I have creativity. I can come up with game ideas which already include all sites such as monetization, marketing, design, colors, mechanics and absolutely everything. After all, I just don’t have enough experience and assets to make these games real. How can I use or monetize this ability of mine?
I have literally lost count of the number of “I’m an ideas guy” posts we have had over the years, but nobody who has just ideas gets anywhere in this industry. Nobody is looking for an ideas guy, everyone in this industry has ideas and can also execute them in some way. You have ideas? great - learn to make art, or program, or do actual game design. Otherwise, you are literally bringing nothing to the table. Ideas do not have value, execution has value.
If you don’t have the skills to make these real, its not even ideas you are making - its called blue sky thinking. Its literally coming up with ideas without having any idea how difficult they are. For an idea to be even executed on, there needs to be technical, financial etc feasibility attached to it. How can you know if your ideas are genuinely good if you have no idea what it takes to realise them (or if they even are realisable)? The answer is you cant. Anybody can dream up cool games.
I really didn’t think of this, thanks for the idea. Here is one idea for example, it is very briefly described and I have the visual details in my head, but the main idea is there.
I understood it but like @Murgilod said that’s not a game idea. It’s at best a game mode and even then it’s not that much better than what I can get from GPT-3.5. When I said a portfolio I meant something akin to a presentation or marketing-focused design document because that’s what investors will ask for.
GPT-3.5
Challenge Idea: “Gravity Shift”
Mechanic: In the “Gravity Shift” challenge, players must navigate a track where the direction of gravity changes periodically. This mechanic adds an extra layer of complexity to traditional racing gameplay.
Variation 1: “Cosmic Chaos”
In this variation, the gravity shifts occur randomly and unpredictably throughout the race.
Control Scheme Alteration: Players must quickly adapt to the changing gravity by utilizing a button or trigger to activate stabilizers that help their vehicle maintain control during shifts.
Variation 2: “Gravitational Rhythm”
In this variation, the gravity shifts follow a rhythmic pattern, such as changing every 30 seconds or at specific checkpoints along the track.
Control Scheme Alteration: Players must anticipate the timing of the gravity shifts and strategically adjust their speed and trajectory to optimize their racing line.
Variation 3: “Planetary Puzzle”
In this variation, players encounter sections of the track where the gravity remains static but varies in direction, requiring them to navigate through intricate gravity mazes.
Control Scheme Alteration: Players must utilize a combination of analog stick movements and button inputs to adjust the orientation of their vehicle relative to the changing gravity direction, akin to solving a puzzle while racing.
I like your enthusiasm and I think you really need to do a few things if you want to achieve the lofty goals you have:
learn about game design - watch everything you can, read everything you can, and learn to use tools.
create a game design document (often abbreviated to GDD) that is to the level of depth that is expected - but make it focused on a small scope game - like seriously tiny scope.
learn how to actually create games, build on your game design skills learned in step 1. and add programming and art skills to this.
after that, make that tiny scope game and finish it, release it. Then take what you have learned from the process, and try it again this time with something either slightly larger in scope, or deeper in depth.
Rinse and repeat.
You can do steps 1 2 and 3 all at the same time while making said tiny game. Start making that idea and every time you hit a hurdle, research and learn how to overcome it. Do not be disheartened by difficult days or times when you hit a brick wall in terms of progress. If you scope small and make the first project something achievable, you will eventually get there with enough consistent effort.
If you only have ideas, then you have nothing. Ideas are worthless.
Start building a portfolio of successful titles that you made into prototype, finished, and then sold at profit.
A normal person will be able to throw together a few dozens if not thousands of such ideas in a hour. Also this sounds like it was generated by AI or a template.
The “details in your head” are things that people do not see. That’s why you need prototype, sketches, drawings and pictures - to demonstrate what you see, if you actually see anything, and how does it differs from every other game in existence.
The reason why people try to be an “idea guy” because they think that one minute of mental work has value. Imagine an idea like this: “You can play as a guy or a girl, you can ride horses, and there’s magic! You can also swim and there are vampires”.
Imagine the game in your head. Now consider that I’ve just described…
Skyrim
And probably about a hundred of other games. That’s why ideas are worthless. They’re vague and barely describe final product.
The idea could be fun or just irritating. It would be difficult to determine without a prototype. I feel like no one really has a game idea unless they have a prototype.
I kind-of agree with that. The monetization boils down to “I’ll somehow get something and then sell it.” That’s not really a plan unless you already have a way to get music that people will definitely buy.
Unless you are someone who has directed several successful games, why should someone trust that your ideas are actually fun to play, let alone sell?
Ideas need to be tested. That’s why prototyping is so important and done from the small studios to the AAA companies. Unfortunately the consequence of that is indeed that the idea on its own isn’t worth anything until it has been shown that the actual game has a chance.
Although everyone likes to say ideas are useless, I don’t think thats true, there is value in great ideas. The problem is:
everyone has ideas
everyone thinks their own ideas are great
mostly they aren’t*.
So you need to be able to do one of several things:
Have or be able to raise money to build or validate ideas.
Have skills to build or validate ideas.
Work your way up through the system to be given the opportunity to prove the value of your ideas (play tester, level designer, story writer, game designer, etc).
Have an idea that is so great and so well expressed that it inspires people to jump in and build it on the promise of future success… this is theoretically possible, it is what most everyone posting here with ideas hopes will happen, but it is so rare for it to work out that way that it probably doesn’t even belong on this list.
(* I think lots of people have okay ideas, ideas that if you have the skills or money might result in something that is fun or successful or both, but there’s not much value in these kind of ideas because everyone has them)
Your ideas are worthless because you don’t know what you don’t know. Also, randomly changing who drives out of 5 players leaves other players with nothing to do - pure downtime, no one would play that.
The whole point of racing games is to get into a flow, to take that perfect corner at high speed, take over other cars, shifting gears at the perfect moment, etc. Disrupting that flow is the anti-thesis of the genre. And taking away agency and control is the anti-thesis of gaming - the whole point is to be in control of something like a car at all times. Imagine how frustrating it’d be for other team members to watch their car crashing and they can’t do anything about it. This is not even about execution, this can’t be executed well at all.
And monetizing the soundtrack is incredibly weak monetization. Soundtrack typically is not monetized at all, it’s just a free extra in some battle pass type thing.
You’re in love with the idea of game development, not the realities of it. If you’re serious about this, stop dreaming and do something about it. Actually, make a game. Your ideas can only be worth something when you know what’s technically possible for the team size and budget you have and also has a market. I can tell you right now, no one wants a driving game where they can’t drive most of the time and have to watch other players crash their car.