Will someone steal my idea?

Here's a naive question. If I share my idea for a game and ask for help (which I need), will someone else, more skilled than me, pick up on the idea and create the game ahead of me.

Not that anyone probably cares for this idea, but I have been wanting to build this word puzzle game for a while. No shooting, no traveling, no elaborate backgrounds. It involves moving around letters, syllables and words to answer questions and build a final answer. I have always liked this game on paper, but never seen it in an on-line game.

I have looked at other products and it seems that Construct2 will do the job very well. I'm struggling with trying to decide the best way to build syllables and words. Should they objects themselves or strings of letter objects?

I am excited to finally get this game created, please advise..............

George

You're right, the online deal could have a lot of risks. You can start doing the game from 0 and until you get stuck you can ask experience people on forum about your problem but not mention to your idea to keep it safe. It just my opinion, I hope I could see your game in future :).

Btw, I have some examples about letter and word, I could share you if you need :)

It doesn't really matter.

If a game is popular it can be cloned within days or even hours.

If it's anything special, it will be copied at some point.

It might even be created without you sharing the idea. I've had ideas in the past that were unique and never shared, and other games came along with the ideas. People generally all have similar thoughts. Because of this, there can be a lot of patterns to everything- and ways people mimick/copy others.

I choose to think that my creativity is good enough that I can continue having unique ideas when old ideas become less unique, etc..

Still, I keep some stuff to myself if I have some fondness for it and know it is high up on unique scale.

So if you are really fond of your idea, and think it is really unique, keep it to yourself. Maybe gain some experience on a less unique project you can share and carry over what you learnt for your more important projects.

I have found (working in the games industry for over 10 years now) sharing ideas only makes them better! Most people you'll encounter here or on other forums just want to help you, in my experience everyone is way to busy with their own games to take on more work anyway ;).

Yes there are bad people online (duh!), even those trying to steal your ideas. But they are scarce.

Btw, mechanics are just mechanics, you can't even copyright them so you could copy any AAA titles mechanics and walk away with their ideas. What makes your game unique is you. Your "touch" in execution that makes your game. I could tell 5 designs a game idea, and a handful of mechanics and end up with 5 different games.

But maybe I'm the naive one :P...