What will the next game changing sort of game be? No one really knows that exact answer although someone out there may be formulating a plan on that right now. If so, the restaurant/arcade chain Dave & Busters along with Comedy Central, VH1 and MTV, would like to hear from you about it.
Calling it the Next Big Game Search, they want to hear pitches for ideas ranging from “a mobile app, larger than life arcade game or simply have some improvements for an already classic game.” Those interested may do so by going to http://www.NEXTGAME.CC.COM where you fill out the form there. They do list the judging criteria so I imagine that as with any game pitch you will need to be detailed enough to get those aspects across. They include: Originality, Ease of Play, family Fun (suitable for people of all ages), Gameplay Experience (i.e. fun to play) and Difficulty. Some of these things can be difficult to get across on paper at times, but a well-thought out game idea that is more than just “what if we took this element from X game and combined it with Y game?” will probably hit those notes.
In case you are wondering about the prizes, more is up for grabs than just seeing an idea of yours possibly brought to arcades. The grand prize is “D&B Creates Your Game and Free Games For Life”, 1st runner up gets $5000 in game play at D&Bs and the 2nd runner up gets $500 in game play.
More info > Dave & Buster’s Next Big Game Info Sheet (2013)
The contest has already started as of June 10th but it will go until July 15th and is open to residents of the continental US. Perhaps one of the AH readers here will present the grand idea, we certainly have no shortage of them.
If you need some idea of how the game development process goes, particular for arcades, then I highly suggest this Youtube playlist by Brian Colin. 14 videos that show how difficult it is to come up with a game winning idea, albeit not impossible. Here’s a couple of videos from that series entitled Advice to Game Designers and the Role of the Game Designer, featuring Brian Colins, George gomez, Eugene Jarvis, Jeff Nauman, Jack Hager, Mark Turmell, Laura Kampo and others.
I really didn’t like seeing this contest. “Hey, come up with an idea that will make us tons of money…and we’ll give you nothing in return!”. I hope nobody with a good idea is stupid enough to just give it away like this. But I suppose some people don’t have an inkling of how to actually develop a game.
Yeah I can see your point kiwasabi I have many good ideas for arcade games which I would like to have them come to life but that doesn’t mean I would just give it up for nothing, besides this contest doesn’t apply to me as I’m from the UK. But still I wouldn’t it though although I’m wait until after I finish uni probably
You’re assuming anything they made would be capable of becoming a big success. I’m not familiar with these companies… Does Dave & Busters usually make their own games? We have one near me and I don’t recall any of the games being their own.
@Arcades4ever:
Do you have any ability to develop games yourself?
@Vicky
D&B hasn’t made their own games before. You’re right there’s definitely a chance this won’t make them any money. I just don’t like the idea of a company trying to get people to give away their game concepts.
By the way, I think this is happening because they brought on one of the Xbox creators to head their game strategy. It sounds like they may also try to put any games they develop on mobile, too.
http://venturebeat.com/2012/10/22/dave-busters-names-xbox-co-creator-to-head-game-strategy/
Unfortunately no I don’t have ability to develop my games myself as I have no programming skills but I have many great ideas and I have an art degree and I could deffinatly develop my visual ideas as concept images to show them what I’m visualising.
I tried to learn programming but I had no luck in succeeding. I have loads of ideas for games in the arcade and skill have ideas come to mind from time to time as there are just too many games on consoles which sort of hide and shadow each other for them to be successful
Well if you want to talk ideas, send me an email at kiwasabi@gmail.com .
not sure how the success of the product has anything to do with the point that you are doing work for them for no payment in return… other than the fact that their exploit wont be THAT successful…
this is a shameful scam, there are tons of great games out already that don’t appear in D&Bs, why don’t we start there.
If they want to offload someone’s job to the public for free how about we offload the buyers job and ask the public what games they would like to see in D&B…
This is not a business proposition to develop and monetize the next Angry Birds. It’s simply a marketing campaign to understand their customer wants better, with a payback to actually develop *something*. Capcom ran a similar design-a-game contest in the early 90’s which resulted in Eco Fighters.
If you already have skills, time, and money to develop and distribute your own game, then you are farther along than the majority of D&B customers. 🙂
Uh i have dying to make my own game for a while now. I’m a 11 year full of ideas if this is have start my video game making career oh i will even if don’t give me anything if i win at least i know got a idea on a long chain of video game making people. Which can be a big thing to a kid.
I have the perfect game for Dave and Buster, but I want cash not free games.
Despite what’s been said earlier, they literally ARE looking for big screen app games. This is terrible, it always irks me to see arcades, (even though I don’t really consider D&B much of one) are being turned into big machines that play crappy shovel ware that there’s better flash game equivalents to.
Well that OR a knock off an already existing game. Then again, good COULD come out of this if you put the right people in this position. Even though it’s not really sensible to do it.
TBH, I wish they’d release Dragonball Heroes in Dave N’ Busters. The card collecting combined w/ the game itself would be a gold mine for them.