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- You can give up. For most people asking a question like this, this is the best option. Follow your dream if it really is your dream, but first make sure that it really is your dream and not just a whim.
Though I don't agree with how this is put, the sentiment is half right. Some of us work decade's to develop the skills because we love making games. If you are serious, you will learn, make prototypes, fail and learn some more.
Graithen said:
Though I don't agree with how this is put, the sentiment is half right. Some of us work decade's to develop the skills because we love making games. If you are serious, you will learn, make prototypes, fail and learn some more.
Sure, but those some of us all knew what to do: Learn a programming language, or nowadays learn to use some engine. So we did that, and after some time specific questions turned up. And then we registered here to ask for help on a specific problem.
But if somebody comes by and says: Hey, i'm just to dumb and lazy to do any work, but can i hire somebody else to make a game so i can have fun playing it?
Then the best advise you can give him is to either work himself or give up better early than late. To help him not wasting time or money for guaranteed failure.
After that, if he still insists, he has at least already learned that it's probably hard to make games. Which is all we could tell him at this point.
Warp9 said:
Really? I would have thought that people would be willing to work, if you pay them enough money.
The problem is this - you have an idea (not a complete design document with concept art, prototypes, details, technology requirements, marketing strategy, economic plan, what is going to make revenue, how to pay for the development and runtime, etc. etc. - quite a lot tasks not always related to the software itself). These two things are quite different - that does apply for pretty much any software project (and from experience, also when you design custom hardware which is manufactured). People often have many ideas - practically speaking I could brainstorm with few people in my company and we come up with hundreds of ideas, but the hard part is converting ideas into actual detailed projects and finishing those projects.
This counts double in ‘indie’ world - the only thing that counts is a finished product.
Of course, paying someone enough money to completely do the product from start is possible - and you may find such companies (it's just not going to be cheap). And at the end of day, it is not guaranteed success for you (most likely guaranteed failure). Making successful products is hard.
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So, my advice - start step by step. Rome wasn't built in a day. Learn how to make a small project, and make it. It doesn't matter what you start with - whether it is 'networked tic-tac-toe', 'running in 3D space around height mapped terrain burning tree sprites', ‘pong’ or ‘yet another scorched earth’ clone. If you want to do games based on your idea - just dumb the project down and do it.
It's also helpful to join compos like Ludum Dare or similar (and I still do it from time to time, although, former GameDev.net challenges were better due to having longer time ranges, instead of sleepless weekends). Do at least few in a solo way, then try to team up with others - if you don't have anyone to join - feel free to ask here around forums or even at LD page (I did team up with random person at least once or twice).
