You probably know the feeling. You have this fantastic idea. But you are scared to actually share the idea with other people. Most of the time, fear is the main reason. Fear people won’t like the idea. Or fear someone may steal it. So should actually be sharing your ideas with other people, or not?
Trust me, you are most definitely not alone in this feeling. I struggle with this a lot. But in my opinion (and it is exactly that), yes. You absolutely should be sharing your ideas with other people. The more I’m doing in game development on my own, the more I’m starting to believe that. And there’s two main reason why.
For this article, I’ll be focusing on game design/development. That is what this blog is about. But ultimately, this advice is true in any creative discipline.
Sharing Give Feedback on the Ideas
You may genuinely feel that your idea is awesome. But as a game developer, it isn’t about you. Ultimately, it’s about the people who will be playing your game. (And the same is true of any other creative discipline.)
Sharing your idea with people early on can give you feedback on if the project is even worth pursuing. There may be no interest in the idea at all. Do you really want to spend months or years developing a project that no one is interested in?
Or in a more positive spin, what if there is just one little piece that could make your idea exponentially better? You are a single person. Sometimes we get something in our head and have trouble thinking outside our limited scope. Bringing in other people (especially your target audience) can be extremely beneficial to making an idea even better.
You Have More Ideas Than You Know
I’ve only recently began my journey into game development. But I’ve started keeping a notebook with me at all times. Inside are concepts, features, research, notes of my learning, etc. And you know what I’ve learned in keeping this notebook? You have way more ideas than you realize. There is no one you’ll produce them all.
Let’s say you come up with 100 ideas for video game concepts. I’m going to be generous and say you produce 10 of those ideas into actual games. What happens to the other 90 ideas? They fade away and no one but you ever sees them.
And game development takes a long time. My guess is you will have 100 more ideas during the time it takes you to develop one of those games. Probably better ideas.
Here’s what I propose. Keep the ideas you feel have the best potential. Release the other ideas to other people. Put that creative energy out into the universe and see what happens. You could inspire someone else to create something you may not ever have the opportunity (or desire) to make.
Final Thoughts on Sharing Ideas
With 90% of your ideas, I don’t think there would be any drawback to actually sharing them. In fact, I encourage you to be more open with your ideas.
I plan on doing this with some of the ideas I’ve come up with in the last few weeks. Once I have a few more, I’ll be releasing a blog post with the full list. Some are pretty terrible, but some actually have potential. But there are way more than I’ll ever be able to create. So why not help others who may be struggling to find that right idea?
If you truly feel like an sharing a particular idea is a bad idea, by all means, keep it to yourself. There’s nothing wrong with that decision. There are definitely times when sharing an idea could be the wrong move.
I know this is a fairly subjective topic. This is all my opinion. I’d be curious to hear what other people have to say on the subject of sharing ideas. Be sure to leave your thoughts down in the comments below.
