Gah. Lawyers. Accountants. All I want to do is play a game that will allow me to subvert weak minds to my will and conquer the rest of them. Is that such a difficult request?

So, here’s what I’ve learned recently:

1) Do not sign away Intellectual Property. Nope. No can do. No 3rd party will investigate a partnership (like a publisher) if your IP is in contention. If you are paying for IP and if you have the right contract, keep ahold of the IP, otherwise you’ll never be able to create derivative works from it.

2) Don’t listen to lawyers too much, otherwise you’re a dick. A lot of the contractors I’m working for NEED the recognition. Lawyers don’t want to offer up any liability - they are doing their job, but the bottom line is, if a contractor is doing an excellent job, you need to be able to recognize them for their efforts.

So, there’s no way for me to actually enforce the recognition of my contractors unless I (I the business, not I the individual) make it part of any agreement that I sign. Thus enters into the language “reasonable good faith effort”, a term which is technically unenforcible.

Contractors Stand Up!
If you’re a contractor, what’s your rights? Officially, all you have to do is send an email informing the game developer like so:

Hello {company}
For my {writing, artwork, development} work done on your game, SuperFigureActionFightersFoo, please credit me as {Bob Kelly, or appropriate name}.
Sincerely,
{Your name}


CC the email to yourself and save, save, save it away.

Does this enforce that they give you credit? No. Does this give you the ability to put it on your resume and CLAIM credit? Does this protect you if they say “No, you didn’t do that credit” - yes, it does because if they don’t respond to you, the email is a document that can be used in legal battle if absolutely necessary. Yes. Does this give you more rights to renegotiate extra payments? No.

Why does this matter to me right now?
I’ve been done good by two of my contractors - over delivered both of them. I have no desire to screw them over, but the IP issue something that means a lot. So, how do you be extra nice to your partners? I can’t sell them part of the game, but I can give them TOP BILLING. That’s right, I’ll be loudly announcing my Artwork and Sound design people and give them some excellent real estate to make sure

Also, if you’re in need of an artist, I’ve got dibs, but I’ll share. She’s looking for work.

Hopefully next week I’ll be able to post and announce the That Cult Game’s Official Title!