Every gamer, at some point in his or her life, has had an idea for a great video game. I myself have a few concepts collecting dust in an Evernote notebook. One of them is a sure winner: I came up with an idea for a colorful, 8-bit RPG with rhythm based, collectible-card-game-inspired combat. The game would be a quirky but deep parody of the CCG genre in general, and star a protagonist who is obsessed with these CCG idols who are basically the equivalent of gym masters in Pokemon . He, along with every other dueler, would have a trusty “hype-man” with his or her own signature beats that pour out of a huge boombox, altering card properties or buffing the hero during battle. Actions during battle would be taken in synch with your hype-man’s music track, and the two of you would form a close and hilarious friendship throughout the game. This is my game idea in a nutshell, and I call it Deck Jam .
I know, you don’t have to tell me: this is a sure winner. But I’ve never designed a video game in my life. I know a lot of C++ but I’ve never actually used it to manipulate objects or graphics. If you need a program to calculate taxes or help with budgeting I could work something out, but programming a video game, storyboarding, creating all of the art, mixing all of the music, marketing and distributing… how on earth am I ever supposed to turn this dream into a reality? This is where BrightLocker comes in.
BrightLocker is a new “crowd-publishing” platform that invites you to pitch your greatest game idea and become part of the creative process – from concept to distribution – that can get your game developed and out into the real world. You can even make money if everything goes well. Up to 5% of the adjusted gross revenue received by BrightLocker from the sale of the game can come back to you as royalties, which means if the game ends up selling millions you could be a very lucky amateur game designer. Before you finally pitch your idea for the community to vote on, BrightLocker offers various services to strengthen your pitch. You could spend a little cash to hire an artist to create a logo, for example.
It sounds great on paper; or does it? Unlike 99% of the people who are going to gleefully create their accounts and submit their game ideas, I actually stopped to read the full terms and conditions that you must agree to. There are two sections there that you need to be aware of, and I’ll outline them here:
From section 4 of the terms and conditions: “By submitting the Game Idea through the Program during the Submission Process, you grant BrightLocker the exclusive, irrevocable, unencumbered, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, fully-paid, and universe-wide right, but not the obligation, during the Submission Period, the Voting Period, and the Evaluation Period, to reproduce, prepare compilations based upon, prepare derivative works based upon, modify, adapt, distribute, redistribute, transmit, retransmit, publish, republish, publicly perform, publicly display, archive, and otherwise use and exploit your Game Idea…” Basically, after you submit the idea, you agree to let BrightLocker totally rip it off in any way that it might want to. They might decide that they like the idea of Deck Jam , but they want to make it a sim game called Jam-Deck instead. I agreed to let them do that. I’m out of the picture and out of luck at that point.
From section 5: “If your Game Idea is selected as the Optioned Game Idea, then you and BrightLocker both hereby acknowledge and agree that BrightLocker is, and that you have always known BrightLocker to be, the exclusive owner of all past, present, and future rights, titles, and interests throughout the universe in and to your Game Idea (together with any Development Services or Promotional Services that you may use in connection with your Game Idea) and all of your contributions, if any, to the Optioned Game Idea, the Developed Game, and all results, proceeds, elements, and derivatives of the foregoing…” Basically, if you’re extremely lucky and your game is chosen to be developed, it’s no longer your game – it’s BrightLocker’s game now. You may earn royalties, true, but if the game becomes a huge success you better believe you’ll have nothing to do with the sequel. Oh, and all of that artwork you paid money for during the pitching process, or any other work you paid for during that time, that all belongs to BrightLocker as well.
So where does that leave me and my brilliant, unrequited gift to the gaming world that is Jam Deck? For now I think I’m going to hold on to that idea. I’d love to watch the community respond positively to the concept and to potentially see the game be made, but I wouldn’t want to give up ownership of the idea that I came up with – that doesn’t seem right to me. Hopefully this is the first of many crowd-publishing platforms, and hopefully future iterations afford more liberties to the people who come up with the game ideas. What do you guys think? Are you okay with handing over rights and ownership to your ideas if it means seeing your game come to fruition and getting paid? Is there an alternative that I’m unaware of?