recognition, assuming you've got some of those.

Usually these are deals measured in millions of dollars. Subcontracting deals, where you subcontract with whoever already acquired the game rights, are often measured in hundreds of thousands.

Aww, Ninja'd by Graelig

Well yea if he wanted to call it "Rec: The Game" this would be true, if he wwnted to use copyrightable elements from the movie, this would be true. But it sounds more like hes inspired to make a game around the idea of the film, not make an actually game version of the movie. Or maybe im wrong and that was his goal, but i personally didnt take it that way.

As for the original question, dont be afraid to also look at what people say about those games, try playing them yourself. Find out what they might have done wrong, or could do better, and you hopefully can use this knowledge to make your game overall better. But dont be discouraged just because the base idea already exists, there are still plenty of flavors left to try.

What to do when your idea is already taken?

YOU KEEP MAKING YOUR GAME ANYWAY!

Implementations of an idea are unique. Two people can have the same idea, but one implementation can be better than another. The execution of the idea matters more than the idea itself. What makes Facebook better than MySpace? You can analyze it all you want, but it really is just two different executions.

If your idea is taken, who cares, keep building it anyway!

In cases like this,should you still continue and start working on it or do a completely different project?

The correct answer is: Do what you want to do (barring any legal limitations).

If your motivation came from you believing your idea was unique then you probably don’t have that motivation anymore and there is no reason to continue.
If your motivation is based off just wanting to make this particular game, screw the rest and make it.


There is literally nothing else to it.
Do you still want to make the game?
Answer this by taking in all the factors that could influence your desire/motivation (including potential for market success if that was ever a factor for you) and act accordingly.

Tom Sloper calls this a decision grid. Make one.


L. Spiro

Who cares? Just make it anyways, unless there's some legal restriction or you don't want to make it. Some of the most successful companies didn't have novel ideas but were successful cause they made their version better (e.g. Apple)

Every good idea is just a tweak on an existing idea. If someone used your idea before you did, just add a variation on top of that idea. Nothing is truly new, it's just tweaks to the formula of something that already exists. Often the fact that someone stole your idea is a good thing - they did all the hard work of making the first version! Now you already know if the idea works or not, and if it does add your own twist to it.

In the latest Zachtronics podcast they talk about this - there's nothing wrong with just taking an idea that is already proven to work and then just adding your own variation on top. So treat your idea already existing as a good thing, it's like a free beta test of your game.

I'm just going to re-post my reply to a similar thread, which you might want to look at too.

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There is a famous company that is known for taking the best parts of existing game genres and making them even better. That company is Blizzard (:

I definitely have to agree. If you have an idea then find it's been done I think you got one of two choices

1. Think you can't do it better or add to it, don't do it...or do (doesn't matter which really)

2. Take your original idea, see what the game is doing good and bad, and then do it better.

The problem is that everyone's already thought of everything already

I agree with everyone that you've basically got 2 choices, but I would also say keep developing. Sometimes during the development process you decide to make a few changes here and there that don't look like much, but they affect the overall product. Also, it's better to have something you can change or reuse if you have a sweet idea for a new feature later on.