Million Dollar Idea: Background Information

Million Dollar Idea Background Information


I’ve always had a passion for video games. From when I was young playing educational games like Math Blasters or Oregon Trail  to today with games like Skyrim or Call of Duty I’ve always loved the means of escape and the wonderful worlds these games provide. As I grew older, I began to program and as I grew more experienced I began to see games in a whole new light. I started to understand how certain things were accomplished to make the game and could relate to the studios who made the games. I even began considering a job in developing games, but was surprised to learn that a job like that was extremely taxing and not very rewarding. Around this time I also began to notice a concerning trend in video gaming. The market saw many games coming out that were sequels and was being flooded with First Person Shooters like Call of Duty, which is now on its 8th installment in the franchise. Although these games are fun, as would be apparent considering the numerous installments, it is worrisome to see the slow disappearance of other genres and creativity in the game design. This is where the indie game scene comes into play. The term ‘indie’ in this case refers to the studio developing the game as doing so without the financial support of a publisher. Indie games tend to have an artistic flare in their design, trying new things and taking risks with their games. A good example of this and the first indie game i was officially introduced to is the game Braid. Braid introduces the idea of time manipulation, and can get very complex later on. Seeing games like this I started to wonder why games like this were only made by indie developers and not by big budget studios.
For the more popular, big budget studios, or AAA studios as they are commonly referred to as, the projects worked on are determined by their publishers. Publishers, in the gaming industry, our similar to banks giving out ‘loans’ to the game studios. In some cases this process is straight forward, the publisher lends money to the studio making the game and when the product is released into the market, the publisher takes a share of the games earnings. In other cases, however, the publisher will want a contract with the developers. This commonly leads to the publisher taking ownership of the intellectual property of the games created by the studios in exchange for a greater share in the games profits. In addition to no longer owning the intellectual property of their games, studios are also required to work on games assigned to them by the publisher, this is where the real problem arises. Publishers are in the business of making money from the games they publish so it is natural that they would only want to release games that our sure to sell. They don’t want to take risks with new genres or mechanics, but will stick to popular games and genres like first person shooters. This approach leads to a stagnant marketplace with no truly creative titles, but rather rehashes of a successful genre.
Considering my passion for gaming and not wanting to see the creative spark die in it I would spend the million dollars to start a fund to help support indie developers and the innovative ideas they bring to gaming. My vision is for this fund to give indie developers all of the benefits of publishers with none of the downsides. Like publishers, this fun will help supply the game studios with funds to help with resources used in the production of the game, as well as for advertising for the game. The fund will also allow the game studios to develop their intellectual property without the fear of handing it over in exchange for funding. The fund will also be less rigid when determining shares of the profits than most publishers. The way I see the profits is that the developers do all the work and put their heart into the project and the fund takes the financial risks so the the final profits should be split 50/50 so as not to rip off the game studio, but also replenish the fund so it can continue to help further indie developers. Also, all the profits received will go right back into the fund and with any luck the fund will grow in size and be able to fund even more projects.
One important thing that  this fund will need to do is set up requirements for the projects it will fund because I few wrong choices could leave the fund hurting financially. To help ensure a better chance of a return on the investment, studios will need to apply to be funded and will be reviewed by myself to determine whether or not funding seems appropriate. When judging the studios I will be looking for a unique game willing to push the current standards of gaming, a dedicated studio who has their heart set on this project, and a demo of the proposed game or possibly a past game done by the studio to determine the studios capability of creating a game. One thing that is important to due with this fund is to protect the investments it makes, with that being the case I may deem it necessary to take the intellectual property from one studio should they for some reason be unable to complete their game, and give it to another studio to finish the project. By doing this I will avoid unnecessary loses in the fund from studios not fully prepared for the task of developing a game.
With making this fund, I hope to give many struggling indie developers a chance to work on their dreams without the worry of the financial requirements. Hopefully doing this will lead to surge of new games that push the creative envelope of games offering new experiences to the end users. I realize this will not stop the constant stream of formulaic games developed by the AAA studios and published by the big companies, but maybe the success of the indie games might inspire them to take risks in the designing of their games even if it starts off small.