Your game ideas and protecting yourself. How?

We all have a game idea. My question is, how do we get our ideas to the ''right'' people and at the same time protecting ourselves from getting our idea taken and leaving us in the dirt?Any advice would be appreciated! Your game ideas and protecting yourself. How?
I would start by learning about copyright laws and how to properly protect your ideas, not to mention what falls under protection. My first instinct says you should at the very least write down your ideas in great detail, and do a poor man's copyright (certified mail to yourself). Although I really am unsure of the actual legality of this method, as this is just something I have heard.If you are really serious about this, you really need to research this in great detail.http://www.copyright.gov/Your game ideas and protecting yourself. How?
Thank you for your reply.I currently have a work in progress written down in chapters, background, sketches and game mechanics, but I don't know how to show them to somebody.Basically, when I am ready to present my idea in all its ''glory'', who do I go to?
I have no idea but you could probably send an email to the main game publishers and developers to see if they would be willing to look at your idea - it couldn't hurt to hear what they have to say.
I think a good start might be for you to write a developer an email/letter asking these kinds of questions. I think most developers would at least give you the information on the different avenues you can pursue in order to present your ideas.
At least in the US, you inherently have a Copyright to any work that you make - if you can prove that you were the creator. This inherent Copyright isnt a substitute for a real copyright though.Once your work is finished or mostly finished, you should apply for a legal copyright. You can send it out to whomever you like after that.Not to discourage you, realistically, it will be nearly impossible for anyone to look at your ideas and even harder to get any publisher to put it forth. Alot of that has to do with the fact that the publisher owns the developers that work, and the work that the developers make is treated as the publishers property. By introducing a 3rd party, like the story writer, they no longer own all the property and publishers would much rather not deal with that.Your best bet is to try and make a mod out of it. If you can start your own team because you've convinced people based on your idea and story, then you know you've got a good idea. If you cant, then your idea just simply wasnt good enough to get anyone else excited.
[QUOTE=''savvon'']We all have a game idea. [/QUOTE]As I work for a Developer, I can tell you that what you said above is precisely your problem. Everyone has a game idea, even the people that work for a Developer. Ideas are one of the few things in Game Development that don't require outsourcing or hiring of new people.
Developers generally wont accept or even look at submitted game designs due to legal issues. If they look at submissions and one of them happens to be close to what they're already working on that could cause unnecessary lawsuits, so they generally don't even read them.As for protecting your own ideas... well, the best way would be to actually do them. You cannot copyright just an idea, it has to be something whether it's a simple DOS game, a design write-up, picture etc. That will only protect what you include in that write-up though, and nothing is stopping someone from taking bits and pieces then tweaking it so it's no longer the same as yours. If you have an idea of something like the way a server should work, or a specific gameplay feature, you may be able to get the idea patented. There have been some pretty vague patents in the past which have won in court cases. For example...[quote]''transactions in which a trusted intermediary securely processes payments over a communications system such as the Internet. The use of a trusted intermediary ensures that one party will not have to disclose sensitive information, such as a credit card number or bank account number, to the other party to the transaction.''[/quote]That's an extremely basic method of transaction yet it was filed early enough (1991) to have hit before it's usage was widespread. If you have a revolutionary gameplay feature you could try patenting it. I don't know who effective it would be though.But honestly, unless you put your ideas into action there's not a whole lot of protection for your ideas. With the gaming industry having closed itself off from the public due to possible legal concerns, unless you create the game or a mod of the game it will largely come down to who you know. Basically then you'll pass it on and hope one day you'll hear back.[QUOTE=''dnuggs40'']My first instinct says you should at the very least write down your ideas in great detail, and do a poor man's copyright (certified mail to yourself). Although I really am unsure of the actual legality of this method, as this is just something I have heard.[/QUOTE]Unfortunately this isn't accepted as evidence in court. It can be used to try to argue that you created something on X date but ultimately only filing the proper copyright paper will give any recognizable protection.