Idea Poaching Thread

Hi

I'm just new here and it's already been very interesting having a scan through what some of you are up to. The ideas and talent are terrific and the support for each other is pretty cool to see.

But, how cautious do you have to be in sharing too much about your work here? Has anyone had any issues with someone grabbing their idea and racing off into the sunset with it?

I just work on my own from home. I do all the coding etc myself so it takes me a while to get through it all and release something. Having a resource like this place available is brilliant but I'm a bit concerned about sharing ideas then having someone in a team or more competent than me grabbing it and getting it out first. I imagine there may be others who share my concerns.

Does this happen or am I just being silly?

Cheers
Green Guppy

It might be a matter of personal opinion. I consider imitation to be the most sincere form of flattery, and if someone takes the aesthetics of my game and designs an FPS in a similar looking setting, i'd be thrilled.

However I am saying this now, but I may play a completely different tune if someone makes a highly successful game that's a direct and obvious ripoff of mine.

That said, I wouldn't worry about people taking inspiration from your ideas. Just do your own thing.

Never seen someone blatantly copy others games before on here but that's not to say it never happens. I think most people respect anyones progress / work released and the only form of imitation I have seen here is in the sole interest of the user imitating as a learning experience but this for stuff like models rather than taking someones ideas.

One can never be too careful but I don't feel like this is the type of community that would do low things such as directly stealing.
I hope you come up with a decision maybe after some more posts arise I would love to see more kiwis here producing content!

I personally don't worry about that.

A way to ease the worry of that is to place just enough out to get people interested, but not enough where they could lift your project and make it their own.

as an indie, you pretty much need to tell / show people what you are working on

Hi

Thanks for your replies. I guess that you get out what you put in, so sharing projects and progress can get good advice and ideas in return.

LeahTh wrote: I personally don't worry about that.

A way to ease the worry of that is to place just enough out to get people interested, but not enough where they could lift your project and make it their own.

This seems like good advice - the trick will be getting the balance right.

Well - must get back to my Angry Flappy Candy Tetris game now.

Everyone has their own great idea for the best game ever. Or "unique" mechanics and ideas that are usually nothing of the sort - or at the very least tried before. You can have all the great ideas in the world but with poor implementation it's still going to be a bad game. The game development business survives on taking ideas from other people and making it your own, with your own unique twists to make yourself stand out from all the others

My point is "stealing/poaching" other peoples ideas is what fuels iteration. Besides, 99.9 % of all people with great ideas will NEVER do anything with them anyhow.

If you really have a great idea and intend on developing it you SHOULD share it with the world! How else are you going to attract the talent that your project deserves? However that doesn't mean posting your game design document for everyone to see. It's not the idea that's going to make or break your game. It's the internal systems - where a .1% difference in a value can make or break balance.

And it's not the end of the world if your idea is "stolen" either. Many ideas are thought of in parallel. Ideas very seldom are generated out of the aether (and if your one of those visionaries that can come up with a idea so unique no one is contemplating it I'm looking for a job.) I had a, literally, million dollar game idea once. A open world zombie survival game. Do you know how many people had that same idea? Probably many. Dean Hall, creator of Day-Z, just had the skills and vision to actually make it. Once again my point is that ideas are easy. Actually working on and making an idea happen is hard. And if someone beats you to the punch then differentiate yourself and do it better then the other person, or come up with another idea that meets some niche that's being underserved.

Edited by: Death_Grin

Hey Death_Grin

Thanks for your post - it's good food for thought.

I think my original concern stems more from my speed of implementation rather than anything else. I do my game development by myself - my circumstances mean I have to fit it in around family requirements, managing my health and some other commitments I have - I would be lucky to get 4-5 hours to work on a game in a day. I'm still working up the learning curve for this stuff as well so it takes me a while to get something complete for release - so it would be a bit heart-breaking to share what I am doing and then see someone leverage off it to beat me out there. From other forums etc, I know that there are many others out there just like me but that's life I guess and as you say the solution is probably making sure that you differentiate what you have from everyone else.

No matter what - it's still fun to go through the development process and to actually get something out there, no matter the response, has been really exciting for me.

Cheers
GG