I'm giving away my startup idea to a deserving Haxor
Hey all. I have been searching for a potential partner for my startup, but as of yet have had no luck. I have several ideas for products, but some are time sensitive. This one in particular is especially time-sensitive, so I am forced to give it away or just not see it come to fruition.
Hackers Help! Post your reason for getting the idea, and I will select the best one tomorrow morning. Thanks a lot. This is a great idea that I would hate to see die.
74 comments
[ 4.1 ms ] story [ 85.9 ms ] threadAnd I see above that you did lay out your idea in general. That sounds like a pretty interesting idea. I hope someone can make it work as well.
I've seen a similar idea already in development; check out http://www.metaplace.com/
I'll shoot out this idea I had so it doesn't make you look like an idiot if you release it.
Take the onboard heads-up display technology from F-16 fighter jets/certain GM cars and integrate it onto the dashboard of a car with the digital radio and a lyric database - and voila - Drive-time Karaoke (bouncing ball optional) - Lawsuits (e.g. I" had to sing along to Since You've Been Gone, Officer") would stop a company from selling this but I wouldn't mind developing a workable prototype
Anyone wanna give me a million $$ and call me Jesus Startup Almighty? Thought not ;) Ideas are two-a-penny, implementation and marketing are everything.
http://terminator.wikia.com/wiki/Image:T-800a_Clothing.jpg
Unless you happen to be a patent lawyer in which case you believe the exact opposite.
There are great ideas, but execution is how you get any leverage on them.
Silencing the voice in my head that cares about embarrassment was the most useful skill I learned in my 20's. It still takes work, though.
Don't worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you'll have to ram them down people's throats.
Always apropos in such times of uncertainty...
It's kind of arrogant of the OP to assume that his precious idea (which of course no one else has ever conceived of in any capacity) is so valuable, like a beautiful fragile snowflake, that it must be carefully protected and only revealed to a deserving "haxor".
Exactly my sentiment. Of course the value of the idea can be judged by the selling price it receives. Is it for sale?
Not many people would do that.
Initially I was looking to add a flex developer to my team because it would perfectly suit flex/Air. But I am learning that now so this shouldnt be a problem in the future.
I was looking to develop a widget-based game creation system, based on customizing a pre-set group of parameters. its limited at first, but as the community grows so will features.
Games are output into a widget, shareable amongst other websites (our favs - facebook, myspace, etc).
Of course there would be ranking and normal community features involved, as well as an air-based arcade where you can play your own custom games and other user's games as well.
users can completely skin their game, and depending on how long they spend on it, it could become quite an extensive game. The only limits would be user creativity.
This is one of my favorite ideas, being a gamer, but I am so focused on my other ideas that I think this is going to suffer. Without being able to have a team to dedicate to it, I have to give it up. Enjoy! Flame me if you want, or say it's been done b4! (kinda like my idea for peanut butter and jelly singles...hahaha)!
I planned on targeting a more mainstream audience with respect to game creation. Simple tools, but robust design features, as well as an extensive library of props can go a long way.
Having worked with Flex extensively - I think it would take at least 3-6 months to prototype.
http://www.garrykitchen.com/product_history/garry_kitchens_g...
Sharing things between websites is, well, pretty old too. So that's not the idea.
There are vital differences.
Look at aviary. i have photoshop, why would I use it? Because i can use it from anywhere and share it anywhere.
No, but that was from 1985. There's at least one company that publishes user-submitted games:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kongregate
Whatever the economics behind that, someone is getting paid. I don't know much about the game business, but it seems like there are a lot of great people working for next-to-nothing on the fringes. I can't imagine how popular a connect-the-dots approach to design would be.
You basically were asking for criticism, so I'm giving it. Obviously, there are far, far...far...stupider things on facebook, so it may well be a big hit.
I don't believe you did. If you want to see want an a-hole sounds like, look through my comment history.
And I think it's an interesting idea (I work, or used to, in the game dev industry).
The problem is that "a widget-based game maker" does not let you create fun games for any reasonable definition of fun, and a system that does let you create fun games is probably too hard for ordinary non-programming users to learn. Play around with GameBrix for a few minutes and then decide whether any of the games generated by it are stuff you'd be willing to show your friends. And judging from the GameBrix screencasts, their builder isn't all that easy to use anyway. Sploder's done a bit better - you can at least figure out how to use it in 5 minutes - but it gives you very limited customization. It's more like a map editor for common strategy games than a game creator itself.
Anything more complicated than that requires a lot of both UI and technical discipline. We've run into some really thorny technical issues when trying to develop a UI that's both flexible and simple to learn, and we keep running into them. It makes me wonder whether the problem is even tractable, given the long history of attempts to solve it and the noted lack of success outside of specific domains (eg. GameMaker, Quake mods).
So that's what the view looks like from 15 months in. I definitely still think there's something to this, otherwise I wouldn't still be working on it. But be prepared for some really tricky technical issues - you'll want a top-notch technical cofounder, because otherwise you'll be pretty limited in what you can do.
I do believe that a widget based game maker can make original games as long as its open enough to allow creativity. From a programming stand-point this directly affects usability, but I would approach it from a design position.
Imagine a standard 2d side-scrolling platform engine. Characters have a bunch of predefined states. Users must only choose which states they want their character to have(selectable through a survey or wizard). What differentiates Mario from Sonic is only a few actions difference.
They are mostly distinct in design. Allow users a "bone man" with pre-made animations and abilities. Users can build the look with our online editor. then the designs are applied to the appropriate section of the "bone man".
Background tiles and objects can also be skinned or selected from pre-made props.
Right now at my 9-5 I am working on a children's virtual world and the most time intensive process is asset creation. This would also be the case in the stated idea. Animations, character states, and npc's and props would have to be developed over time, and can also be user submitted to speed up the process.
I would do 2d games
a puzzle game (standard scrolling, adjustable rules)
a fighting game (actions ability and looks would be adjustable to name a few)
a side scroller action game
a racing game
and others.
All of these would have premade "bone man" animations stock that can define a player's personality and skill set.
The custom design is the key in my opinion. i personally would love this.
The very brief summary of the game is that Dvorak is a very basic card game with each card created at the beginning of the game. In other words, custom game creation within limited parameters. If you want more on the ruleset google and go to the co.uk site. My idea was to take this in a 'Magic the Gathering' esque direction. Set up a basic model for combat, and have each card be taggable. Each tag would contain a function as a String (some extension of Rails's acts as taggable on steroids plugin and Raganwald's work on methods as Strings in Ruby). Consequently, any action could be custom defined in ruby code as a method and then attached to a card. The end user might not be proficient with Ruby but could create their own card set with the attributes/tags provided. I also had a basic attack/defend hitpoint system designed , never implemented.
Well, the short story is I found that from a design side this worked great. In fact, I used the same principles to make several card games and played them with friends locally (in Tokyo). But translating this concept into computer code was far too difficult and time consuming and with little or no upside. Doing anything even marginally visually satisfying w/ the GUI (esp. off Rails) is also no small undertaking.
Consequently, my advice in this space is to:
(1) Start small - single concept which could be expanded upon and preferably has some inherent profitability
(2) Extensively discuss the technical details w/ someone who knows their 'shit.' No offense poppy, but you don't seem to have done this and much of what you say seems impracticable.
The major drawback is that it is technically difficult to implement.
- If anyone calls you an idiot, they're the idiot.
- You WILL receive much constructive criticism and compliments on your idea. Probably better feedback than you'd get anywhere else.
- Some of us may take the idea and run with it.
- Some of us may discuss yout idea here.
- It mat just die here.
So, what are you waiting for?
Allow comments from within feed readers as well as comment tracking (so you don't have to try to remember... or use co.comments, etc).
Could be done one of two ways.
1. Design the 'comment module' for the large blogging platforms (blogger, wordpress, typepad, etc). Bloggers confirm their blog on the platform (to bypass captcha or similar) so a users comment goes directly into the blogs comment system.
2. Create a widget that an author can place on their site that pulls the comments from the server housing the comments. This widget would be placed directly below where "normal" comments go and would tie in as seamlessly as possible.
Could be a standalone service or it could be the next feed reader that takes a chunk out of GoogleReader (unless integration with gReader could be figured out).
Thoughts?
Then they can submit their project to the start-up program, and try to take it to the next level together.
Im more of a strategy/design marketing guy with a programming ability, and I know there are hackers out there with complimentary skill sets. Just an idea!