Pirate Dawn

I should start off by saying good luck. It's a wise move to put your design doc up for review or whatever. No one is going to steal your idea and with any luck you can get feedback that will create something better.

I'll be honest I don't have the time/interest to read everything in the document. I did find a lot of vague designs. Maybe they are covered in more detail somewhere else (provide a link to the part of the gdd that gives more detail). You want to avoid using the word "some" in a GDD, you're programmers have no idea how much that is.

I noticed the art comments were very far down the document, I would move that up some so the reader can get a better picture of this game.

When I saw the #2 MMO in the world comment I almost stopped reading. I'm not really sure how to comment on that in a nice way other then say it really needs to be removed.

No pictures? This gives me the impression you want to write a book not make a game. I saw some concept art on your website, add those. Something to show the reader your serious about this. Zone/Environment design is not complete without some pictures. No amount words is really enough for a complete GDD.

I personally prefer the GDD be split into different pages, it's easier to read. When dealing with an MMO this is even more important. Once a game has more then one person working on it you can't have one diary that everyone writes on. Split it up and link pages together for systems that involve each other.

Theres several things that you clearly haven't understood if you've spent all that time trying to push this at publishers/ game companies:

1.Apart from the odd few, games companies aren't interested in making something good. They are interested in making video games - sparkly things aimed at teenage boys, and making money.

2.Talented people are much much rarer than you think. It takes talent to recognise talent, so if you are talented its very unlikely the person is going to realise.

3.People don't like read stuff unless they think they have a good reason to. Like the post above says - pictures help sell the fact that this would be worth reading because a) its shows you have gone that step further to visualise the ideas (even if visuals aren't even that important to the game), b)mean you can write less, so they can read less.
Give them other good reasons to read it - be very confident, include reviews of it, gather good feedback about it and put it on the first page. "best game design i've ever read" : will wright. etc.

4.Its very difficult to prove your design will work. So its probably not that they don't like the design in theory - but without evidence that a great game can be made from your design, how do they know its not just great in theory but shite in practise? Theres a lot of money at stake after all, especially if its an MMORPG. If you can point them at great previous completed games based on your designs you can prove you know how to get the design right.

5.If you can sell the idea to other likeminded people in the same situation you don't have to be a programmer or an artist. If the team size warrants it you could be designer/project manager/salesman/recruiter. Or some other role. The important thing is if its your design - the team will look to you to lead to some extent. Lead by example by putting lots of time in, keep communication going, sort out any issues people are having. The others won't mind that you're not doing anything practical like writing code or modelling as long as they see you leading by example with effort and actual hours.

6.A design document for presentation is not the same as to develop from. Take the design you have and make two versions - one for the reading-phobic publishers and game company recuiters that builds excitement, gives the necessary details, and another one that could be used as a blueprint to make the game.

7.Even if you are lucky enough to be being considered by someone who does recognise talent. Games design documents on their own are not enough. You need to sell yourself, if youre going for a job they are getting you, not just your design ability. You also need to be able to move on from one design you hold dear. Creativity requires us to murder our children. The next one you design will be better.

So bear these in mind, approach people who you think will recognise the talent of a natural designer over a programmer/artist turned designer, but then also don't worry too much about that and get on with making a game. Theres people out there who will help. They might be kids to start off with :) But over time your game will grow, which will attract other more experienced people who will give it a facelift and then others will join and so on and so on...

PS I didn't actually read the design document. I flicked through it but I'm busy, I'm sure thats what happens to everyone you show it to!
Also I'm not sure how much of this is new to you so sorry if I'm stating what you already know!


Pete

You can't approach a company with a GDD and say that this is the best game in the world. Ideas are a dime a dozen, and its the implementation rather than the design that is important.

Unless you have some ability to either code, or produce assets for the game, you will not get work within the industry. A company won't even consider looking at your GDD until you work your way to a position as a lead game designer, and not even till you have established yourself as a good lead designer capable of creating a game that sells. Then maybe, just maybe, there's a chance that they'll look at a GDD for a fairly conservative game. If this proves to be a success, they may be willing to take on larger projects that you come up with, and at some point there may be the slightest, tiniest, most minuscule chance that they might even look at a GDD for an MMO.

Given that all talented game designers have to undergo this process, what makes you believe that you have the right to shortcut this whole process, and walk in to a game company and immediately have them read your GDD and instantly create it?

How can you expect that companies within the industry are willing to utilise a game design from an individual who doesn't have a proven background of success, and more importantly why should they use your design where you will demand a large cut of the potential profits, when they can pay a guy a yearly wage to come up with a design that is probably as successful as yours?

So I think first of all, you need to come back down to earth, and realise that your are not valuable in any way to the games industry as a designer unless you can gradually prove your worth. To be honest what you are saying would be identical to someone saying:
"I came up with this guitar riff that would sound amazing, I can't play guitar, but I've got the sound of it in my head, and after humming it to a record label representative they didn't immediately hire me and turn my awesome riff into the best song ever and pay me half of the profits that my awesome album based on the riff in my head would make. I feel like the industry has abused my genius, and they don't know what they're missing out on so I give up."

I would generally say that your ego is terribly inflated, and if you want any success in the industry, don't try to enter the industry as lead designer on the "#2 MMO in the world", even to assume that 'pirate dawn' will be noticed by the industry is obnoxious beyond belief, given that there are two huge sci-fi MMOs available at the moment, EVE for pc, and Mass Effect which was recently released for the Xbox 360, and the fact that you are not supported by a fusion of companies such as microsoft and bioware.

Your claims that you are correct that pirate dawn would have been one of the worlds biggest and longest lasting MMOs is also complete drivel, given that you cannot rightfully claim such a thing. All in all I think you really need to either learn some humility and disillusion yourself, or as you yourself 'threaten' to do, retire.

Firemonkey I agree with most of what youre saying - be realistic, prove yourself, don't assume it is the best design ever.
But I disagree with the idea that you have to slowly work your way into a designer position. I think its an accurate observation of what normally happens, but I think its one of the ways this industry is retarded.

Lets say your guitar riff was actually incredible, the record label could easily get someone else to play it. So whats really needed is someone at the record label who can tell a good rif from a bad riff. That still leaves the problem of getting them to listen to it in first place. But if you work on your humming skills, shout loud enough about it, get other people to reccommend it they might listen.
Think about other industries - architects aren't required to build house after house, then maybe move on to a small hotel before the big firms are interested. they are spotted at college, and whisked into an apprenticeship with their top architect.

What I'm saying is there needs to be a balance - definitely prove yourself, make a few games, one big one, get education in a range of fields. Then really work on selling your ideas and don't waste your time applying to places that don't understand what a talented games designer is. Its not a playtest co-ordinator, its a not a documentation writer, its not a graphic designer, programmer or illustrator.

And ideas are not a dime a dozen. Only designers seem to know that :)

I read this document because I know how negative we are about a lot of things around here sometimeS. Or maybe we're just realists, I'm not really sure. At any rate, I thought that I should at least look at the document describing the best thing since sliced bread...

Which really wasn't half bad as a GDD. It had plenty of detail but there were a few things that probably could be moved around. In one section you detail some of the ships with all of their stats. I would describe what stats a ship has and then include a link to the appendix where each one is listed.

I think the biggest mistake in trying to get people to look at this is to say how great it is. Confidence is one thing, but it's a fine line. Just look at the posts above, it completely turned most people off and they didn't even look at the document (not saying good or bad, just that it's probably not the desired effect). [grin]

The story of how space piracy began seemed a bit contrived. "Some guy, nobody knows who, stole some stuff and everyone thought it would be fun to try"? On page 171 you have a paragraph for artists that outlines the necessary parts to read to understand the game concept. Chances are they never made it to page 171; I'd try to cram this into some overview at the beginning because I didn't see where you were going with a lot of it until later.

Pictures (diagrams, screenshots, etc) would have made this much easier to "read". And yes, I realize it's a GDD and will be a bit dry, maybe if we point to a smaller document or web page that outlines your ideas and references the GDD for further clarification? I like the term Jump Gate, but I don't think it's currently thought possible for a natural wormhole to be self-sustaining or large enough for ships (correct me if I'm wrong Hawking).

Hope this doesn't come across as being too negative. Sadly, most criticism usually seems to deviate that way.

“Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.” b- Thomas Alva Edison

Wow, I think you guys have been a just a tad harsh on this guy. I think his attitude is a bit ballooned, but still.

I'm honestly not going to read through a 200 page GDD from some guy I don't know on the internet. I can say that I perused it and the first thing I noticed was the lack of organization and the lack of graphics in the document. The point of a GDD is to be able to effectively communicate a design so that artists and programmers can use it as their bible in building a game. If they have to spend oodles of time hunting for the tidbits they need, then the purpose of the document has failed. I agree as well that it is WAY too much information for a single document. Break it down.

I started reading it, I got to the game play, read the first few lines, and closed it.

The good guys and the bad guys? Can anyone say boring? Why do I want to read this? If I'm a company then I have lots of people already working for me with ideas just as good as yours, and frankly, it starts off looking like it wants to be everything and sounding like it is going to be nothing a teenager's day dream fantasy of what he wants to make when he grows up. AKA, impossible, and likely boring to actually play.

If you want anyone to read what you have to say with it, you have to find more ways to draw us in.

*chuckles*

Great parady.

And I do, for your sake, hope this is a parady.

I'm not going to attempt to reply to any individual posts at this time because none of you have had enough time to actually read Pirate Dawn. One of you claimed too, but clearly did not read the entire design document. I will only make a few general comments regarding all of the replies I had read up until this point.

1. I never said it is "the greatest thing since sliced bread", please avoid saying things yourself, attributing them too me, and then attacking your own words.

2. It seems as though most of you replying actually read the preview on the web site and not the design document.

3. The design document is not fully complete, and I agree that it needs some more work in the organization area. The "disorganization" is due largely to the vast revisions it has undergone continually for many years. There was a time when it was far more organized... but not nearly as good a game. I do agree that I need to revist that aspect and get it into better shape in that regard. But it's not quite as disorganized as I think you are imagining, the order things are in will make more sense if you actually read and take it all in.

4. I have some articles I am trying to have published that address many of the comments made so far in this thread, I will wait for those to be published before addressing those issues. If I can't get them published I will use them to start threads here. Too the person who said "make it shorter, it's too long"... one of those articles will answer your comment:-)

5. Pirate Dawn is not "vague designs", it is a actually a playable game as it stands right now. There are existing board game rules that could be used to handle the actual moving and shooting, and you could actually play it right now as a board game (in playtest form). I am an experienced board game designer, and Pirate Dawn is actually a playable game as it stands. Maybe you should actually read it.

6. Pirate Dawn most certainly would have been the #2 MMO game in the world in 1999, and still would be today. There is no doubt about that at all. It is also the MMO game that will be imitated by most MMO games that follow it. It truly does create an entirely new structure for MMO games. Those other games are actually "Massively Single Player" (MSO) games by comparison.

7. I have been asked to review computer game industry design documents before, so lying too me about them won't work. You can drop the act, I've seen the useless 20-40 pages of vauge notes that you people call a "design document".

8. Someone only read the opening background and critisized the story based on that. The answers to all of those questions that you think go unanswered are there if you keep reading the story elements:-)

9. The design document is already "broken down in smaller parts". It can be broken apart in as many pieces as you like in about an hour based on the alpha-numeric sections. It is all together as one book now, but is already designed to be quickly seperated into seperate parts very quickly.

10. The last thing that a design document needs is a bunch of pictures getting in the way. Amatuers need the pretty pictures to distract from the fact that they are incapable of desiging a game on paper and their "design document" is actually 20-40 pages of vague notes that is mostly irrelivant story. Pirate Dawn is actually a playable game. If someone is such a moron that they need pretty pictures to look at or the design document is too much for them, then they really have no business making such decisions in the first place.

11. This is not parody... this is my retirement from game design:-)

This initial reaction is exactly what I was expecting, which is why I am not bothering to answer all of the replies in detail. It will take time before a few people other than myself have had time to actually take Pirate Dawn in. I'm not going to waste my time getting too serious here until there are a few people who have fully taken it in and understand it. Then this initial reaction will go away and we can have a meaningfull discussion.

I really have been designing games since before the computer game industry existed. And Pirate Dawn really is a very special game, the kind you only get to play every 10 years or so. It is also truly revolutionary in many very meaningful and tangible ways. Anyone who actually reads it, and truly takes it all in, will be able to tell you that. It also really is 9 years old.

Mostly you've all told me things I already knew 15 years ago. The articles I'll have out there soon one way or another address most of the replies so far. Take a little time and take it in, you are reading the work of someone who, most likely, was designing games before you even had an interest in playing them. I'm not boasting at all, simply trying to make it understood that I am not some kid with "his dream game" saying "my game is the best thing since sliced bread". In fact, I consider Pirate Dawn to be my 3rd best game... not even my own best, let alone "the best". And I have worked in the game industry before, both board games and computer games.

Take the time to actually take in Pirate Dawn. You will, most likely, learn a lot. You'll also discover a truly revolutionary and groundbreaking MMO game that will be imitated for years to come. All of those others are "MSO" games in comparison.

-- Marc Michalik (A.K.A. Pirate_Lord)
Lost Art Studios -- www.piratedawn.com

Quote:

Original post by 833 I should start off by saying good luck. It's a wise move to put your design doc up for review or whatever. No one is going to steal your idea and with any luck you can get feedback that will create something better.

I had to reply to this one seperately. You want to make a bet on that "nobody is going to steal it" comment? That is exactly what has happened every single time, without fail, that I have shown a "work example" to a computer game company. Every single time.

Wanna bet on that one?

3-4 years from now most MMO games will be using Pirate Dawn's underlying structure. The RPG waiting to be made from it is quite obvious. These people can't resist my work, I give them "Gold Fever".

I already know the reaction this post will get, but everything I have said here is 100% true. Just wait 3 or 4 years and then compare the MMO games to Pirate Dawn:-)

You guys really do need to read it. I'm not an idiot. I wouldn't be saying these things if they weren't all right there in black and white waiting to be read. For a few examples of the "revolutionary" stuff carefully read the sections on "Corporations and Cartels (Player Controlled Organizations)" (I5.0). Then try "Ship Design" (L0.0), "Ships" (M0.0), and "Foreign Technology" (R5.0). You might also try to carefully read and fully contemplate all of the implications of "Terrain" (H5.0) and "Communications" (L2.5), and their interations with each other as well and the implcations of that. Just for starters, there is really more too it that that making it "the first true MMO game".

They can't not imitate Pirate Dawn, it's too valuable too them not too. The only question is... is there a single person in the entire industry with the integrity to just hire me and make the original.

I doubt it. But I intend to find out on my way to retirement.

-- Marc Michalik (A.K.A. Pirate_Lord)
Lost Art Studios -- www.piratedawn.com

Pirate_Lord, I bought Game Maker 7 today. I know, what a silly idea! Well, I don't like programming. I'm an aspiring game designer. I, just like you, like to write documents, flesh out concepts and designs that I think are really smashing. Why did I get the software? Simple: I felt I really needed to roughly understand what programmers, level designers, scenario writers, graphic designers, game planners, etc. did. In order to appreciate their work, I felt I had to do it myself. In addition, I am well aware that text alone will never suffice. A visual demonstration is always superior, especially if it's playable. And it should be short, straight to the point, catchy, interesting, fun, and realistic.

I would never hire someone with seemingly no working experience, put him in charge of the entire project as some creative director or lead game designer, and give him a whooping budget to create an MMORPG. Especially someone who's been working for several years on one game, making it complete through text, rather than presenting new concepts and ideas... where's the creativity? I, independantly and as a very non-avid MMO player (I have a level 7 priest on WoW, a Level 16 Warrior on FFXI and have played a bit of PSO), thought up about stuff like completely independant PC games where players really were in charge, except, I realized few players would want to do whatever boring things NPC's did.


But my absolute main point is, the game industry don't give a damn about what's revolutionary. They want money. And most likely, the creative minds will want to please the gamers. How? FUN games. Most of my game ideas are not particularly original, but they come with original and innovative concepts, twists and ideas, and always, ALWAYS, does the gameplay and fun factor determine what to use or not use. When I pick up a game, I'll be damned if I'm not having fun within 30-60 minutes. I'm not patient. I grew up with games that begin 5 seconds after you pressed START (Mario, being a prime example here). I can't be arsed to play a game where everyone's telling me "leach level 30! it'll get soo good then!!!" when it's taken me 50 hours to reach level 15... No, no, no.

Your game needs to be fun. Your presentation of the game needs to have the "catch!" if you know what I mean. My dream is to be a game designer but for now, treat me as though I wanted to buy your game. Would I buy Pirate Dawn? No... why? It's an MMO, and all MMO's I've played have dull starts. How do I know yours is different? As a consumer, how would I know yours isn't another MMO that comes with "revolutionary" game aspects that I think are not particularly fun. Why should I choose your game over that new Zelda game for the DS that I've been eyeing out?

Tell you what. I'll say your MMO is the best MMO (in my opinion, at least) if I read through that document and say I like it. In fact, no, I won't read it. Give me a page, ONE PAGE, on Microsoft WORD explaining why this would truly differ from MMO's and still be incredibly fun and not tiresome to play.

I'm going to sleep now, and tomorrow I'm going to replay Alundra. Again. Because the game is too darn fun. "Who would've guessed that Sarah would turn out to be a psycho bitch?"

Everyone think of a color between red and yellow...
If you thought of green you stole my idea.

There are only so many things technology will allow. There is a reason you can't copyright an idea. If you gave a description to 10 artists/programmers and asked each of them to make it, every single one would be different. It's all in the execution of that idea that makes "something".

Sometimes it sucks to hear you're not on the right track when you've invested so much, but to ignore your players/peers may not be the best idea.

The people on these boards really are here to help. Don't think of this as negative advice, it's suggestions to improve.

The first roadblock you seem to have missed is people don't want to read your GDD. If you really do want people to read it, cater to your audience...see what they want and help them understand your vision.

Again, it looks like you've put a fair amount of work into this. Put a little more in and take it to the next level. No one I saw here is saying stop.

Good luck,

Quote:

Original post by Pirate_Lord 3-4 years from now most MMO games will be using Pirate Dawn's underlying structure. The RPG waiting to be made from it is quite obvious. These people can't resist my work, I give them "Gold Fever".

What is the big hook? I quickly skimmed your website and the game there basically seemed to be EVE Online. Maybe I'm missing something, but I didn't see anything that revolutionary.

Quote:

Original post by Pirate_Lord The last thing that a design document needs is a bunch of pictures getting in the way. Amatuers need the pretty pictures to distract from the fact that they are incapable of desiging a game on paper and their "design document" is actually 20-40 pages of vague notes that is mostly irrelivant story. Pirate Dawn is actually a playable game. If someone is such a moron that they need pretty pictures to look at or the design document is too much for them, then they really have no business making such decisions in the first place.

You reeeally need to work on your attitude :)

As others already said, technical document does not need pictures (although diagrams and schematics would help a lot), but if you are trying to sell your idea, you need something to get people interesed. A short demo of the gameplay and a little concept art goes a long way.

Okay, I was curious...

I red the section (L2.5) COMMUNICATIONS. I can see that limiting the range of communication could be a good thing for a strategic gameplay, but degrading of chat messages? That would just be annoying... it would force players to spam their chat messages so that they would be heard. And custom WAV files? Is that possible? And if it were, how can the game be played by 8 year old kids, when all the teens have their WAVs full of profanity.

You talk a lot about realism, but since you have worked in the game industry, you should know that realism != fun.

The whole "subspace on steroids meets trade wars on steroids" intrigues me, but I can't bring myself to read something that long just to decide whether or not I believe you are the ultimate misunderstood game designer or not (assuming I had the experience or authority for my opinion to mean anything anyway).

Perhaps you should explain, briefly, what exactly about your design would make this the #2 MMO of all time, what is so completely revolutionary about it, etc. Saying "you have to read 150+ pages before I will bother explaining why my idea is so cool" is not a good way to get people to read.

If it is so truly awesome after all, to the point that people can see the genius behind it, you might be able to pull together a team willing to work on it. Screw EA and the rest, they want to do what they always do: make money (preferably low-risk money). People have made indie MMOs before, and some of them are even pretty good. If you have something extremely unique (i.e. "risky" in huge company terms) you can carve a niche for yourself with some hard work and a good team.

Please realize though that you might also just be another guy with the ultimate video game idea, there are a lot of those around here. And don't take that as an insult, I am one of those guys too (I just don't go around telling people about it :)

Well, I had to stop reading once I got to about page 19 because you use 'too' when you should be using 'to' WAY too often. I'm a language freak as some people on these forums may know and it was driving me insane.

Anyway, after reading all the basic ideas and whatnot, I have to say, completely honestly, that game sounds really, really, really... boring. Who wants to fly backward and forward between two planets over and over and over again trading stuff with the occasional chance you'll meet an 'enemy' and get locked in mortal combat. If anything, you'll have everyone on the alternate zones because they're the only things that look fun.

Also, you confused me at one point - "It’s been lost in an industry obsessed with 3D graphics as this genre doesn’t lend itself to stunning graphics and is fundamentally a “2D” game… " Are you saying here that your game, while having 3D graphics, will only allow one plane of movement? Well, there go the alternate zones as well because dogfights are no fun with two-dimensional movement.

Have a rethink about some of the ideas, put in some images to give us an idea:

Quote:

Original post by 833 If you gave a description to 10 artists/programmers and asked each of them to make it, every single one would be different.

That's exactly the same with us, you give x-hundred gamedev.net members a ~200-page document and each of them will imagine a different game. Make some pictures or a demo - If you've saved some companies game from death then you should be able to throw together a simple demo without the MMO-ness.

And just for one last scathing comment:

Quote:

Original post by Pirate_Lord I had to reply to this one seperately (<-spelling error, btw). You want to make a bet on that "nobody is going to steal it" comment? That is exactly what has happened every single time, without fail, that I have shown a "work example" to a computer game company. Every single time. Wanna bet on that one?

I won't steal you're idea; I only steal the good ones. Listen to the people here, they know what they're talking about more than I do.

If I were you, I wouldn't be surprised why you're getting a lot of negative feedback - no-one likes someone who thinks they know it all, believe me, I have to watch myself on that front often as well, but if you've been searching for a job for over 20 years, you must've learnt enough social skills for a sense of humility to eventuate; but obviously not. It's not a revolutionary idea at all, really. To say this is still 10 years ahead of its time is a little narcissistic to say the least. Get over yourself and maybe start developing the idea yourself if you're as good as you claim.

Sorry for being overly scathing, but people who act like you do need to be shot down in flames, as do I on the odd occasion.

[EDIT]

After re-reading your second post, Pirate_Lord, I get the feeling that this is all a big joke. Am I wrong? The comment about there being 'no doubt' that it would the '#2 MMO in 1999 and now' and that it will be the 'most imitated by MMO games that follow it'. Sounds like a bit of a farce to be honest - no-one's that arrogant.

[/EDIT]

[Edited by - NickHighIQ on December 6, 2007 9:41:21 PM]

Now I don't normally (okay ever; feel special) stoop to this level, but here goes my rating.
[flame on]
- I never said that you said it was the greatest thing since slice bread. What I was saying is that that is how it comes across, and it's not good.
- Calling everyone that would like a diagram an idiot is also not good. Sorry I haven't had 9 years to digest your ideas.
- I spent about 3 hours today going over some of the most boring reading material I've ever seen because I felt bad for you and was trying to help out. Obviously you are beyond help and I see exactly why you haven't had the success you feel you deserve. Humility goes a long way and you should be old enough to understand that.
- I hope someone does take your Butt Pirate idea and makes a ton off of it. Good luck with retirement, maybe you'll find something you're successful with.
- Right now I would hate me since I normally don't like people perpetuating threads like this, so I hope you guys will forgive me this once. I won't be replying again, I don't have 9 years to properly understand the genius and participate in a meaningful discussion.
[flame off]

[misplacedHumor]
At 833:
I was thinking of green before you were even born. In fact I was ideaing green before colors existed so it couldn't possibly be yours.
[/misplacedHumor]

I've read through most of the preview information, but to be quite honest I haven't really found anything out. I know you probably have much greater detail in the main document, but the summary is arguably the most important bit, so that I know whether or not I'd like to read more. It needs to be quick and to the point, and make me want to read on. There's no use stating over and over again how revolutionary your game will be; you should be using that time telling me, in as few words as possible, precisely why your game will be so revolutionary.

For instance, I gather from the mention of "Magnetic Accelerator Cannons" and "Lightning Streams" that there is some kind of combat involved. Now, truth be told I'm a real sucker for an interesting combat system; that's always the first thing I look at when I'm deciding whether or not to buy a game. But, your summary gives nothing away other than i) the system has been designed by an exceptionally talented designer, and ii) it is as in depth as chess. What, in as few words as possible, is the combat like? Is it turn-based? Real-time? Quasi-real-time? Is it point and click? Will it feel more like a shooter or a flight-sim? Reading your summary I can probably think of a dozen totally different games that match the description.

I know you're going to say "it's all in the design document", but I'm not going to read the design document until my interest is perked, and the summary has not perked my interest.

Although I do wish you the best, I agree that this will likely lead to stolen ideas. And while I do believe you have an effective attitude for selling refrigerators, the fact is you cannot sell a game idea like this. Other people have been shying away from saying it, but arrogance typically doesn't sell things. And you are being incredibly arrogant. Your first post has an incredible amount of "I"s in it where it should have had "Pirate Dawn"s or "my game"s. Regardless of whether your game is truly the next great MMO, it is important to start the sale of the game by explaining why it will be superior rather than explaining how everything else is inferior.

In all honesty, your best bet would be to create a mock-up and demonstrate how enjoyable your concept can be. You said it could be a board game. Make it one! Have people play it. Hell, give the board game away for free. Allow people to print everything they need to play. If you did that, you would have an additional argument against IP thieves as well.

Best of luck, sir! I admire what you are trying to do.


And on a side note:

Quote:

Original post by NickHighIQ Well, I had to stop reading once I got to about page 19 because you use 'too' when you should be using 'to' WAY too often. I'm a language freak as some people on these forums may know and it was driving me insane.

I agree that it is important to have decent grammar when trying to sell something. And I noticed quite a bit of interesting grammar in said document.

Quote:

Are you saying here that you're game, while having 3D graphics, will only allow one plane of movement?

I love irony.