Ah, you didn't mention that it was a funding contract from a creditor. That's a whole different area of law. I don't have creditors so I'm afraid my (lack of) experience won't be helpful, sorry. Maybe if you outlined your concerns people here will be able to give their impressions. But if you've accepted the terms of the contract, you're probably locked in. If you're looking to get out of it, review the termination clauses carefully with your attorney.

The Revenue Share shall apply to the first dollar received by Developer above the Loan amount and all gross revenue received by Developer until the total payment to Indie Fund (Repayment plus Revenue Share) is equal to twice the Loan, or the Term has been reached.

"equal to twice the Loan" sounds a bit onerous.

As far as the terms laid out, it's pretty clear and no mention of territories/state as 25% is universal.

This Agreement shall be interpreted in accordance with the laws of California, U.S.A..

This ensures that the law it was written under is the law that applies to disputes.

In my understanding the law varies depending on the jurisdiction (state, country etc). In my state, in order to retain full IP ownership, and have a profit-sharing contract, the terms have to be under what's called work-for-hire. These contracts have to have been signed prior to the completion of the work.

It is no help for you to see such contracts of others unless they reside in the same jurisdiction as you. Furthermore, it is in your interest to have a qualified IP attorney review and revise your contracts as needed. The reason for this is that a contract that doesn't follow the law in your jurisdiction would be null and void in any legal action against you. In simple terms, it would be as if you had no contract at all.

Swaggermuffin is absolutely correct. 

I think you meant "Mister Dave is absolutely correct".

Furthermore, software engineers outside of gaming have slightly better job security, if they're any good at it.

Is switching my major to SGD worth it, or should I stick to getting an associates in arts or science?

Liberal arts degrees are mostly worthless. Go for math and science, and learn to code. Some of the former "game developers" I talk with are now app/software devs working in areas that pay well more.

Might be smarter to ask Valve and get the real story rather than speculating.

My current assumption is that Steam would work with me, once the game is greenlit.

Kroll will tell you that they will.

isnt copyright automatic anyways?

Hambone

Yes and no. Read the link I posted.

There are three primary sources of protection for nonfunctional product designs: trade dress, copyright and design patents.

http://www.morganlewis.com/index.cfm/publicationID/5f4c58de-b51c-4434-b08e-3f008fee85ca/fuseaction/publication.detail

Read this article. More likely you'll run into a design patent infringement for a game like Tetris or Pacman rather than a trade dress action.

Of note: A legal action has to have what is called "standing" in order to be filed in the U.S., which means that the plaintiff has to demonstrate that they have in some manner been harmed by the party or parties they are filing against.

Oh heavens no. you should polish everything you are going to market (trailers etc) to an extreme first.

This. Brandon Sheffield did a whole editorial on it some time ago. If they can't fully see what it is AND buy it right now, you missed your chance with a great number of buyers.

http://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/

What have you guys done?  

Consulted with my IP attorney as the laws in my state dictate what we can and cannot put into a contract of this type. I was very surprised at just how much I didn't know. I didn't know squat, and I'll never make a move like this without proper legal advise again.

Possibly helpful:

http://www.gamespress.com/latest.asp

Is IndieCity still using that BitTorrent peer-to-peer distribution system? That might be another reason. When our tech director found out about it he blew a gasket, just days before we were to go live there.

BitTorrent is a four-letter word here.

Some like IndieGameStore. I don't. They've been very dishonest in our case and I don't forget those things easily. You asked.....

I am pretty interesting in your story of the dishonest IndieGameStore. I was planning to have my game on it but I am not sure now..... Would you like to talk more what happened? Thanks!

Not really. I gave my opinion and that's as far as I go. It's not in anyone's interest to go any further. Maybe your experience will be different from mine.

They didn't steal from us or anything like that, but there are certain things about business acumen that they failed at in a big way. We have a developer account there that we will not make use of. I just don't trust them.

Just to be clear, are you talking about IndieGameStand or some other store?

Same people.

So I'm wondering: are their any retailers to actively avoid working with?

Read their contracts and look at how long they've been around (one who contacted me had vitually no contract agreement, came up with one too late and disappeared 3 months later). Many fly-by-night e-tailers don't even know yet themselves that they're not going to be profitable. Some find out much later (Beamdog for example).

Also, on a related note, is it bad to stretch yourself too thin across retailers?

IMO yes. If you're only selling a few copies there, is it even worth your time? What's your dollars per hour pay rate going to be with this site?

Desura, for example, only seems to pay out at $500....

They'll also pay out annually even if the sales aren't $500 for the year, if you request a payment. Unlike many others and despite low sales numbers for certain genres, Desura is at least honest and very helpful.

One thing I feel is a bad idea is to get on a store made by another dev, which essentially is to pad their offerings alongside their own titles (again, Beamdog was like this). You'll get some pretty crappy service there since you are not their main concern.

Some like IndieGameStore. I don't. They've been very dishonest in our case and I don't forget those things easily. You asked.....

Try to get on Amazon if you can. We like it.

@knifeySpoonie - no, i didn't listen to the whole video, i'm not going to listen to someone ramble for 15 minutes.

Did you read all of Costikyan's rant? How long did that take? I think he makes a fair point that Steam is no longer "fairly well curated" and has supporting opinions from some devs. Maybe you didn't get that far.

steam is curated fairly well, but has a low selection of games,

Biscuit disagrees:

Just give up trying to sell this game and work on the next game?

Give up? No. Make another? Depends on why you do it.

I just wished to earn a little money which would justify the time I spent day and night in front of my computer to finish this project.

If money is the motivation..... then.....

Anyway, this is fairly normal for anyone's first game. Grin and bear it, and work even harder at improving. Iteration is not just a concept within a single title. It applies to the overall picture too.

Yes, it hurts at first to see poor results. Once you have a few titles out there you'll look back on this one and perhaps wish no one ever saw it, as it will no doubt be your worst effort. My first anything is never my best, unless I only do it once.

In the United States, typefaces, the typeface design - meaning that which is measured and recorded digitally within the typeface's corresponding font file - is unprotectable under U.S. copyright law.

Under U.S. law, typefaces and the characters they contain are considered to be utilitarian objects whose utility outweighs any merit that may exist in protecting their creative elements. Typefaces are exempt from copyright protection in the United States (Code of Federal Regulations, Ch 37, Sec. 202.1(e); Eltra Corp. vs. Ringer).
 
Further, as was explained in the Policy Decision on Copyrightability of Digitized Typefaces published by the Copyright Office in 1988, "The decision in Eltra Corp. v. Ringer clearly comports with the intention of the Congress. Whether typeface designs should be protected by copyright was considered and specifically rejected by Congress in passing the Copyright Act of 1976.

The basic standard for copyrighted digital font use is that a license is required for each individual font or typeface used on a computer or in the case of businesses 1 per entity.[7] Under the license, typically, fonts are licensed only for use on one computer. These End User License Agreements (EULAs) generally state that fonts may only be used on machines that have a valid license.[7] These fonts cannot be shared by multiple computers or given to others. These licenses can be obtained in three ways: directly from the font authors (e.g., Adobe), as part of a larger software package (e.g., Microsoft Office), or through purchasing or downloading the font from an authorised outlet.[7]
 
Note that this license only applies to the font file (which is a computer program), and not to the shape of the typeface.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellectual_property_protection_of_typefaces

http://www.uspto.gov/trademarks/basics/definitions.jsp