Of course there is. People steal ideas and content all the time, there is little to nothing you can do to prevent this.

It's not the idea that makes money, it's the execution. You can very rarely sue someone for stealing your idea, but you have to prove that they didn't come up with it by themselves, and typically, your product needs to be out first.

However, most bigger teams don't need to do that, because they're bigger teams and can easily make an idea by themselves.

So, yeah, it's a risk, but it's very minimal. It'd be more efficient to show at least some product when providing it.

What you're saying is that you're worried that somebody else will make your idea better than you can. If that's your concern then yes, you should be worried, and for a lot of reasons.

Keep it private if you're worried. If the feedback is to see if you're onto something and hone the idea, collect a group of trusted individuals you can rely on to give you honest opinions. If you're just looking at a Concept page for the other kind of 'feedback', some enthused adulation, then is it really worth it?

Originalmente postado por Skoardy:

Keep it private if you're worried. If the feedback is to see if you're onto something and hone the idea, collect a group of trusted individuals you can rely on to give you honest opinions. If you're just looking at a Concept page for the other kind of 'feedback', some enthused adulation, then is it really worth it?

Alright. I figure we'll stick with a smaller group, like you're suggesting.

Thanks!

agree with skoardy & fluffy-puffy. i would start with a tight inner circle to bounce the idea off... but after that you'll be best served to put some work into the idea... and hammer out a proof-of-concept at least prior to showing it to the public in any venue. one of the benefits of hammering out the proof of concept is that you create a development time buffer for copycats to have to catch up with... it may not be as long as you'd like, but its certainly better than nothing.

Write everything down, mail it to yourself in a sealed envelope. Then if your idea gets stolen you can go to court and let the judge open it up and see that you are the original author. Only costs you the price of a stamp and an envelope to put it in.

Great plan, except for the whole 'can't copyright an idea' thing and the 'mailing yourself offers no protection whatsoever' thing.

Originalmente postado por Asterne:

Risk of ideas being stolen if submitted as a concept? Is there any risk of this?

Ideas can't be stolen, so no, there is 0% risk of this happening.
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Originalmente postado por Asterne:

Me and one other guy are planning to begin work on a game and we were thinking of posting it on Steam Greenlight as a concept to get feedback, but we're concerned about a bigger team possibly stealing our idea and running with it.

So you want people to give you their feedback, but you don't want to give them ideas in return?
Is that a fair trade? There's a limited supply of feedback, it doesn't grow on trees you know...
If they run away with your ideas then chase them down with a car. Cars are faster than any running human so it's easy to catch up.

Originalmente postado por Asterne:

Is that a risk of using Steam Greenlight, or is there some legal action that we would be able to take against them if they did?

If someone uses the same idea as you then you can kill them, that will stop their crimethink. It's actually the most reliable method also, since it's guaranteed that 100% of all thoughtcrimes s/he harbors are ended when a person dies. Only drawback is that it is indeed illegal in most countries. It's very permanent and also makes sure that they can't come up with other ideas that might be even better than yours. And you wouldn't want that to happen, right?

Originalmente postado por Asterne:

Thanks in advance, Asterne

Glad to be of service, that will be €9.99 or $13.99. If you've read this text and haven't payed after 7 days then I will have to take appropriate measures to take this information out of your head.
Sincerely, Qon, CEO of Thought Delivery Inc.

Originalmente postado por Qon:

...

You seem to have disqovered a new letter, or are you just trying to qonfuse people?

Originalmente postado por C0untzer0:

Originalmente postado por Qon:

...

You seem to have disqovered a new letter, or are you just trying to qonfuse people?

I disqovered a new letter, thouqht I should try it out. You know, qive it a chance at least. I will resume writing with the letters that I feel qomfortable with and make sure I don't overdo the strange utilisation of c, for qlarity. :>

Originalmente postado por Qon:

...

I oh-so-humbly apologize for having what I believe to have been a valid concern.

Either there's a random large team of developers watching the concepts section of Greenlight, or they have better things to do.
If this team doesn't exist, there is no need for concern. If they do then
Either they choose one of the thousands of other ideas on concepts, or they choose yours.
If they choose one of the others, there is no need for concern. If they choose yours then
Either they make a similar but not identical game, or they choose to make an identical one.
If they make a similar but not identical game, there is no need for concern. (the market is full of such cases) If they choose to make an identical one then
Either they make it better than you could, or they make a worse game.
If they make a worse one, there is no need for concern. If they make it better, then everybody but you is a winner, and you can experience a certain measure of pride, and probably get credit and job offers in future from the now successful roving band of developers with mad skillz but zero creativity when they need to make their next game.

"Good artists copy; great artists steal"