Publisher details its new Independent Games Competition
The world’s largest publisher has today begun its hunt for raw, aspiring talent in the games industry.
The inaugural Activision Independent Games Competition is now accepting game proposals from any indie studio, microstudio or soloist based in the US.
The competition will be conducted in two phases, with the submission phase starting today until August 31. Details of the second phase were not disclosed.
By October, Activision hopes to have found a winning submission and will hand over $175,000 to assist in the development of the game.
The runner-up will receive $75,000 for the same purposes, but it is likely that both winners – and possibly those who just missed the mark – will network with Activision on publishing partnership opportunities.
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Contestants must submit game design proposals on no more than ten sheets of A4.
Submissions can also come with an explanatory and illustrative video, or even a game demo. The demo will need instructions, and all data can come in at no less than 100MB.
As part of the design proposals, each contestant must include estimates on budget, team allocation and protocol. All submission materials should not exceed twenty pages.
To register or for more information, visit Activision’s official website for the contest.
"This competition underscores our commitment to supporting the creative spirit and innovation of developers," said Dave Stohl, executive studio VP at Activision.
"I started my career as a software developer, so this opportunity is something I'm personally very proud to offer to the industry's young visionaries."
I'd be suprised at the amount of indie publishers who will be lining up for this considering what Activision did to infinity ward... Good luck with that
"Sorry boys, you're British"
I was just about to tighten up my design doc for my game which could make Activision millions... but it's for US residents only.
If I had $250k I'd hire a team using Gumtree immediately.
What?? US residents only??
You don't see Bobby Kotick giving away millions without looking for something in exchange. I'm guessing they will retain ownership of your game and will probably take like 90% of game profits.
They're hardly going to find the best the world has to offer if they don't reach out further than the US
"In order to be a Finalist, entrant must sign certain Submission documentation provided by Sponsor, which may include some or all of the following: release of claims against Sponsor; acknowledgement of Sponsor's development of game concepts that may be similar to entrant's Submission; first right of refusal to Sponsor for any development or publishing of Submission; agreement to provide Sponsor with splash/title/credits and logo credit similar to "funded in part by the Activision Independent Games Competition Prize 2010"; grant of name and likeness publicity rights to Sponsor; and full representations and warranties regarding the IP ownership of the Submission."
In other words, if you enter you forfeit all rights to your work - even if you don't win. And whats the chances of your work going forward to win? Not that much to be quite honest. Effectively, you can enter, lose the rights to your IP, and then get sued by Activision if you try to develop a similar elsewhere.
You give them your ideas, then they steal them and sell them.
I'm an entreprenuer so the moment I read this article I knew what they were up to. It's tempting but the fact of the matter is the game industry is mostly recycle junk with different style and definition. Stuff like that gets boring overtime and has a limited effective usability to it before consumer gets tired of it. And the fact that the game industry refuse to take on raw talent/ new blood due to financial interest at stake, there isn't much new innovation as far as game-design goes. Activition-Blizzard is quite smart in the sense that they realize this issue and in order to land onto potential hits concept, this is the solution. They could review and take on any new ideas that they find interesting and develop it themselves. This is nothing new in business practice. In other words you're potentially feeding to your competitor if you don't accept things under their terms. I hate to say this but the game-industry used to be more pure, money and growth has driven large companies to use ways to exploit talent in order to stimulate growth potential. Did you know that the entire Warcraft franchise was ripped off from the company that owns Warhammer? Originally Blizzard wanted to develop Warhammer but they were refused the rights, so theycame up with Warcraft with a lot of "borrowed" concepts from it. It's fact look it up. You may have an idea thats potentially prize winning material but needs to be done a certain way to draw out its potential, I believe this is what they are looking for, lots of fresh concept that aren't winner under your execution, but they are able to gain inspiration from and turn it into winning concepts.
I remember Activision speaking at a GameCon conference a couple of years back & specifically stating they didn't do innovation, because that was risky, they did known certainties, hence Call of Duty.
I wouldn't trust this move to scoop innovation, probably just a way to steal IP from up & coming talent who don't have the business savvy to see a deadly contract when they are presented it (e.g. you lose the IP and get 10% royalty, as someone stated above). It's that, or some cheap & good sounding publicity.
But hey, I am cynical.
I hate to be the one to say it, but Activision does offer a very interesting deal. If you are a game designer without a team, or even a game designer with a team but developing games other than the ones you really believe in, this contest is the quickest route to make your game come true.
I own a game company and let me tell you: game design docs are a loong way from execution. I would even say that game design docs are normally useless, for us at least. That it because of many reasons:
1) If it comes from an “aspiring” game designer with no experience, it will suck 99% of the time
2) The most interesting ones will be unproven concepts that may not be fun at all, even if perfectly executed (and you will just discover that after the fail)
3) Even with the best intentions, it can be poorly executed
4) It may take a hell of more time than expected
5) Needs a sponsor for the duration of the project and needs to be commercially viable from the start
6) Most likely need a team of five or seven to really fly
7) Need to cope with your current team's abilities (so if you have a great 2d team, it means nothing to a 3d oriented concept)
8) Needs to be deployed to the right platform and developed with the right tools. Both normally expensive for the regular dude with a paper sheet.
9) There are probably many more great reasons why you just can’t make it work, game development is freaking hard :)
They are still evil and they ARE lying: of course they will use each and every idea they get to inspire their games. This contest is not "for free", it's a trade. Activision gains a batch of fresh ideas to implement (partially or fully) and inspire their games.
But that doesn’t make it a bad deal because face it: you don’t have the time, the team, or the money to execute your “gold idea”, so it is absolutely worth the “risk”. If you win, you get a whole lot of money attention to make your game come true. If you lose, you are the same guy you were yesterday, and you can still make your game. If anyone have stolen the “Super Mario” idea, do you think they would be able to compete with the “similar” game Shigeru Miyamoto would create (“Super Running Man”, maybe)?
Of course, if you do have the team, resources and money to make your game come true this year, or maybe even next year, and you think the concept is so unique it will make you hundreds of thousands of dollars, this contest is clearly not for you. But seriously, you are lucky enough already.
