TIGSource Forums

I'm currently in touch with an artist to help me out on my game, and while we have almost reached an agreement on payment, I am unsure whether I should pay him first, half now, half when done or all when it's complete.

For the most part I am happy with paying him the fee now, so I guess this is more a general common practice question.

I'd go half now, half when it's done.

Well, I usually get paid when I finish a job, but In some cases I had the half/half solution, which I think is the best solution.

I'd definitely not go with the "pay first" solution, as it may lead to a lack of motivation

For me, the standard is about 1/3 now, 2/3 when it's done.

Now I'm no artist but when I do do freelance work I tend to go by a sprint system. This way the freelancer doesn't just get some money up front nor have to wait for payment to long as a the total sum trickles down. We tend to agree on what makes a sprint e.g. accomplishing X and Y then when that is done I get paid based on the proportion of the work it was. I think it works out better for both parties, you don't have to stump out all or even a large part of the cash immediately and your artist knows you will pay them for the work they have done after the first payment which could be quite early to build up a bit of confidence.

I paid per milestone, which can be half or one third, depending on the amount of work.

Usually the work isn't that much and I go with I pay half of the total price at first, and when I got everything and there is nothing to fix, I pay the last half.