This article:
quote:
Tuesday, May 20, 2003
Unsigned developers wanted
Posted by: GAMEScog at 08:22
GAMEScog have developed a new and innovative concept to help early-stage games developer (i.e. pre-publishing agreement) to secure a publishing deal. They are currently looking for a small number of teams to check whether this support structure is really the next big thing in games development. If you’re a serious about game development and don’t mind answering a few questions you can email funding@gamescog.com, or pay them a visit at www.gamescog.com.
Appeared on GameDev news a day ago. A click on the link to
www.gamescog.com reveals this copy:
quote:
WELCOME to GAMEScog.com
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At GAMEScog we have an innovative concept to help early-stage developers (i.e. pre-publishing agreement) secure publishing deals. We are looking for a few willing victims to check whether it really is the greatest thing since Half-Life1. We are especially interested in small teams with an original concept at any stage of development. You don't need a track record of published games; all we ask is that you are serious about games development.
So, if you're a fledgling games developer and would be willing to answer a few questions, send us information concerning your team, a brief outline of your concept and at what stage of development you are at to funding@GAMEScog.com.
This all sounds well and good, in fact, it may be useful to the industry. But it has the appearance of a studio practice in the film industry that is potentially treacherous and hard to get around when you have no industry standing.
What I am talking about is where they ask you for a brief outline of your concept in advance without offering to sign your NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement) first.
In the film industry, they take your concept design summary brief, and if they like it, they come back afterwards and have you sign
their NDA, which, if worded properly by the studio attorney, can lock you into a term where you can't shop your own intellectual property around without them having legal recourse against you because they had the property under consideration.
What gamescog offer is essentially as it is written, is to let you give away for nothing without any protection (except the ones that you may have set up for yourself in advance due to best industry practice in Intellectual Property) your hard work without guaranteeing you a single thing, except the possibility they may call you back and ask for even more details about your idea with still no further implied protection for your intellectual property with perhaps the sole exception that any wrongdoing is ruinous to your reputation professionally, at least so in the filmmaking business, from my professional experience. I imagine it is somewhat corrolary in the game design, development and publishing industry.
Gamescog might be entirely reputable and extremely ethical in their business practices, but film studios that make this same kind of offer to screenplay developers almost
always and in every case have you sign their NDA for their protection first, then yours if they put that in the agreement should they choose.
I, having had to sue for copyright infringment in my screenwriting career, something I will never do again if I can possibly help it, would never even think of sending a single shred of an intellectual property concept to somebody I didn't know, or could find out about reliably and in detail, without some sort of minimal agreement that respected the original authorial rights of the creator first, then granted permission for the other party to review it only for a little while, long enough for them to figure out whether they were going to move on the property or not in some professional direction with intent to earn a profit.
I encourage those of you who have your own NDA's for your own game studio, to send that first for them to sign and send back to you before you send them anything at all. If you do not have an NDA, there are a lot of good ones out there that form the basis of a more comprehensive document you should have and use anyway.
I encourage Gamedev staff to explore this potential issue further by interviewing this company in more detail about who it's principals are, their backgrounds, their practicing methodology, and directly question them as to why they do not observe the most basic best industry practice in intellectual property. The path to the money is always about qualifying interest.
The funny thing about this is that they actually say, "We are looking for a few willing victims..." Though this language is more than likely tongue-in-cheek, a cavalier approach does not a serious businessperson represent. At least seriously. When I am making a deal, or qualifying interest, I always use my words very, very carefully. It's a great way to let people not ambiguously wonder if you are a, on the level, b, practicing your trade professionaly to best industry practice standards, and c, creates trust by clarity and unambigous langauage.
While I am at it, let me blow off a few of the myths of an NDA. It's something that comes before, not after, somebody hears you idea. "The other way round" is not good professional practice. No self respecting films studio would even let you breath a word about what you were developing as IP to them without having something in writing between you first. Relationships are fine, but there's an old saying in showbusiness regarding NDA's, "The easier it is for you to sigh, the more you can be trusted."
I have seen more than one relationship ruined because professional business practice normally observed is not followed, and lawsuits and bad blood arise more often than you think.
A lot of people think I am an asshole, but I will never get ripped off if I can possibly help it, and I will always find (or disqualify) the right (or wrong) person to be associated with my IP. This is how it is done all over other intellectual property markets, it should be here too.
Adventuredesign
[edited by - adventuredesign on May 21, 2003 10:46:24 PM]
