See, now I’m stuck on this subject. I really want to understand just *what* it is about our industries that makes us so “different”.  A number of the game people I talk to say “on, no, we have nothing in common with the movie industry” and many of the literary people I talk with say “no, we don’t have anything in common with games”. The movie people, well they don’t talk much, I leave a lot of voice messages for them.
In all three cases, the initial idea, the primary concept, starts with a single creative type.  For this example, I am going with Game Designer, the Author or the Screenwriter. In all 3 industries the core idea can come from a producer/editor/agent/actor/programmer or some place else, but there is almost always a single entity at the start of the project.
That person develops the idea, they pitch it, they bring in people to create content to prove the worthiness of the project. Then they either sell the idea (to a game publisher/book publisher/film studio) for production or they put together their own team and go indie.
In all three cases, this is around the point at which the single entity goes to a “team” dynamic. A film or TV show acquires writers/storyboarders/concept artists/designers.  A Game acquires writers/storyboarders/concept artists/designers. A Book acquires an editor/jacket artist/proofreader/marketing guru.
Strangely enough, in a “middle-of-the-road” situation, it seems to take almost the same amount of time for all three types of projects to get completed. An average (no, not AAA like Bioshock2) game takes about 2 years to hit the shelves. An average TV show seems to take about 2 years to pilot, produce, find a timeslot, etc. An average book seems to take about years to get edited, proofed, typeset, designed and printed, etc.
In all three cases we have 1. An idea guy/gal. 2. A publisher/Producer who fronts the money to make it happen. 3. A team of people who make it a reality.
In all three cases you can have that idea bought or taken away from the creator, run through a committee or “focus group” and churned out as something completely different from what went in (though I think this may be harder in Lit, where the single creator keeps a hand in through the entire process).
In all three cases, you have the money-fronting entity taking the lion’s share of the revenue.
In all three cases you have a “team” that needs to be paid above and beyond what the original creative type negotiated for their share.
In all three cases we are looking at the buying and selling of an idea. Of a story. Of an IP rather than a single, concrete physical product (though a the end of the process the IP has been turned into some sort of warehouseable products).
In all three cases you have the money-fronting entity trying to own the entire IP across all types of media (film, TV, Lit, Game, video, etc. etc.) in exchange for fronting the money.
So it seems the devil (as it so often is) is in the details. Do the differences lie in the structure of the organizations? The way the deals are cut? The distribution and marketing? Am I missing some crucial detail here? If you know, post away! I’m asking these things (and blogging away) because I genuinely want to see what everyone else seems to be seeing.
