Sooner or later this question ALWAYS arises in every video game development, game creation or game producer forum. If you've ever asked (or been asked) this question the following information might prove useful!
Firstly (here's the important bit - so read this carefully) ...
Ideas are great, we love ideas (personally I have about twenty every day, even more if I've had my Weetabix for breakfast) - everything starts with an idea, but here's the rub, without anything concrete to back them up an idea isn't even worth the paper it's not written down on!
So you've got an idea for a game, one which you think will be loved by everyone and make you and everybody involved multi-gazillionaires - who knows, it just might!
However on it's own the idea wont make you anything - it's what you DO with the idea that matters.
(did you spot the important point or should I try and be a bit less subtle *grin*)
"So where do I begin" I hear you cry... (easy - just follow my patented 10 step plan to video game greatness)
- Decide on WHY your doing this and WHAT you hope to get out of it!
- Create a design document - Identify the core elements / gameplay mechanics / find the fun!
- Identify the target market / platform - who is going to play (and why and how) and more importantly who is going to pay!
- Refine the design with the target marktet / platform in mind / make sure you don't lose the fun!
- Perform a resource / skills inventory - List ALL the resources / skills you need, don't have, have to aquire.
- Create a prototype.
- Work out a schedule, milestones, initial timescales, budgets etc.
- Decide on a publishing model (how are you going to get your wonderous game out to the public).
- Make appropriate enquires with potentially interested parties.
- Begin development.
- Work steadily and consistantly towards each milestone with a professional attitude, not forgetting to constantly review what you've created with regards to the target market (ie. don't loose the fun!, remember why your doing this, who your doing it for and most of all what you hope to get out of it when your finished).
If that lot sounds like a lot of hard work, it's because it is, if your still not put off by the reality of some hard work then roll up your sleeves and read on (if you want to stop now then that's fine as well - video game design, creation and production isn't for everyone, like any creative endeveour it involves a lot of blood, sweat and tears only for the vast majority of people to scoff at because they haven't realised the amount of work that is involved or shared your creative vision).
NOTE : Before you complain that there's more than 10 steps - correct, in fact there's a lot more, I just wanted to illustrate the point that if you arn't prepared to go that extra mile and do what needs to be done to get the project finished then this probably isn't the business for you!
But, before we start that there's something important you need to understand. Developement is NOT a linear process! By that I mean that whilst I would recommend that you do complete the following steps in order, you as the chief designer / developer / producer / big kahoona (or whatever you call yourself) have ultimate responsibility for the success or failure of a project and as such owe it to yourself to not be afraid to backup to an earlier step if you think that you've started to wander off track a little. Likewise there may be times when you have to skip ahead to try and work out if what you want to achieve is technically possible (especially within a given timeframe).
However sticking (initially at first) to a logical sequence like this has another benefit, it act's like a natural filter. As I said earlier ideas are ten-a-penny, some great, others good, most not so... by following through the structure as listed what you are actually doing is testing your idea, presenting it with a series of challenges and seeing if it holds up to scrutiny. What might start out as a good idea (and many do) might develop a few holes when put under the microscope, if these holes can't be fixed then it's much better to find out eariler rather than later and canning a project in the earlier stages is much less painful (and considerably cheaper) than waiting until late in the development when everyone's queing up to say "I told you so!".
At the very least if you are aware of any "holes" or issues with your design you can account for them and work round them in the beginning rather than throwing away masses of work down the line.
That said let's begin...
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