Pitching Ideas At Gen Con Indy

teknoviking writes "Gen Con Indy is coming up on August 13-16th, and if you are planning on attending, especially if you have an idea you want to pitch to one (or many) of the vendors, artists, or developers at the Con, you should check out this great series of articles by writer and game designer Jess Hartley. She covers the basics of proper planning and making a good impression, and she has some practical tips about how to promote your idea, and what you should do to follow up afterward."

Comments

Ideas are Cheap but Development Costs Money

[CodeBuster]

Almost anyone can have a "great idea" in gaming, but unless you have a proven track record with profitable games to your credit or have your own suitcases full of cash (or backers with same), why should they pay you simply for having an idea that probably isn't all that original? Its a bit cheaper when working with homebrew self-published pen and paper games; but competitive computer or console games cost tens of millions of dollars to produce and with credit being tougher to get now than at just about any other time since the modern game industry was founded, nobody wants to pay simply to hear your "great idea" for a game.

Re:Ideas are Cheap but Development Costs Money

[Trepidity]

Do you really need tens of millions of dollars? Sure, there are games that cost that, but plenty that don't. And we're talking indie games here, so presumably more of the latter. World of Goo is one recent example of a very successful game made for peanuts (supposedly $10k, plus free labor from the two founders). This year's Indie Game Festival winner, Blueberry Garden, presumably didn't cost tens of millions either.

Re:Ideas are Cheap but Development Costs Money

[CastrTroy]

It doesn't have to cost a lot. World of Goo cost only $100,000 to make. Which sounds like a lot of money to some people, but is way less than the tens of millions of dollars that other games cost.

Re:Ideas are Cheap but Development Costs Money

[Anonymous Coward]

This is the exact reason why I started making my own game. Ive spent so much of my life playing games and wishing that they had such and such features, and so much of my life wishing that a such and such type game existed, I figured I might as well try and make it happen. Considering the near-impenetrability of the big games market and the scope of my own vision (Which probably wouldnt mesh well when having to deal with deadlines and marketers and such anyway) combined with my close to zero start up capital, ive come to the conclusion that it is the only way.

Luckily, there has actually been alot of progress made in the area of tools available to expedite the game making process and to lighten the scope of the workload to a level manageable by a single person. Gamemaker, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_Maker) for instance. Which saves you enough work, while still being flexible enough, to far outweigh its limits as middleware, combine it with a nice community of helpful people and i'd say its the best bet for anyone with dreams of making a high quality near zero budget game in any reasonable timeframe.

The only hurdle ive found with my own game is in the area of art content. Which is saying alot considering im an artist by trade. Its still a struggling point in my own game, so it may be even more so for people without an art background. However, there are alot of tools to expedite that as well. 3d models prerenderd to 2d sprites using open source materials, for example.

Re:i've been wanting...

[jeblucas]

Yep. Been done. Mr. Mosquito is actually very good.

Way too late

[Culture20]

Planning for Gencon started many months ago. Anyone changing plans now will screw themselves.

Summary is worthless

[bigstrat2003]

TFS is very badly written, and misleading, FYI. TFA is actually about making some contacts at GenCon, in the hopes of finding a future job in the industry. It's not about "I have a cool idea for a game, who do I talk to?".