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Each month, industry veteran Tom Sloper provides career guidance to game biz wannabes, newbies, and junior professionals with the goal of helping them break into the industry, and stay in. Submit a question to Tom for developer-oriented advice in this column (IGDA members only).

by Tom Sloper

Serious Indie Action (November 2007)

Dear Tom,

I'm starting up an indy game project with some others who, like me, are not game industry professionals. We have a variety of motivations for collaborating to make our game. A few of us are in it to build credentials, so we can have a game "under our belts" so to speak, with hopes of getting into the game industry eventually. Some are not into getting game jobs (they're satisfied with their current career paths) but are looking to make some money when the game sells. And our lead designer is just passionate about the game concept. His dream is to see his brainchild come to fruition. And of course he wants to play it when it's finished (the rest of us do, too, of course). He's not looking for money or a career in game design.

Anyway, we have no money to spend. We're all just investing time and effort, nothing beyond that. I've been reading on forums that projects like ours need to have a legal agreement. Since we don't have money to pay a lawyer, we'd need to draft the agreement ourselves. If we really need to have a contract, that is. And if I can convince the other guys to sign it. Why do we need a legal agreement in the first place? What kinds of things do we need to put into the agreement? I don't want to ask a lawyer. He'd just say I need to hire him. Remember, we got no money.

Kevin the Game God

Kevin,

Normally I don't accept legal questions for my column, since we already have a column for legal issues here at IGDA. But I'm making an exception in this case, because I don't think this precise set of arguments is likely to be a topic in the legal column. And besides, you didn't want a lawyer's advice. End disclaimer, henceforth my advice to you.

If you can't afford to pay a lawyer, you can't afford to play the Games game. It's as simple as that.

All kinds of things can go wrong if you don't have a well-written binding agreement that sets forth the terms of the work arrangement for your indie project. The biggest source of problems in projects like yours are usually in the area of ownership. I see the problems all the time. Maybe there's a falling out, and one guy demands that his artwork be removed from the game. Or the game doesn't get finished, the team breaks up, but one or two former members still want to proceed, using assets and code created by others. Or the game gets finished and becomes a huge success, and now there's dissension over how to split the rewards. Those are just a few examples of why this is important.

You gotta hire a lawyer. If you aren't going to hire a lawyer, you shouldn't try to play the Games game, because you're likely to lose, big time. Some resources I recommend to you:

Jim Charne's column on IGDA, Famous Last Words
Tom Buscaglia's website, a cornucopia of information to indie developers
Obscure.co.uk has a list of more game attorneys
and excellent articles for upcoming indie developers
The IGDA Indies SIG
IGDA IP Rights White Paper
IGDA Contract Walk-Throughs
IGDA Game Submission Guide

If you want to play the Games game, you gotta be prepared to play it right. Figure out a way to pay for a knowledgeable attorney. Bigger legal fees later on are the likely result of not spending any legal fees up front. Those guys understand exactly what you need, even if you don't.

Please note that there is no guarantee that Tom will be able to respond to all the questions he receives. It is up to his discretion which questions he uses for this column. For further advice and resources, check out the IGDA's discussion forums, the Breaking In web site and the Students & Newbies Outreach section.

Tom's Bio

Tom Sloper's game biz career began over twenty years ago at Western Technologies, where he designed LCD games and the Vectrex games "Spike" and "Bedlam". There followed stints at Sega Enterprises, Rudell Design, Atari Corporation, and Activision. In 12 years at Activision, Tom produced 36 unique game titles (plus innumerable ports and localizations), designed four games, and won five awards. Tom worked for several months in Activision's Japan operation, in Tokyo. He is perhaps best known for designing, managing and producing Activision's "Shanghai" line. He is currently consulting, writing, speaking, teaching, and developing original games. Find out more at Sloperama.