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[duckotaco]

Hello everybody.

There is one thing I really don't get.

People open up threads for their devlogs - they show up concepts, mockups, a lot of stuff about the games they are making. Even though they don't reveal everything, they give enough information so people can begin creating fan art or making an actual game with your characters!

Basically what I'm afraid of is people stealing stuff. Is this a legit concern or not? After all non-indie studios don't reveal much of the game until it's done, except at game conferences. On one side, the devlog helps creating the hype about the game before it's released, so you already reach an audience before the game is ready. But what if people take your characters and ideas and make a game with these? That could be tragic in some ways.

It sounds silly on one side but on the other it really does concern me. Can somebody enlighten me on this and on how one should keep a devlog of a game, and what's the real risk?

Cheers.

[Μarkham]

They help produce hype for your game.  Copyright law protects your characters, story and art, but ideas aren't protected ever.  I don't really worry about people stealing ideas.  No one but me can execute them the way I want to execute them, and usually those that "steal" ideas either use them with other ideas in a pretty cool and unique way I hadn't thought of, or just try and fail to imitate.

[duckotaco]

Makes sense. But, then, why do professional teams keep great secretiveness? Is there another kind of (commercial) reason?

Although I remember I saw a development blog for Super Smash Brothers Brawl...

[aeiowu]

Makes sense. But, then, why do professional teams keep great secretiveness? Is there another kind of (commercial) reason?

Although I remember I saw a development blog for Super Smash Brothers Brawl...

Everyone I've met and talked to that has a great idea they won't talk about [I used to do this when I was a noob] has been inexperienced and unable to pull it off largely because they don't understand the investment involved in realizing such an idea/vision.

Big companies do it because they are scared [wrongfully so] that the public will associate their company/brand with unfinished works due to the shoddiness of their alpha and then their PR bang will be greatly diminished when it comes time.

At least that's how I see it...

[Lynx]

I think of them more as claim markers.  By putting up a devlog, you're saying 'These are the concepts and style that I'm working.  If you like the ideas, please encourage me to make them.  Please don't just rip my ideas off, because this devlog is proof that I had these ideas first.'

Also, the idea is 5% of the game, execution is 95%.  Stealing other people's ideas still leaves you with the immense majority of the work to be done, and leaves you with the added problem of having to file off the serial numbers.

At the end, you have to trust the community and the good will of strangers, or else you'll never be able to draw on community support when you need it.  Just look what happened to the last person who trotted in here saying 'I have this totally great game idea and I need your help, but you'll have to sign an NDA to talk to me...'  The currency here is respect.  You earn other people's respect through your postings here or through your visible achievements elsewhere.

Developer logs by large companies are another form of marketing.  Typical game developers are not encouraged to blog the minutae of their jobs; instead, what they post are intended to be sneak previews and 'behind the stage' peeks to whet the appetite of the general market for their game, and to illustrate that they are indeed very smart people and the game is in good hands.

[William Broom]

Makes sense. But, then, why do professional teams keep great secretiveness? Is there another kind of (commercial) reason?

Although I remember I saw a development blog for Super Smash Brothers Brawl...

Everyone I've met and talked to that has a great idea they won't talk about [I used to do this when I was a noob] has been inexperienced and unable to pull it off largely because they don't understand the investment involved in realizing such an idea/vision.

Big companies do it because they are scared [wrongfully so] that the public will associate their company/brand with unfinished works due to the shoddiness of their alpha and then their PR bang will be greatly diminished when it comes time.

At least that's how I see it...

I'm not sure if it's always 'wrongfully so'. I remember one time at E3, Jade Raymond was giving a live demonstration of Assassin's Creed, and there was some glitch that made one of the guards fall through the wall in slow motion. This triggered a storm of posts on gaming forums about how glitchy and terrible the game was, followed by a bunch of games journalists pointing out that the game wasn't finished, etc.

I don't know how much of an effect that ultimately had on AC's sales, but it was certainly memorable. But I don't think that is a danger for indies unless you're releasing a demo.