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[jotapeh]

Money is always touchy business, especially between indies who don't have a lot of cash.

If you're offering your services as an artist, programmer, whatever - watch this:





It's geared towards 'creatives' but I highly recommend anyone who freelances out (especially to larger companies) to take a listen. This also can help you 'set the bar' for payment agreements between, eg. programmers and artists.

 

[JMickle]

All great advice, but I think most of it is pretty overkill for collaborations on indie games. Definitely stuff to think about though. Thanks for posting!

[Attila0413]

Nice talk, thank you!

Fortunately, as an independent contractor (programmer), I've always had wonderful clients that always paid me at the right time

[Moczan]

I'm in the middle of watching it, but I would like to share my experience so far.

I'm freelancing as a programmer since May this year, I know it's not a long time, but so far I've always ended up working with great people, who payed me instantly without any problems. I guess that working with smaller companies/other creative individuals is much safer than big corporations.

[Xion]

or maybe you've just gotten lucky

[Rob Lach]

When freelance coding I just charge by the hour and retain all source rights (which they can purchase). I invoice them by the week (unless they request otherwise), so I at worst will lose a week of work.

Also any of these issues can be avoided by just solidifying the payment process in your contract. I have an interest clause with monthly reminders. If they bring it up I just jokingly say something to the effect, "you're thinking of getting this for free?".

I'm assuming artists are in much worse negotiating positions since this seems to be a big issues.

I use www.freshbooks.com for accounting/invoicing.

[RudyTheDev]

Great listen, thanks for sharing. Not so much applicable to most indies working with small teams/projects, but useful nevertheless. Certainly a few takeaway home pointers.

[Richard Kain]

Oh man, I've been there before. Used to work contract jobs in a small design studio. These issues were always coming up. You'd be amazed just how often clients would muddy the waters whenever the issue of money came up. It was like pulling teeth sometimes.