“我有一个很棒的游戏创意！”

这短短的一句话总是能给我们带来无尽的麻烦。我们设想了一款有趣的游戏，也总是希望能够创造出这款游戏。而如果不是因为这些最初的灵感，我们也许永远都不会创造出任何新游戏。

但是一些新游戏设计者总是容易高估游戏观点的价值。这篇文章的主题真的非常重要，因为就游戏创意本身而言，它其实一点价值都没有。

idea(from openforum.com)

很多新游戏设计者总是希望能够尽可能地保护一款新游戏的创意，有些人甚至在游戏测试之前就迫不及待地想为游戏申请专利以及知识产权。甚至还有些设计者不愿意与其他设计者分享自己的创意，以怕别人窃取了他的灵感。除此之外，也有些设计者要求与发行商签订保密协议（NDA）（这种方法能够有效确保发行商不会泄漏游戏的任何机密）。

但是事实上，任何一个有经验的发行商都不会对你的游戏创意感兴趣。而且，即使碰巧你的竞争游戏的设计者拥有与你完全相同的游戏理念，他们最后也有可能设计出与你的游戏完全不同的一款游戏。

实际上，游戏创意并不值得大费周章的保护，因为它们并没有太大的价值。而真正值得保护的是一款经过游戏测试并且已经成品的游戏，它拥有最后的艺术，布局以及规则。而人们会愿意花数月甚至是数年的时间去玩这款游戏，所以它才真正值得被打上版权或商标，受到保护。

而即使再优秀的游戏创意又会怎样？在经过数月的测试后，它也许已经遭到了扭曲，甚至改变了最初的核心理念。所以，坦白地讲，这种创意就像是一块碳石，只有经过不断地雕琢才能最终变成夺目的钻石。

我常常听到一句话：“如果你不能制作出一款值得盗取的游戏，谁会那么无聊去做这事。”这真的是一个非常有帮助的建议。果断地登录一些网上论坛，如BGDF，让人们帮助测试你所雕琢的游戏。如果他们并不想去盗取你的游戏，反而是不断批判它嫌弃它，那么你就该想想问题出在哪了。

但是我并不是说没有人会去盗用你的游戏观点，这点肯定没人敢保证。但是你必须加以重视我所提到的这些内容。

桌游产业的圈子真的很小。如果谁盗取了别人的游戏，那么立刻就会有人知晓。所以很少有人会这么做。

盗取一个游戏创意其实没有多大优势。因为这些创意往往还需经过反复的测试，开发，发布等步骤。所以，等到这所有的工作都完成了再盗取成品不是更适合？如果一家游戏公司必须投资所有的时间，金钱和精力只是去琢磨一个没有发展潜力的游戏理念，那么他们肯定会一开始就将其扼杀在摇篮里。

很少人会投资巨大的资本去制作一款桌面游戏。这里并不是电影产业，你并不能在桌面产业中获得上百万美元的利润，特别是作为一名设计者，除非你取得了非常惊人的成功，而这种人却屈指可数。只有极少数优秀的游戏创意能够为你赚钱，除非你真正知道自己在做什么；所以绝大多数游戏设计者一开始的工资只能够用于自己的开发工作，根本没有多余的钱去做其它事。

桌游产业真的很小，也没有多大的利润空间。所以这个产业中的人们多少都带有一点理想主义。而如果他们想在这里赚钱，那么还是去银行或者房地产行业来得实在。

所以你并不需要担心你的创意是否安全。我也曾经听说过有些刚接触桌面游戏的公司会盗取别人的游戏创意，但是后来他们却都不能很好地利用这些创意开发出好游戏。所以不要再纠结NDA或者忙着为你的观点申请专利，可以说这些其实都是无用功。

游戏邦注：原文发表于2008年12月25日，所涉事件及数据以当时为准 。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Game design mistakes 2: Your game idea sucks, part one

“I have a great idea for a game!”

That’s the phrase that gets us all in trouble.  We have this vision for a fun game, and we want to see it realized. And if it weren’t for these initial inspirations, we wouldn’t have any new games.

But game designers new to the hobby tend to overestimate the value of an idea.  I’m being a little facetious in this blog title, but the point is valuable.  An idea for a game, on its own, is worthless.

It’s an important point.  A lot of new game designers ask how they can protect their idea for a new game.  Some go as far as looking into patents and IP law before seriously playtesting their idea.  Many are hestitant to discuss it with fellow designers, worried that someone will steal their new idea.  Some even ask publishers to sign an NDA (which is a really good way to make sure the publisher never looks at the game).

But the fact is, no experienced publisher is interested in a game idea.  And if you happen to have a rival game designer who is working on exactly the same idea as you, he will most likely design a completely different game.

The fact is, game ideas aren’t worth protecting.  They’re just not valuable enough.  What’s worth protecting is a complete, developed, and playtested game.  One with final art, layout, and a rulebook.  At that point, people have put months and probably years of effort into the game, and that sort of thing deserves to be protected by copyright or trademark.

But that great idea for a game?  It’s going to get stretched, distorted, and beaten into shape over months of playtesting.  That’s a lot of work to get a diamond from what is, frankly, a lump of coal.

The saying I keep hearing is, “before worrying about someone stealing your game, design a game worth stealing.” This is great advice; heed it.  Don’t be afraid to go to internet forums like the BGDF and have people work over your gem.  They’re not going to steal it; more likely, they’re going to beat it up, which is arguably just as difficult.

Am I saying that there is absolutely no chance your game idea will ever be stolen?  Well, no.  There’s no guarantee.  But before you disregard everything I just wrote, consider…

The board game industry is really small. If someone actually steals someone else’s game, everyone’s going to know.  It won’t go well.

There’s no real advantage to stealing a game idea. That idea still has to be playtested, developed, laid out, and printed.  Why go through all that work for a lawsuit waiting to happen?  If a game company is going to invest all that time, money, and energy, they’re going to do it for a game idea they know won’t come around and bite them in the tail.

There isn’t a huge amount of money in board games. There, I said it.  This isn’t the movie industry.  You don’t make millions of dollars of profit in this business, especially as a designer, unless you’re astoundingly successful, and I can count those people on one hand.  That great idea for a game will probably not get you a lot of money unless you really know what you’re doing… in which case, you’ll probably make just enough money to pay for all your work on the game in the first place, and not much more.

This business is really small, with tiny profit margins.  Anyone in this industry is at least a little idealistic.  If they were in it to make money, they’d be in banking or real estate.

So, your idea is relatively safe.  I’ve heard of companies new to board games taking other people’s ideas, but it never turns out well for them.  You can leave the NDA at home, and remove that textbook on patents from your Amazon shopping cart.（source:ingredientx）