   "Idea people" do exist guys
  I'm sorry to be off topic, but I used to hang out here a bit and was involved in several independent gaming projects at one time or another.  I was just stopping by and saw the, now closed thread, for the "Idea Management Engineer", and figured I'd post:I recently got a job programming cell phone games which, while not the position writing AAA titles I used to dream about, still qualifies as industry experience.I can't speak for other game companies but, at my company, there ARE actually paid positions for people who think up, and accept suggestions for, new games.Is there more to the job than that?  Of course.  The bulk of their work is spent in market research.  I haven't (yet) had the chance to plug them for a lot of information but from what I understand they take their own ideas and submissions from across the company and then run statistical analyses, focus groups (the office has a lot of people marching in and out for that purpose and - much to the delight of the employees - they usually leave left over pizza), and whatever else is involved in the VAST field of Market research to determine what has development potential.Now, I imagine such positions are more common in companies like mine, where a team of 5 can churn out 2-3 games a year (though companies that can only put out 1 game every two years likely take it more seriously - read: pay more :) ).  If, however, you find your creative mind NEEDING to make games but lack the desire, talent, motivation to program, model, compose music, etc..  I'd suggest you look into market research and the opportunities in the industry that might be available from that angle.   
  I think you've already answered your own question. You've described a market researcher. By comparison, most "idea people" are thinking of a position where they dictate design. Come in Monday, write a design document in a closed room, then on Tuesday hand it over to the production team and have them make it. The cell phone market is ripe for small, quickly produced games. Because of this it makes sense to have a dedicated position that takes brainstormed ideas and bangs them through focus groups to produce a constant stream of designs that will likely sell (a AAA games takes over a year to produce, and in that time plenty of testing can be done and changes made. A cellphone game is made in a matter of months or even weeks, so you want something already right for market). This method of "design" has been popular in the shareware community for a long time, just without the scale (usually a one or two person development house) to demand a full time research position.Oh, and this is probably the wrong forum, but I'll let the moderator move this to an appropriate location.   ;Quote:Original post by linternetI'm sorry to be off topic, but I used to hang out here a bit and was involved in several independent gaming projects at one time or another.  I was just stopping by and saw the, now closed thread, for the "Idea Management Engineer", and figured I'd post:I recently got a job programming cell phone games which, while not the position writing AAA titles I used to dream about, still qualifies as industry experience.I can't speak for other game companies but, at my company, there ARE actually paid positions for people who think up, and accept suggestions for, new games.Is there more to the job than that?  Of course.  The bulk of their work is spent in market research.  I haven't (yet) had the chance to plug them for a lot of information but from what I understand they take their own ideas and submissions from across the company and then run statistical analyses, focus groups (the office has a lot of people marching in and out for that purpose and - much to the delight of the employees - they usually leave left over pizza), and whatever else is involved in the VAST field of Market research to determine what has development potential.Now, I imagine such positions are more common in companies like mine, where a team of 5 can churn out 2-3 games a year (though companies that can only put out 1 game every two years likely take it more seriously - read: pay more :) ).  If, however, you find your creative mind NEEDING to make games but lack the desire, talent, motivation to program, model, compose music, etc..  I'd suggest you look into market research and the opportunities in the industry that might be available from that angle.well yes, cell phone games are a bit different, games can be churned out faster, and so more dieas are going to be needed. but as you said the bulk of his work was made up of statistical analysis and market research. however if you had a guy like masterq there.... i am quite sure he would get fired because his ideas are unoriginal, has no other experience for anything else, and is expecting to get paid just by coming up with unoriginal ideas. the guy you're speaking of is mainly a market research guy who also trys to get ideas from the research on what people would want, which is not really what i would call an "idea man" by a long stretch, but more so a creative market researcher. no position exist anywhere that is like what masterq wants.EIT: darn, beaten by Michalson   ;Really off-topic: Awesome how similar those 2 replies are :) Coincidence? Maybe it's just true, MasterQ?   ;  I'm sure most of us are perfectly aware that there are in fact such positions available; but as mentioned, they don't quite match up with what MasterQ was suggesting, and his (now closed) thread certainly wasn't likely to lead to anything productive if left open.He is of course perfectly welcome to try another post in future, and with adjustments to the position (or at least to how he was presenting it) could certainly be of some value to a team; particularly if they're targetting the casual market with smaller puzzle games or the cell phone market.  However, the point still stands that in a forum used by indie and hobbiest developers an "idea person" isn't going to get good responses unless they can also demonstrate that they have some additional practical skill to offer the team, whether that be asset production, coding/scripting skills, or something slightly more unusual such as marketting/PR skills.  There is always the alternative of actually producing an implementation of an idea to demonstrate your capabilities, at which stage you could have a much greater chance of succeeding as an idea person.Oh, and if there's any flaming in this thread I'm going to close it immediately and start issuing warnings, so anyone who wants to reply will keep it nice and discuss the topic at hand.  Don't bother replying unless you've actually got something to add either.  Other than that I'm happy for this thread to stay open and in my forum for now, although I'll probably move it over into Game Design in the next few days unless it's particularly active.   ;  I do not disagree with anything posted here.It is, however, difficult for me to see aspiring game developers, regardless of their skills (or lack thereof) get flamed.  I can't speak for anyone else, of course, but I started just like MasterQ.  I was roughly 15 when the need to create games hit me and though way back when (1989), resources such as GameDev didn't exist, I took pen and paper and wrote down an idea that I  thought would make an excellent platformer for the NES.It took years to develop the necessary skills (with todays resources I'd like to believe it would have taken faster :) ) and I was lucky to have had a passion for programming.  The only point I'm making is that the field is wider than art, programming and music.  If someone wants to make games and their passion is writing, I'd suggest that someone take their story and write a novel (which I'd take more seriously as an idea than a rough outline).  If you really want to work with raw ideas, then market research may be for you.  The final point I'll make is that sometimes "idea people", even the way MasterQ suggested (no programming, art or music skills), make excellent designers.  On one of my previous independent projects such a person had, in addition to a novel length story, hundreds of pages of functional (though raw) "how the game should work" documentation that made my job as a programmer MUCH easier.  All I had to do was put aside my "I'm more important than him" ego and listen to him (Though, I'll grant that it was easier because the person was in place before I got there).   