作者：Dan Marchant

发行商和开发商不会购买由非资深开发者（游戏邦注：这是指有过游戏创作经历的人）提交的游戏想法，原因如下：

1、合法性——许多提交创意设计的人都不满18周岁。这可能会产生许多公司不愿面对的法律问题。

2、行业的普遍观点是，没有真正制作过游戏的开发者的想法是毫无价值的。即便是世界上最棒的想法也是如此，因为在制成游戏之前想法无法出售，因而毫无价值。

3、在任何开发团队中，至少有25%的员工已构思出想要转变成游戏的想法。这意味着，每个开发者所拥有的游戏想法都要超过他们真正能够执行的想法，所以他们根本不需要你的想法。正因为没有需求，所以你的想法对他们来说毫无价值。

4、掌控游戏设计的人通常都已经从业数年时间，都等待着能够将他们的想法变成现实的机会。他们不会因为你的想法而放弃自己的机会，当你毫无开发经验时更是如此。很显然，他们的想法中都有着自己的信念，就像你一样，所以当他们知道自己的想法能够获得成功时，不会冒险采用你的想法。

5、多数开发商和发行商都会收到大量由外界主动提供的游戏设计。他们没有足够的资源一一查看这些设计，因为他们不需要你的想法，所以他们也就没有理由在这方面投入精力。

6、单纯从商业上来考虑，当他们可以免费使用自己的想法时，没有理由付费购买你的想法。而且，免费提供想法的做法同样无法奏效。如果你的想法被抛弃，那么它就一无所值了。除此之外，如果游戏获得了巨大的成功，你有可能会回来要求分一杯羹，没有商家愿意冒这个风险。

idea(from thestoryoftelling.com)

7、最后，数据统计显示，你的游戏想法很可能毫无用处。在我从业的20年里，公共大众提出的99.9%的想法属于下述几类：

（1）“我想要将游戏X变得更好。”——现有游戏的复制品。

（2）讲述一个小故事的数页文字，其中没有可供游戏采用的有效细节（游戏邦注：这是想法但并非设计）。

（3）现有技术无法实现其想法。

（4）其设计无法进行商业运作。

（5）像10岁孩子的涂鸦之作，不知所云。

（6）丝毫没有创意的平凡设计。

其中0.01%确实是精华，但是多数发行商每年都会收到成千上万的提议，从这些中寻找精华需要大量的时间。即便他们找到了其中的精华，但是仍然需要将其转变成游戏，这又回到了上述那些问题。

以下是引自Eidos Interactive网站上的说法：“就个人提交的设计想法而言，我们只可能关注那些有编程和图像设计经验并能够将其开发成游戏的资深开发者的设计。”

无论是否在网站上公开，这确实是行业内的标准做法。如果你没有制作游戏的团队，那么没有人会关注你的想法。

那么要怎么做呢？

你主要有三个选择：

1、学习制作游戏（游戏邦注：包括编程和美工），招募志趣相投的人组成团队，将游戏作为兴趣项目来做。

2、获得必要的资质，然后在行业内找到工作。在制作其他人项目的过程中不断进步，直到你达到可以提出自己的游戏想法为止（游戏邦注：这可能需要花费数年时间）。

3、吸引投资或者彩票中奖，然后雇佣成熟的开发团队将你的想法制成游戏。

如果你的游戏设计确实很棒，那么就应该尽你所能让其实现，但是如果你对自己的游戏都不投入，那么其他人也不可能重视。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Selling game designs/ideas

Dan Marchant

Publishers and developers do not buy ideas or accept submissions from anyone who is not an experienced/established developer (that is an entire team that has a track record of creating games), for the following reasons.

1. Legal – Many people seeking to submit designs are under 18 years of age. This would cause legal complications that most companies would rather avoid.

2. From an industry point of view an idea is of zero value without a development team to actually make the game. It doesn’t matter if it really is the best idea in the world because until it is made into a game it can’t be sold and thus has no value.

3. At least 25% of the staff within any given development team have more than one idea they would like to turn into a game. This means that every developer already has more game ideas than they will EVER be able to produce so they don’t need yours. Because they don’t need it, it is of no value to them.

4. The people in control of game design have generally worked for years in the industry, waiting for the chance to make their game. They will not give up that chance in order to make yours, especially if you have no experience of the development process. Obviously they have faith in their idea, just as you do in yours, so they won’t want to take a risk on your idea when they “know” that theirs will be a success.

5. Most developers and publishers get piles of unsolicited game designs. They don’t have the resources to review them all and given that they don’t need your idea (as detailed in point 3 above) there is no reason for them to make the effort to sift through the pile.

6. From a purely business point of view it does not make sense for them to pay for your idea when they can use their own for free. – And no, offering it to them for nothing will not work either. If you are giving it away it can’t be worth anything. Besides many of them will not want to take even the smallest risk that you come back when the game is a huge success and try to claim the rewards.

7. Lastly there is the statistical probability that your game is actually of no use anyway. In the twenty years I have been in the industry 99.9% of the ideas sent in by members of the public fell into one of the following categories:

i. “I want to do game X but better”. – a clone of an existing game.

ii. A few pages of text that tell a little story, which provide no useful details from which a game can actually be made. (An idea not a design).

iii. Technically impossible to develop using current technology.

iv. So huge that it simply would not be commercially viable.

v. The deranged crayon scrawl of a ten-year-old.

vi. Plain old rubbish.

Yes there may be the .01% that are great but most publishers receive thousands of submissions a year and it isn’t financially viable to invest the time needed to find the jewel in the rough because even if they could find it they would still have to turn it into a game which brings you back to all the problems above.

The following is a quote from the Eidos Interactive website…

“Regarding design submissions by individuals……….it is very unlikely that we would take an interest in a design or storyboard from anyone but a well-established developer with the programming and graphics resources to develop the title in question.”

Whether stated publicly on the web site or not, this is pretty much standard practice throughout the industry. If you don’t have a team to make the game no one will even look at your idea.

So what to do?

You have three main options:

1. Learn to make games (programming and art) and recruit a like minded team to help you make the game as a hobby project.

2. Get the necessary qualifications and then get a job in the industry. Work your way up doing other people’s projects until you get to the stage where you can propose your own game idea (this will likely take several years).

3. Secure investment funding or win the lottery and then hire an established development team to make your game for you.

If your game is as good as you think you will do whatever is necessary to get it made, but if you won’t invest in your game then no one else is likely to. (Source: Obscure)