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Other Games / Re: Are "Game Ideas" Overrated? Or Are You Suppressing Creativity?
« on: December 29, 2009, 02:16:47 am »
Ideas have no intrinsic value, even well-described ideas. If you're going to go it alone instead of being paid by someone else for your ideas, you really need to have another applicable skill to back it up with. It's very hard to control a project in a small partnership if you aren't involved in the implementation.
Even if your skill is concept art or architecture or probability theory, you need to add something concrete to the venture beyond the entirely subjective value of your idea. The more tenuous your skill's association with game development, the more you had better to do ensure the game design leverages that skill. Generally speaking, ideas for indie games will come from a developer or artist. Only companies with enough employees really have room for dedicated game designers.
The additional opinion and viewpoint creates more conflict and slows the project down, rather than helping it along. In small partnerships this is often fatal, as the people responsible for making it happen are likely to lose interest in an idea which they don't feel any ownership over.
If you REALLY want to be an idea man, and you think your design acumen is really above average, you are really better off trying to find partners based on personal compatibility and shared gaming tastes BEFORE developing a great idea, and then develop the idea together. That way everyone is bought into, and feels responsible for, the game design.
Because unionization is only suitable for industries where individual workers are relatively easy to replace, or quality of workmanship is often undervalued. This tends to create a situation where experienced workers are considered undesirable, because they cost more and don't bring any benefits that the company actually cares about. Unions fight the relative unimportance of the individual worker by using the entire workforce as a sledgehammer against these types of management decisions.
Game development (and software development and entertainment in general) are not like this. Quality is valued. Those involved with game development are not mistreated because we don't have a union. They are mistreated because they want to work in the industry too badly and don't mind being mistreated in order to do so. Until that mentality changes, it will remain a predominantly brutal industry to work in. Other types of software developers work reasonable hours and get good benefits. Why? Because they have no problem telling a brutal employer to stuff it.
Maybe this doesn't apply so well to Junior level developers and artists, but once you've been around the block enough times and hit even an intermediate level, the idea of a union will almost certainly make you sick to your stomach.
Even if your skill is concept art or architecture or probability theory, you need to add something concrete to the venture beyond the entirely subjective value of your idea. The more tenuous your skill's association with game development, the more you had better to do ensure the game design leverages that skill. Generally speaking, ideas for indie games will come from a developer or artist. Only companies with enough employees really have room for dedicated game designers.
The additional opinion and viewpoint creates more conflict and slows the project down, rather than helping it along. In small partnerships this is often fatal, as the people responsible for making it happen are likely to lose interest in an idea which they don't feel any ownership over.
If you REALLY want to be an idea man, and you think your design acumen is really above average, you are really better off trying to find partners based on personal compatibility and shared gaming tastes BEFORE developing a great idea, and then develop the idea together. That way everyone is bought into, and feels responsible for, the game design.
I'd rather the industry ask the question, "Why the fuck aren't we unionized after EASpouse?"
Because unionization is only suitable for industries where individual workers are relatively easy to replace, or quality of workmanship is often undervalued. This tends to create a situation where experienced workers are considered undesirable, because they cost more and don't bring any benefits that the company actually cares about. Unions fight the relative unimportance of the individual worker by using the entire workforce as a sledgehammer against these types of management decisions.
Game development (and software development and entertainment in general) are not like this. Quality is valued. Those involved with game development are not mistreated because we don't have a union. They are mistreated because they want to work in the industry too badly and don't mind being mistreated in order to do so. Until that mentality changes, it will remain a predominantly brutal industry to work in. Other types of software developers work reasonable hours and get good benefits. Why? Because they have no problem telling a brutal employer to stuff it.
Maybe this doesn't apply so well to Junior level developers and artists, but once you've been around the block enough times and hit even an intermediate level, the idea of a union will almost certainly make you sick to your stomach.
