Got curious: How are you new ideas formed and how do you actually get to begin building a product? How much do individual contributors really have in terms of a say in how whatever you build works? Who's job is it to come up with games and ideas for games? Always been interested in that type of work and wondered who's in charge of thinking and planning out entire games -- is it a PM or a group of PMs?
Key individuals put in the work in something like programming, map design, etc. look at wikipedia pages for John Carmack, Cliffy B, Todd Howard. etc and itll become obvious
Each game studio approaches new games differently. Some studios form small teams who make prototypes, which then get chosen based on their time to develop and prospected popularity. The larger, older studios with strong IPs copy games already on the market and re-skin them. Some studios better utilize their market data or designer talent. How a studio chooses it's next game is one of the ingredients to a successful studio.
Watch the youtube clips about the making of Max Payne series. It's awesome and has good insights about how the industry operates. I think it's more like the art industry. Some enthusiasts build some demo and then go around publishers until they find someone willing to finance the project. Big companies already have well established titles they can milk for decades just by throwing in more detailed textures.
random draw from a hat