The Game Reviews Wiki:Tutorial/Professional Reviews

First, this is not definitive legal document, and should not be treated as such.

Hello everyone, and welcome to our page detailing more of our legal stuff regarding your content. We have already covered licensing, so this page is about acting as a developer would.

Not too long ago, I wanted to research the likelihood of having one's review stolen from a site like this. This page explains some of the stuff I found.

First, it really depends on the uniqueness of your review. A mere sequel or rip off of another game is much more likely to be created by someone else than a review written from the ground up.

Even so, your game may not be stolen nonetheless. One from the industry said that most game makers in the industry are either too busy making their own reviews for games to listen to anyone else's. You can imagine why that is. The same reason you are writing your own reviews instead of someone else's.

The more detailed the review, the more work that must be put in to create it. There is never a guarentee that a review will make money, and often producers would like a quick buck over a risky investment any day.

However, if you want a producer to make your game, you also need quite a deal of money to back it up. A game producer will not pay you for your idea if they had to do all the work to create it. Programming, drawing, animating, testing is the hard part of making a game - not coming up with an idea. Adapting a quote from Edison, making a game is 1% inspiration (the game idea), and 99% perspiration (coding, etc.). No one will pay you for that 1% because it isn't worth that much.

Making a professional document
Get a head start nonetheless on making a game worth selling for when you have the money to get it made.

There are some standards to what a Game Design Document should contain to sell the review effectively to a programming company.

(referenced from Wikipedia)
 * Story
 * Characters
 * Level/environment design
 * Gameplay
 * Art
 * Sound and Music
 * User Interface, Game Controls

If you are truly serious about it, those are some sections that need to be filled out to the best of your ability.

We understand that not everyone wants to go this route. It takes serious commitment if you want serious reward. We leave you with some final thoughts.

First, keep your best reviews secret. They should not be in the public domain. Simple security measures. If you are serious, only share a portion what you actually want in the game. Maybe break it up between a few game reviews to mask what you really want to do.

Second, contribute more reviews that you are serious about. It masks which one(s) you care about, and contributes to the community.

Third, go back to your old reviews and improve them. Not only does this help make the wiki look good, but it improves you appeal to those interested in researching the quality of your work.

Best of luck, all of you!