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How To Sell a Video Game Idea?
fobsta writes "Do any Slashdotters have experience of selling video game ideas? I'm an artist who has programmed a rough-as-nails demo and animated a trailer to explain my concept. Obviously I think it's fun, it shows promise, and my friends think it's cool. Who should I pitch the idea to? Existing video games companies, venture capitalists, or what about those dentists who financed the Amiga? Are they still around? I've had a previous idea hijacked, and received no reward for it whatsoever; how can I prevent this happening again?"
That would probably only work if the game was demo, or had a lot of the features disabled (removed entirely). F-Free is fine, its the OSS that becomes a problem, licensing, etc and like a previous poster said, its basically just paper unless you can back it up in court (ie: money + time)
Otherwise you end up with the problem he/it/them apparently already had with people taking the idea and running with it (some EA snoop or something)
FOSS wouldnt make him a profit unless it was a MMORPG or similar where you can make the money from selling items and such, or just an account to access the items, or servers. MMORPGs are hugely profitable, but pretty hard to start without a decent backing to begin-with (and an addictive game) which he doesn't have.
But I think a lot of it depends on just how much he depends on the game to live, how soon he needs to depend on it.
Alien Hominid? you've got to be joking. It's a minor cult hit. By no means was it a major success.
And Portal works because 1. it's from an established studio 2. the studio uses an innovative business model.
Either you're a moron or a troll, likely both.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
Whoever suggests that this user even 'thinks' about developing his game for the iPhone is either working at Apple or just giving horrible advice.
Developing for iPhone, you give up all rights to the product in any technical terms. This means that Apple can shut off your application on everyone's phone at anytime and ban you from further development. Also if you have a killer hit, they can shut you down and make a carbon copy of the idea themselves and sell theirs, as you have given them rights to do so.
In fact ANYONE developing for the iPhone knowing this is a freaking idiot that is doing nothing but helping Apple sell a phone with a HORRID UI concept for a phone.
MP3 player, Touch iPods are grand for what they are, phones are for dialing without having to read the screen either feeling the keys or using voice commands - both which the iPhone fail to provide. - God only help the people driving near iPhone users.
(Apple has the biggest DRMing of Software in history, even with remote disable.)
Why do Slashdoters love Apple and iPhones again, I thought we fought DRM and evil?