@fastlane69

I guess it depends on the size of the project. If I was the head of EA Games for example I would expect that 99,9% of the fan projects never reach a playable stage and would just wait for one flashing out of the junk.
But then if it really got potential you can still make a deal and franchise their ideas.

For me it is just a hobby, write some code and make little games to play with my friends and stuff. Something that small will not bringt them up to the barracades, BUT I divide between those projects and my browsergame, which is 100% self made with the intention to earn money with in the future. If I used my other projects to gain players for the browsergame I'd be in trouble. So you (you in general) can judge for your self I think.



Your counter to my advice is quite good, maybe I was too short in my explanations.

Of course I started with some modelling and level design, but not for a game in the beginning. Then I wanted to maek a game with 2 friends of mine and we still had no clue about the code and created and created worlds, just to see we have no use for them in the end.
So, with the gained knowledge, we started making small codes and build some test maps only with what is necessary to test the coded features. this continued for quite a long time and I, again, realized this will never have a result.
Now I took both, level and scripting knowlegde and thought about a system combining both in a way that eleminates all heavy problems.
Some of them:
- Performance with huge maps
- Level border without having high mountains everywhere
- Too much code for character interaction (walk, swim, jump, climb etc.)
- Pathfinding
and so on.

Based on those "problems" I created a structure in my mind.
- Isometric view (high performance even with highly detailed maps and no need for level borders)
- Character movement only on ground and shallow water, no swimming, jumping or something else. (plain, invisible wmb supported, collision structures)
- "Open land" to cut pathfinding down to circle around trees or somthing like that.
(just a few examples and not too much into detail)

With those things in Mind, and planning is one of the most importand parts as it saves you a lot of time, I had a concept that gave me intense programming work for 6 months and I was able to create more than the whole 3 years before. After that, I started creating the first map and threw away the test map.

It took then part in a GS contest known as "Dragonrise" and was judged as "almost winner with high potential".


*phew*
I hope my intended way of showing how my start was got a bit more clear now? ^^

Oh btw. atm I'm working on the 3rd Dragonrise Demo. ^^