Why Game Publishers Aren't Interested In Your Game Idea

[noeinan]

Just was reading this article and thought folks here might find it interesting, too.

https://davidmullich.wordpress.com/2016 ... game-idea/

[Kuiper]

This article by Jeff Wofford discusses a similar topic: http://www.jeffwofford.com/?p=151

When people tell me their game ideas, usually their idea is 99% setting and story and only 1% gameplay. I have to tell them that they don’t have a game idea—they have a story idea. A game design is not a story design. If you want your idea made into a game, you’ll have to fill out the details about how the game actually plays—what the player actually does, how he moves his character, how he interacts with the world.

Incidentally, I think there's a case to be made for redirecting these types of people toward visual novel development, where the focus does tend to be setting and story, rather than gameplay. Of course, this leads to a separate but similar discussion (namely the fact that having an idea for a story and actually telling that story are two very different things), but I think it could potentially be a move in the right direction for some people.

[gekiganwing]

Gameplay to story ratio is important. How much of your project is story, and how much of it is interaction? Be honest about whether a person will spend a lot of time with puzzles, exploration, simulation, and other forms of complex gameplay.

If the player moves a character through a world, but the player is essentially experiencing a story with few or no other interactive elements... is it a graphic adventure game? Or just another way to present a visual novel? I don't have an answer.

[SundownKid]

If the player moves a character through a world, but the player is essentially experiencing a story with few or no other interactive elements... is it a graphic adventure game? Or just another way to present a visual novel? I don't have an answer.

According to Wikipedia, it's a type of adventure game called an exploration game. Visual novels are also a subcategory of adventure games, albeit a different subcategory.

[LateWhiteRabbit]

Gameplay to story ratio is important. How much of your project is story, and how much of it is interaction? Be honest about whether a person will spend a lot of time with puzzles, exploration, simulation, and other forms of complex gameplay.

If the player moves a character through a world, but the player is essentially experiencing a story with few or no other interactive elements... is it a graphic adventure game? Or just another way to present a visual novel? I don't have an answer.

There is great value in making a distinction between something that lends itself to gameplay, and a story that might be better served in another medium like a novel or a comic.

The interactive nature of games can be used to tremendous effect as a story-telling tool. Just see games like The Walking Dead, Spec Ops: The Line, and Papers Please, to see how the interactive nature of a story can force players to critically examine their own beliefs and actions in a way a non-interactive story never could. Papers Please is a better class on why good people support morally corrupt regimes than any book written on the subject.

I was extremely fortunate to be able to study game design under Andrew Greenberg, one of the designers on the original Vampire: The Masquerade for White Wolf, amongst other games. He saw the same problem with his students. Too many of them had story ideas, and not gameplay ideas. The question being, "Why are you thinking of making this a game, and not a movie? Or a book? Or a comic?"

It is sometimes said with a little derision that many game designers REALLY want to be Hollywood directors. But that shouldn't be the case. We can do things in a story or narrative that is interactive that are tremendously stronger than a linear narrative. The important thing is that you are leveraging the strengths of whatever media you are choosing to publish in.

[Alte]

Just was reading this article and thought folks here might find it interesting, too.
https://davidmullich.wordpress.com/2016 ... game-idea/

The article reminds me of a clever analogy from long ago.

-
However the modern interpretation for making a visual novel would be...
Creators = Chefs | Engine = Tools | Materials = Ingredients | Design Doc. = Recipe List
Skills = Cookbook | Programming = Cooking | Demo = Appetizer | Project = Food

[hoihoisoi]

Yea, I second that notion of execution over idea.

Execution to me forms the bulk of any if not every project but what tips it over the top from being an average project into a good or spectacular one to me looks like the idea put into the project. I guess you can say I look at the idea as more of a 'multiplier bonus' or rather the cherry on top of the ice cream while the execution of it being the meat and bones of the project.

[Destriarch]

I'm a programmer, does that mean I have chicken?