The Games Game

We All Have Great Ideas (November 2003)

Dear Tom,

I am a first year student at the Art Institute of LA, and a QA tester at Activision. I was curious as to how I can at this early stage start pitching game concepts. Obviously, I have no studio, just an idea. Are publishers interested in buying design documents, the way scripts are sold in Hollywood? Or are they looking for the total package, a studio that will not just pitch the idea but also be able to deliver the finished product?

Name Withheld

Dear Withheld,

Many publishers do accept concept submissions from individuals, but the chances of getting anywhere with that sort of submission are extremely slim. Having worked at Activision, I know that most testers are temporary help, as opposed to permanent employees. So in effect you are an outsider (even though you work on the premises). Even if you were a permanent employee of the company, there probably isn't a formal submission process to get ideas greenlit. It's been a couple years since I left Activision - so I'm speaking in generalities that apply industrywide. Some companies may have that sort of formal process for submitting ideas. Of course, as I wrote in my September column, any concepts created by employees usually belong to the company anyway (depending on the inventions clauses in their employment contracts or the employee handbook).

The surest path to having a submission accepted and greenlit is to be a superstar first (like Shigeru Miyamoto, Sid Meier, Tom Clancy, or Steven Spielberg). But most of us hope that our creations will eventually get us even halfway to such heights!

Second best is to own your own development company. Of course, it takes many years to reach that plateau, too. Put yourself in the shoes of a submissions manager at a game company for a moment. A tester in QA has submitted an idea on paper. And the president of a game development company has submitted a working demo of his game idea. It's up to you to decide which one is worth a commitment of hundreds of thousands of dollars - or even millions of dollars - in order to fully develop the concept into a game. You're risking a lot of the company's money, not to mention your credibility and your job. It's a no-brainer; you'd go with the experienced developer, the guy who can do much more than just write his ideas on paper. But there's a lot more to it than that. Word count limitations prohibit my going into much more detail here. There's lots more about pitching game ideas on my website and in the IGDA's own Game Submission Guide.

You have ideas. I have ideas. We all have ideas for games. There just isn't enough time and money to make them all. It's fine to share your ideas with your coworkers, but I recommend that you keep working on more concepts. Write them down and put them away. Dust them off again after a few months and see which ones still blow you away. You can take your concepts and turn them into a sort of design portfolio. Work hard and wait for that golden opportunity. Bring out your portfolio and show your stuff when the time is ripe.