Afraid Someone Will Steal Your Game Design Idea? 140
Lemeowski writes "Game studios go to great lengths to protect their IP. But board game designer Daniel Solis doesn't subscribe to that philosophy. He has spent the past ten years blogging his game design process, posting all of his concepts and prototypes on his blog. Daniel shares four things he's learned after designing games in public, saying paranoia about your ideas being stolen "is just an excuse not to do the work." His article provides a solid gut check for game designers and other creatives who may let pride give them weird expectations."
It depends on the content (Score:2, Interesting)
As a former IT Manager and head of security for a AAA game studio I can tell you it depends on the content and what is up for grabs. If you have mounds of concept art and CG that will not be stolen. If you have accessible and unique IK and motion capture that will tend to be stolen. If you have UnrealScript and generic level design components no one will care. If you have tried and tested AI and NPC logic that will be stolen. So it tends to reason that ideas along the lines of "I have a streamlined process for integrating dismemberment and AI and it is *******"...yes that will be stolen. Ideas that go like "It would be really cool if the player can ********" no one will care. Just to increase general paranoia I will tell you the biggest threat of theft is not from outsiders but existing staff trading stolen works for a better job if they are unhappy- if you run a studio and are reading this then keeping your staff happy is your number one concern or your whole studio will be traded out from under you for better job opportunities. Confronting such theft should never be done if you love something (or someone) in this case let them be free but just make sure to change whatever was compromised or make it better.