New Game ' How to go from concept to reality' in Las Vegas

Quote: Lucky

You've learned fast, Babs!

Does she ever. I ink was barely dry on the marriage license when I got served the divorce papers.

And Acesofspades told me the prenup was ironclad.

He neglected to tells me Babs lawyers had an arsenal of drones.

Quote: Lucky

That was an affirmation of your compliment to Switch, not at all to detract from the wisdom you acquired so quickly, Babs. In fact, that statement only serves to confirm my earlier comment that "you learn fast!'

Totally read it the way it was intended. I've no problem with appreciating expertise or acknowledging the amazing brain trust on here.

Quote: beachbumbabs

Playtech is on my list of recommended distributors also; I wish you the very best of luck in your meeting.

It's been my (limited) experience with distributors that most would not sign an NDA, and in fact wanted a waiver to let you into the building because of what else you will see. I can't speak for Playtech on that. I would strongly suggest you visit with a patent attorney for a professional opinion about how well your game design is protected by your filed paperwork before you see a distributor, if you haven't already. If you use one of the US guys I mentioned, they specialize in game design and the bonus of that is they will have seen things not yet published as well as most of what's out there and will probably know if you've competition or infringement issues just by looking. The US attorneys themselves are constrained by a certain amount of attorney-client privilege even before you've retained them, so you should be safe in consulting, but they can advise you better - I'm just learning myself. Whether you should be concerned about NDA's pretty much relies on 3 points;

1. whether your game is completely new or derivative of something else
2. whether a patent search will turn up prior art on which you infringe
3. what's in the wind about each distributor you're going to see - rumors can be false, and there are strong feelings out there, but you will want background on anybody you go to, especially their history in the marketplace, how they treat their inventors, what games they have out there and how they are presented, failed games and why they failed. That's part of why this site is golden; you want to search the names of distributors you're interested in and see what's gotten reported here about each of them, if anything. There are also several on-line industry journals that report on such things, and the Las Vegas RJ and Las Vegas Sun newspapers do a lot of industry reporting as well. And there are several websites like this one, with industry people discussing these things, but even more specifically; if your game is a blackjack sidebet, for example, look for blackjack-specific sites. The guys here can probably give you more specific addresses depending on your game.

It's a very competitive area here in the states, and a lot of the information's considered proprietary, but read enough and you'll get an idea of where you want to show your game.

Hi Beachbumbabs,

Thank you for your all your feedback.

1. My game is a traditional game that I have added a side-bet too.
2. My patent search found nothing similar to the game
3. I have a small amount of info for the distributors that I am aiming for however I will need to find out more.

Great advice your all giving me! Hope people who are either at the beginning, middle or have invented a new game comes across this and sees everyone advice.

Quote: Switch

My personal advice is to be very wary when dealing with them. They are very aggressive and will tie your game up as much as they can if they are able to. I would suggest talking to an experienced professional if you are close to working out some form of deal with them.

I'm not sure if Playtech are aiming for the US market either due to a number of factors.

Hi Switch,

Thank your for your imperative and expensive advice.

I am now under the impression that I need to add to the protection of my game, in order to do so I think that it will be best to add a EU patent to my game.
What your advice? Does anybody know any good gaming attorneys in the UK?

Cant wait to be at that stage so that I can share the game with everyone on this forum, at that stage I will have invested a lot of money so if you don't like the idea....lie! Just kidding it is the tough, professional, honest (however brutal) and truth that has me helped me engineer the game the way I did. I am under no illusion not everyone will will like it and the floors that you will see in it will help me know how to adjust and pitch it to casinos and the online world.

Quote: IGRM

Hi Switch,

Thank your for your imperative and expensive advice.

I am now under the impression that I need to add to the protection of my game, in order to do so I think that it will be best to add a EU patent to my game.
What your advice? Does anybody know any good gaming attorneys in the UK?

Cant wait to be at that stage so that I can share the game with everyone on this forum, at that stage I will have invested a lot of money so if you don't like the idea....lie! Just kidding it is the tough, professional, honest (however brutal) and truth that has me helped me engineer the game the way I did. I am under no illusion not everyone will will like it and the floors that you will see in it will help me know how to adjust and pitch it to casinos and the online world.

If your game is purely a 'Method of Play' then I wouldn't advise to go for an EU patent. The UK do not recognize 'Method of Play' as being patentable and you are very limited in the EU market as a whole. I would focus on the US patent and use copyright and trademark laws to protect you in the UK. If your game starts off well and shows promise then my suggestion would be to aim for Australian and Canadian patents to tighten everything up - you would need to do this within a year of submitting your US patent.

I use Jon Muskin (Jon on these forums) and he can give you far better advice than me and likely to be more accurate than my above statement. I don't know Rich Newman personally but I've heard good things about him as well. Both are located in the US.

Once you have the patent submitted you will be in a position to show the game and gauge feedback.

Thanks for the advice I will give Jon a call.

Just got the mathematical analysis back and the house edge has increased more that the traditional game for a couple of the bets.

Do you that games should maintain their traditional house edge or if it is only slight casinos will be happy withe the HE increase?

Quote: IGRM

Thanks for the advice I will give Jon a call.

Just got the mathematical analysis back and the house edge has increased more that the traditional game for a couple of the bets.

Do you that games should maintain their traditional house edge or if it is only slight casinos will be happy withe the HE increase?

Personally, I would re-visit the methods to see if you can't tighten that up; there are any number of ways to do this, depending on the game, until you get into the 2-4% HE range for a carnival game, as advised in teliot's book. But you don't say where your game came in, or what type it is, so it may still be viable outside that range (or you may be in that range and using a different scale than I am in referring to a "traditional" game). Probably need to be more specific about what you're seeing to get a valid second opinion.

Quote: beachbumbabs

Personally, I would re-visit the methods to see if you can't tighten that up; there are any number of ways to do this, depending on the game, until you get into the 2-4% HE range for a carnival game, as advised in teliot's book. But you don't say where your game came in, or what type it is, so it may still be viable outside that range (or you may be in that range and using a different scale than I am in referring to a "traditional" game). Probably need to be more specific about what you're seeing to get a valid second opinion.

The game uses the same scale as the traditional game (roulette). It is a very simple side bet unlike others that I have come across, will be able to disclose in the next month.

Quote: IGRM

The game uses the same scale as the traditional game (roulette). It is a very simple side bet unlike others that I have come across, will be able to disclose in the next month.

You're right, that's a different acceptable range from the carnival genre. Looking forward to when you can discuss it!

Quote: beachbumbabs

You're right, that's a different acceptable range from the carnival genre. Looking forward to when you can discuss it!

Me too babs!