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[MooseMouse]

I have been approached by a large animation company to make a game using their cartoon characters. The project sounds very interesting, except they want me to work on a pure revenue share basis without any advance. In their words, they are offering me a license to use their characters in exchange for a share of game sale revenue. They will market the game.

Has anyone here made a game under such an agreement? Or heard of games being made under such an agreement?

Thanks,
Shawn

[Evan Balster]

This sounds like a promotional game.  Equity is a very risky proposition, especially where you don't have total say over project direction.  In your shoes I'd negotiate for (A) straight hourly pay or (B) advances at milestones throughout development.

Some very wise people I know have a habit of advising their friends to take advances over royalties wherever they can...

[MooseMouse]

Thanks for the feedback. Yes, it is a promotional game and it would be very risky. I have never done a project like this before, but this is actually the second time a company has approached me with such a project. The other time was a major car company. I told them I need an advance, submitted a budget, and never heard from them again. Both companies referred to the deal as a "licensing" deal.

I am a one man company, but both the car company and this animation company are huge. So I am not sure if this is a standard "licensing" arrangement that other game companies enter into, or if they see me as a naive/desperate one man company to take advantage of. Would love to do the project.. it sounds really fun. Just don't want to gain a very picky boss with unrealistic expectations who doesn't have to pay me.

[Evan Balster]

Give us a ballpark for the revshare they're offering.  With zero advance I think the developer should take the lion's share of the revenue...

[MooseMouse]

Give us a ballpark for the revshare they're offering.  With zero advance I think the developer should take the lion's share of the revenue...

I haven't asked yet. Our initial phone meeting was today. We were mostly just getting to know each other and talking about the project itself. I've never done a publishing/revenue share deal for a game before, so typical revenue shares would be my next question Although I am beginning to think that a no-advance rev-share deal is not typical, so there is probably no typical rev-share for it.

[Xienen]

For a revenue share only, I wouldn't think that 80% is unreasonable.  Sure, they're giving you the license for free, but that costs them nothing.  My guess would be that they'd like to do 50-50, which still sounds unfair unless they plan on sinking some big money into marketing.  Even worse, they may want to recoup their marketing cost before giving you a dime, which, personally, is more risk than I'd even consider taking on.

[Chris Koźmik]

Sanity check, which one it is:

a) There is a board of directors, their company is doing poorly, they need to increase awarness of their product so they sit together and browse the internet and choose a not so well known 1 person company and start negotiating the deal

b) There is this low rank marketer who is doing not so great and there are reductions coming. He needs to prove his boss that he is doing something. So he browses the web to find some unknown company/dev that could be small enough to be interested and invent this rev share deal, but of course he can't give any advance since it is his own inititative and the boss would not give him any money. Anyway, if he suceed in starting this (does not matter if the game will be actually made or not) he can show to his boss he is doing something, that he showed an initiative and not be fired.


Everyone can claim (and even show some minor proof) that he is "a big company", but if you call and ask to connect you to the director of marketing in that company I wonder if he will know what it is about...

One more thing, a company doing a promotional game does not want rev share, they don't need it, it's not the purpose of the game. They are not a company selling games, they are a company selling other things. Promotional game is just an advertising tool. And yes, they should give you advance without problems.

To me it sounds like a scam (also, note that being contacted by some "big company" (by their own words art least) is not that rare, do not get fooled by this alone, always check yourself who it really is).

[Mister Dave]

In that light I usually find it useful to Google:

(company name) lawsuit

[Impmaster]

Yeah, how has a major company gone to a small one man team? Especially cause I just read that you had problems marketing your last game.

[petertos]

I don't know what the final deal will look like, but if they are going to spend money on marketing, even if they are just going to put the game in front of their distribution channels, this sounds like a great idea!

Congrats!