How do you learn & make your game without your idea being stolen or after your idea has been stolen?

I have a pretty severe form of depression that keeps me housebound and I spend the majority of my time playing games.

I want to make a game and I have an idea. It's not the world's best idea for a game but it's good enough and defined enough that it makes me think it's worth doing and makes me feel like it's something worth getting out of bed for in the morning.

I don't really have any illusions about it making any money (if I was doing it for those reasons I should probably make a mobile app.) I'm just doing it as a labour of love because it's something I want to do, something I've always wanted to do and something I feel compelled to do but before now never thought myself capable of.

I'll be learning from scratch and really just doing it as a hobby and as something to do with my time and my life (beyond just playing video games) and to be able to say to people "hey, I did this; this is what I do" even if it is just average at best, but there's no way I'll be able to get it made faster than or to the standard of someone with existing game development experience.

My concern is that if I have to discuss my idea and parts of it on the forum in order to learn how to implement the various mechanics, how can I protect my idea from being taken and implemented by someone else and what do I do if and when that happens?

Turning my idea into a game because it gives some feeling of purpose to my life, even if just as a hobby, focus and pass-time is one thing but persisting with an idea after it's been taken and implemented and pushed out into the world, by someone else, just seems like the saddest thing in the world.

 

And it happens.

Imagine being a game developer. You need inspiration. Where do you go? Sure, there's anyways waiting for it to strike. Or, you could browse all the major discussion sites looking for promising WIP's and, knowing that you can beat an inexperienced dev to market, snipe them.

Happens more than anyone even knows.

 

That's the thing. I look at the games I play and think, well those are the tropes and the basic building blocks that seem to go into all of these things but here's my twist on the genre and it's kind of the U.S.P. and the gimmick on which the whole thing's constructed (and which sets it apart from everything else in the market and arguably makes it a worthwhile proposition and not just more of the same) but it's very specific and non-generic and as such shouldn't it be protectable?

 

Matt Thorson created a game called Jumper. Years later, Team Meat made Super Meat Boy. It's the same game. They did it much better but the original inspiration comes from that guy. The even recognized it but I don't know how much money they gave him, mostly because I don't think they're legally required to give you any money if they steal your game idea.

 

Ideas don't matter. That might sound bizarre, but it's absolutely the case. Ideas themselves have almost no value, and chances are it's already been done before twenty different ways.

The thing that actually has value is turning the idea into the final product. Worry about trying to make the game, because I'll bet good money (that I don't have) that you won't finish it and nothing happens to your idea.

So cheers and have fun.

 

You can protect content, you can protect words, you can protect images. You can prevent somebody from exactly copying your work, or reproducing it in whole without your permission.

It's a lot harder if not impossible to protect an idea.

Even worse, it's all going to come down to lawsuits. So, can you afford a lawyer? So they win.

 

I know a guy who released a game, same day someone else released almost the same game.

And so on.

 

I don't think the chance that someone is going to steal your idea during its infancy is very high, and the chance that any person who does steal it has the development resources and experience to make a complete game and release it before you when you've already got a head start on them is even less. Making a game is no easy task, and the people who have the will to learn how do it because they already have their own visions and ideas of what they want to create.

Even if the worst does happen, there isn't really much you can do. The best thing is just to focus on building the best experience you're capable of.

If you're really that concerned about it you're under no obligation to make your project public at all. You can just keep it under wraps and reveal only what you need to until you're ready to release.

 

Well this is the thing. I'll probably never get it finished and it's probably going to be extremely simple in its execution but I've got a good enough excuse to at least sit down at my computer every day really just so that I can feel like I'm part of something bigger than myself and actually create something but I'm just worried about how long it's all going to last.

I don't even care if it's popular for being so appallingly bad it's good, I just want to be able to make something.

 

More than you think.
Hell, in the mid 2000's I did it. I saw this demo and I LOVED it. Guy never updated. So, I made my own. I never finished it or anything. Couldn't have sold it, anyway. But it is very common for creative people to "borrow"...

 

I don't doubt it. I'm even concerned about making the thing on a machine with any kind of internet connection and I'm not particularly thrilled about the Unity people being able to look at it either (lol).

Not because I'm under any illusion that it's going to make me the next internet billionaire; just because I don't want life to punch me in the crotch yet again.

 

There is not an original concept under the sun. All content is recycled to some (usually very large) degree.

What makes your game is the work you put into implementing that concept. If you get discouraged because someone else did it first, you've got no hope of succeeding at anything in life.

 

Also very true, if not harsh.

However, if they can steal your exact design and release it first... you're back to square one.

 

There's easier ways to just make a game than Unity, as well. If you're just interested in doing SOMETHING you can always try a visual scripting tool, GameMaker is easy for beginners. Unity tends to require you to be a competent coder before you can do anything.

 

I'm not talking about getting discouraged because it's all been done before, I'm talking about having my own personal contribution to the genre being taken and used in such a way that it renders my efforts moot. Although that might not be such a bad thing. I'm just worried about loosing my motivation.

Ultimately, for me it's just an excuse to be able to make something cool and that I think is really meaningful and it's just a shame that the system's set up in such a way that a well-meaning effort can be so poorly protected.

 

Maybe that's the way I should go. I just heard unity talked about a lot and got a bit of a burst of motivation over the last few days and so here I am. I guess the same stuff applies but I guess I can at least make the development part a little easier on myself.

 

Cause Unity is a $1500.00 tool that just became free a few years ago, and now it publishes free to mobile. GameMaker isn't that expensive and a couple people have made games that got really good exposure and good reviews, even in magazines. It doesn't even come close to Unity in any way, but it's super simple to get started.

 

Thanks. :0)

I've been looking at other simpler tools since your previous post and will probably go with GameMaker.

I wasn't too worried about Unity's cost since there's probably no way I'd come close to utilising all of its advanced features but to be honest I think it would be good for me to start somewhere a little simpler. Really it it's just going to be dots and blocks on a screen. My concerns are stuff like, how do I make that dot look like it's facing a certain direction from a top down perspective.

Anyway, I'm not too concerned about surface appearances I just want to make something that's interesting and fun to engage with, plus it probably wouldn't have a very wide appeal anyway. It's a retro-survival game. :0/

Thanks, :0)

 

Professional game developers generally have their own ideas and are usually busy working on them. Rarely if ever do they troll the Unity forum "stealing" ideas from newbie developers. It just doesn't happen. Inspiration? Sure. Outright stealing of a game idea and running with it? Don't worry about it. Make your game.

After you've made your game, and if it's a hit, and people like it, then you may find some developer lifting the idea and cloning it or whatever. You've got a long way before you need to worry about that. Don't worry about it. Make your game.

 

Yw

 

Thanks for the encouragement, it really helps :0)

I'll make my game. :0)

 

Oh, I had an ideal to be the Ronco / K-Tel Records with custom burned CD ordered direct from my website way back in 1994 and look how that worked out for me.

Same as your great ideal will work out for you likely - even if it is a great ideal if you don't know the right people it's hot air. Not sour or anything about it, look at what the Napster guy got for being an outright thief, well that's a bad example. LOL, look at what I got for not being a thief - nothing.

Best thing to work against depression is exercise but I know that's tough for most commuters with 9 - 5 jobs which doesn't seem to be your problem...

 

I'll steal your idea and never have time to make it. Purely because it's not really the idea, but the large amounts of work it takes to make it happen.

 

Thanks, I know, in the nineties I was trying to set up a series of practice studios where people could network with other musicians over the internet, but the health problems got in the way (story of my life right there (like the twilight zone: "Portrait of a man...")), but hey, ideas aren't worth anything: friendster, friends reunited, my space...? How about facebook? Instagram now has more members than Twitter. It's the people best placed to innovate who create the successes. It's always a joint effort between the trailblazers and the third-party that comes in and innovates on the existing idea. The best people seem to hope for these days is getting a big check from whatever venture capitalist wants to be part of the game by backing the next big thing. Being able to manipulate things to your advantage in that kind of arena is the skill you really need for the whole big money success thing. Ultimately it comes down to personality, ego, drive and having the know-how really comes last.

 

Sure but if you're treading water making simple little things to keep your hand in, waiting for some inspiration...

What I mean is I'm not really talking about an established game studio taking someone's twist on a genre and basing their own game on it, I'm thinking more about someone else in the community who knows the software and hasn't really got a focused idea of their own ripping it off and running with it before you've even figured out how to read the code.

I know, in theory you just don't tell anyone about it but it's difficult to learn this stuff in a vacuum and do you really want to be on a forum with someone who just ripped off your idea and is running with it when you barely know what you're doing and your kind of just sitting there trying to put it together for its own sake when it's already out there.

This is what's on my mind. I want to make a game, it's not the best game in the world, it probably wouldn't win any awards or be very popular but it's an excuse to try and actually sit down and create something and it's just really petty and really crappy if someone else rips it off just because it's a focus for developing some programming experience, but I guess that's just life.

I will make my game. It will be badly rendered and poorly executed but I will make it and people will say stuff like "I see where you're going with that" and "I get it but I don't like it" and "that was old ten years ago" etc. etc. but, I will make my game. :0)

 

*or an experienced Indie developer who's created more than a dozen games, mostly small web based games, that haven't really hit it big. Looking for something that's getting a lot of attention... Jumper was a smash hit on the GameMaker community. Probably the biggest game around. But that guy wasn't taking it anywhere. So....

 

The game itself was a smash hit, or the idea? Because honestly, know one gives a sh*t about ideas. It's what people do with them that get the attention. This thread is about the idea, not necessarily the finished game.

From the page about Jumper: "After its release, Jumper soon established a loyal, even fanatical, fan base in the Game Maker Community forums." I doubt anyone cared about the idea even if it was posted in the forum through the entire length of development. It was when it was released that it got attention, and then it got cloned.

 

The person who's idea it is gives a s**t about the idea, it's the people who rip ideas off who don't give a s**t about doing it.

Ideas are worth very little if they're not put into action but people still feel a sense of ownership over their own ideas, especially if it's something they're very passionate about and that they believe in.

 

Well of course, if you have an idea and you like it, and you want to do something with it, it's a given that you would care about it. My point is that no one else will care enough to steal it, since generally developers have their own ideas to care about. I thought that could go without saying.

 

Well, game maker people get really excited even about really really early demos, but I wasn't around when the first release of jumper occurred. I guess the take away is it's not that likely your game will be ripped off unless you can establish a big following after your first release.

Which should be encouraging to all.

 

It is totally encouraging. I've had my games copied, my web sites copied, my games distributed by pirates, and so on and so forth, and when you get to the point where someone likes what you've done enough to do that, then it is indeed encouraging. You know you're doing something right. That's how I look at it, at least. For people who've never released a game, or who hold onto their one game idea with their life, I'm sure the view looks different.

 

Yep, looks different.

 

My idea aside (seriously, forgetting about the idea of my idea for the moment)...

I can see what you're saying but I can't imagine the guy who made jumper would have been very encouraged by the success of Super Meatboy and I know the guy who made 3's did not feel good about his game being ripped off (I heard him interviewed about it and he did not find it uplifting).

It's one thing to say that ideas are worth nothing and it's what you do with them that really counts but that's a double edged sword: an idea in the right hands can be worth an absolute fortune and can change a person's life forever and there are always people poised for action and looking for ideas, like the guy who ripped of 3's and like the people who clone games and put them out the same day etc. I played a version of Flappy Bird (where you flew a helicopter) over ten years ago. The people who have particularly epiphanic moments of inspiration can really feel like these ideas are their own and that can run pretty deep.

 

The safest thing then is to not do anything. And with that, I've got to get back to work. I wish you luck.

 

Well, it's also market research. That's what is missed in this whole purist argument of "ideas don't matter" and "when people steal your ideas you just work harder". It's that... when someone proves that this type of game has some broad appeal, and then you say... o.k. let's put money behind it and if we even get within 5% of his success with people who've seen it vs. people who enjoyed playing it and rated it highly, we'll make our money back. So you spend on graphics and music and hire an artist and buy some ad space, do some social media stuff... that guy could have done that but he wasn't savvy.

Yet still, it had personal value to him. And if you would have gone to that guy and said, "would you be interested in doing this..." who knows. But the point is, ideas DO get stolen and it's sort of a big deal, especially to the small time or lone developers who are just looking to have a good time making games.

 

You should be working on that. I recommend you read Letting Go: The Pathway of Surrender.

 

Throw all of your ideas out to get stolen........................................... Hide under a rock.

No middle ground.

 

I qualified the extreme with the word "safest", that being the most safe. There is of course middle ground, but sometimes people don't want to hear it or think about it. They just want to talk about all the reasons why they might not do something (make a game, for instance) and get other people to agree with them so it makes them feel better about not doing it. There's nothing new there, no great insight to discuss on and on, no real advice can be given once you realize someone is doing that than to just say, "ok, then don't do it."

 

As per my signature, "You can't play an idea"

Ideas are worth almost nothing in my opinion.

 

Okay so this is getting off topic but, if you know something's morally wrong, something that's not a "victimless crime" but something you know is going to hurt someone and cause them a lot of distress but you do it anyway because you know that, technically, it's legally permissible and you can get away with it, what does that say about you as a person and about the world we live in?

I'm not trying to imply that anyone in this discussion is like that (although I don't doubt a great many on the forum are) I'm just trying to respond to the topic as it's evolving (because I kind of feel some sense of duty to it having started the thread).

Also, I am going to make the game, I can't not make the game, I'm just trying to get a sense of orientation in all of this.

I think we might just be getting tangled up in semantics. I think we're basically all saying the same thing just in different ways.

MurDocINC, thanks for the book recommendation, I've been working on this stuff intensely for years (which is probably actually half of the problem at this point) and I have just surrendered to, and accepted my nature. I have a hormonal imbalance in my brain that restricts its function (the hormone in question: Serotonin). It's like trying to control the tides of the sea, pointless, futile and exhausting...

...a bit like this thread ;0)

Ideas are like tools...in the right hands they can be extremely effective. Not taking action is another matter entirely.

 

tl;dr this thread, prob been said, and I know it's been said before, something along the lines of "obscurity is a bigger enemy than your IP being stolen."

 

Really? You think a great number of people here in this forum are out to do you personal harm? Ok.

You asked a question about how to deal with someone stealing your idea.

Your Question: How can I protect my idea from being taken and implemented by someone else and what do I do if and when that happens?

The Answer: You can't. And nothing.

Anything beyond that seems like just excuses to to not actually make a game. You've got answers to that question from both professional and non-professional developers. Are you still looking for an answer to your question or are we now talking about something else?

 

Actually no, I think we're just talking at cross purposes.

As for the thread, it's an ongoing discussion, and I'm responding to it.

 

I don't know if we're so much talking at cross purposes as it is that you had a desired answer in mind before you asked the question, and some people aren't meeting that expectation. Anyway, like I said, good luck with your game. Back to work.

 

To be honest I'm amazed that a game like Super Meatboy could be made and that the designer of it's progenitor wouldn't have some kind of legal recourse. I knew it was bad, I didn't know it was this bad. What happened to the legal process since Great Giana Sisters was pulled?

 

If you're doing it for yourself and you don't care about money or anything, why should you care if someone steals your idea?

 

It's demotivating. I'd rather it be taken and used by a major game developer than have to sit on a forum next to someone who'd taken my idea and already made it yesterday's news while I'm still trying to figure out the rudiments of the system. It would just kind of make it pointless and a bit soul-destroying. I'm interested in doing it because it's something I actually want to do when most of the time all I want to do is sleep or play video games.

What I mean is I'm not expecting to make money doing it I just want to make something that's mine. My thing. I'm just wondering where the community stands with regards the taking of each others ideas and what the prevalent attitude on the forum is with regards that. I was actually expecting better news than I seem to be getting.

 

Research how to make the closest genre to your game idea.
Then expand from there.
You could trust me by then (by the time you can build that basic game) you'll already have the knowledge of how are things actually done and how is information used for development gathered and be able to ask for help without having to explicitly reference your idea.
Your current need of "only being able to ask for help by explaining your idea" in order to get help is that you lack the terminology to explain it in terms of parts and components. As an example, if I have an idea of a video game about yellow ducks that shoot seeds and I want to ask for help in the system used to make them open their mouths and shoot seeds, I won't ask:
"How do I make a yellow duck open its mouth and fire seeds".
No.
I'll ask: "How do I sync animations with projectiles and make colliders for hit detection update efficiently."
... Except I can just find all the components of that question, "animation sync", "colliders" and "projectiles" spread around the forums, answers section, my own knowledge, downloadable Unity projects, Youtube tutorials, asset store, etc.
tl;dr, stop looking at things from an "end product" standpoint at get cracking with the basics.

 

Thanks. Good advice but now I'm not sure if I should start with Unity or try something a little easier like GameMaker. :0/

I think I have to do a little more research.

 

You can try GameMaker, but don't be afraid of coding