So if I read that right, you're a middle-man skimming the profit of the artists' work and then blaming your client
Interesting use of the phrase "middle-man" and "skimming." I presume you accuse all management of "skimming" unless 100% of their gross goes to the line item of your choice, correct?
I built the studio, trained the artists, set up a business framework to make it possible for them to produce 3000 color illustrations (that's ten a day for a solid year), and then delivered those illustrations in a form that allowed our client to release four retail games (one a hit) and cash checks for a year.
But if I pay rent, phone bill, bandwidth bill, buy equipment or hire an accountant I'm the scamming bastard, right?
I thought the one redeeming quality of such an arrangement was that the artist would be shielded from such financial problems.
If any of my artists had to deal with the kind of financial problems I shield them from on a daily basis they would move to the Mongolian tundra and take up turnip farming.
that makes them directly responsible for your situation.
Never said anyone was directly responsible for anything.
You did not "co-develop" their games, you were hired on a freelance basis to create graphics.
Really? You're going to lecture me on what we did now? We did the graphics, they did the programming. If you want to call it a 1961 Plymouth, that's fine. Doesn't change the fact it's called "co-developing the games."
you were not entitled to a share of that profit
Never said we were.
Don't try to turn this into some larger issue
There is a larger issue here, and if you want to try and shout us down, that's up to you. But there is a larger issue here, and we're going to make sure people know about it.