Alex May
...is probably drunk right now.
Level 10
hen hao wan
|
 |
« on: February 19, 2007, 03:24:28 AM » |
|
You have to be careful when making games in your own time when working in the games industry, as there are usually contractual clauses tranferring all IP you create even out of hours to the company who employ you.
My current job has such a clause, although it makes exceptions for work created without the use of company resources and not related to video game development.
This means I have to keep super quiet about anything I do at home otherwise the company can muscle in on it and use it for their own ends, though that would not be particularly nice and there are exceptions made all of the time by nice companies for people who've genuinely made their own stuff. In fact I've never heard of anything being truly stamped on.
So, anyone have their own stories like this? I'm currently working on stuff but I'm afraid to put my full real name to it in case They find out about it! That's fine though, and I don't think they'd care about it even if they knew as it's not the sort of thing we do.
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
PoV
|
|
« Reply #1 on: February 19, 2007, 04:36:44 AM » |
|
The places I've worked didn't seem to mind, but after all, they sucked enough years in overtime out of me to win in the end.
My contracts have had a similar clause, which is why I became quite hardcore in the Ludum Dare compo circles, way back to when it was a 24 hour beta compo in '02. I've always been compo crazy, having done a Gameboy Color game compo sponsored by Bung in '99, which got me my "in" to the industry that year.
If you're new to the industry, go ahead and keep private for a couple years. Following the rules of not using company equipment is pretty easy. Two of my employers, in a way, don't exist anymore, thanks to EA logic. I don't think that's meaningful in any way, but that's my fun fact that's all too common in the industry.
|
|
|
|
« Last Edit: February 19, 2007, 04:50:02 AM by PoV »
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
Alex May
...is probably drunk right now.
Level 10
hen hao wan
|
|
« Reply #2 on: February 19, 2007, 05:14:07 AM » |
|
If you're new to the industry Not new, just paranoid  |
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
Alex May
...is probably drunk right now.
Level 10
hen hao wan
|
|
« Reply #3 on: February 19, 2007, 10:00:30 AM » |
|
Oh, and a side note for you avid readers: if you're making indie games to get into the games industry, you're doing it the wrong way around IMO |
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
Alec
|
|
« Reply #4 on: February 19, 2007, 10:02:09 AM » |
|
There goes my future as janitor at EA. :'[
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
DrDerekDoctors
|
|
« Reply #5 on: February 19, 2007, 10:20:24 AM » |
|
There goes my future as janitor at EA. :'[
Shits on desk and then points at it expectently...Go on, live the dream.  |
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
Me, David Williamson and Mark Foster do an Indie Games podcast. Give it a listen. And then I'll send you an apology. http://pigignorant.com/ |
|
|
Dan MacDonald
The DMac
Level 1
Prisoner of the cause
|
|
« Reply #6 on: February 19, 2007, 01:09:02 PM » |
|
I can't imagine making indie games and being responsible for almost every aspect of their creation, then going and working in the industry and being responsible for random little details in a project. The fog on the racetrack for example. You become the fog guy, and in every game the studio does you manage how the fog looks. I really don't think I could last a year doing that.
Indie all the way :D
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
ravuya
|
|
« Reply #7 on: February 19, 2007, 05:33:21 PM » |
|
I usually just ask my employer if it's OK with them, and they generally say yes.
I do not, however, work in the games industry.
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
fish
DOOMERANG
Level 10
cant spell selfish without fish
|
|
« Reply #8 on: February 27, 2007, 11:34:34 AM » |
|
when me and the gang were doing some promotional rounds for GAMMA, our employer eventually found out and freaked out quite a bit.
when they found out we had already been interviewed by a couple of newspaper, been on tv and linked to in a bunch of blogs.
employer wasnt happy at all.
they sent their PR goons after us and we were eventually "invited" to a "meeting".
a nice enough PR lady explained me and my partner what we could say, what we couldnt say, how to say it etc etc.
i politely told her to fuck off, that this was an independant endevour, that this company had nothing to do with and that we wouldnt follow her guidelines.
she insisted that since the event being promoted was about videogames, that people would assume that what we say, we say it on behalf of our employers, a game dev studio.
so since then, anytime wo talk to any media we always specify that there must be no mentions of our place of work AT ALL.
also, i started using a "pseudonym" for anything related to kokoromi, for added security.
its a bitch.
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
Alex May
...is probably drunk right now.
Level 10
hen hao wan
|
|
« Reply #9 on: February 27, 2007, 04:52:18 PM » |
|
hmm
Yeah I think keeping them well separate, never the twain shall meet etc is the best bet. I will not be silenced however!
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
Slash - Santiago Zapata
The White Knight
Level 4
Java/Javascript Game Dev
|
|
« Reply #10 on: February 28, 2007, 07:15:32 AM » |
|
I think my current agreement has a clause right on that; however I dont work on the games industry, so I guess that doesn't cover my work... Still, my employer comes to me from time to time, offering me to develop games commercially at work... guess he doesn't know how hard that would be for a company that has never done it  |
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
Developer
