How do I protect my idea?

#21 I literally offered my idea for BoomBall to the community for a *year*. Finally a bored brit thought it was interesting, we spent 2 weeks building a prototype, and it landed me a job at BraveTree (who got bought by GarageGames). Implementation is *everything*.

#22 If its totaly new and original, where everyones going to slap theit head and wonder why they never thought of this unique new game mechanic. Maybe you should keep it to yourself for the tiner being, get a prototype sorted out. If its just an idea that takes a story and several gaming genres consolidated into one game... chances are its not going to make any difference whether you post it or not. Most game ideas aren't that original and just require some motivation and a competent team to realise them. But if your doing something totaly new you might be better off keeping it to yourself.

My current projects are a multiplayer racing game, the only thing that really stands out is that is has fairly sophisticated physics for an indie game and better AI than most commercial games. But the ideas behind what the player sees really aren't original at all, just executed better than most.

Oust is pretty much the same thing, at its core its just 3rd person quake 3 arena with it's jump booster things and a twist in the scoring and melee thrown in for good measure. Not being particularly groundbreaking I'm certainly not going to worry about someone else stealing the ideas.

#23 People often concentrate on the wrong type of ideas as important. Storylines and characters are often the ones that people claim ownership over. It is a long-time tradition in film and literature to be protective of such ideas. And like in film and literature, those ideas are often strongly derivative and often not nearly as important as their execution. But scanning the shelves of EB is pretty much like scanning the direct-to-video wall when it comes to plots and characters. This doesn't mean that characters like Dante in Devil May Cry or Duke Nukem or Serious Sam aren't cool, but it is their execution that sets them apart. Devil May Cry is stylistically one of the most impressive titles I've seen come out of the industry in a while, but that was simply the wow factor that got me to play the demo. It was through playing the demo that I fell in love with the game. Stylish as it may have been, the gameplay is wonderful. Wonderfulyl derivative of a number of third-person melee combat games and fighting titles with a third-person camera finally done right. Ninja Gaiden, Prince of Persia, and God of War took the concepts and ran with them to make excellent games--note that Prince of Persia 3D for the PC and Dreamcast had more in common with Tomb Raider's camera and control than the Alone in the Dark->Resident Evil->Extermination->Devil May Cry camera evolution.

But it comes down to figuring out what ideas are important. Do you have a killer gameplay mechanic that makes your game shine? Well, that might be one to prototype and NDA. If you are making a RPG with an evil church or corporate syndicate and angsty stock characters, one or two of which may die in the process of the game, and want branching conversations, morality, and large expansive worlds to "immerse" your players in...you're sounding like most people who dream of making a RPG. If you start comparing your characters and world and storyline, you'll probably notice some unhappy stock-ness to the individual elements.

Figuring out which ideas are important and which ones are a dime-a-dozen takes a bit of stepping-back from your work, but it can help you focus on what is important.