next »

[crusty]

I've been working on a game in relative secrecy for a year and a half.  Turns out making games is pretty hard and I estimate it'll take another year and a half to finish.

Before I commit that kind of money I want to get some feedback.  I plan to start a devlog here and I also thought I would send out some pitch documents to game publishers.  I realize getting funding is probably a long shot as the game is unfinished and I have no proven experience, but perhaps I will get some valuable feedback from a marketing perspective.

My question to you, the business thread, is what sort of rights (if any) I jeopardize by putting this thing out there / pitching it to publishers?

For example, here's a link to Adult Swim Games' submission agreement.  Can anyone translate that for me?  Is there anything I should be afraid of?  What can and can't they do with the materials I show to them?

[doghouse]

This is a common concern with people that have an idea for a product and you could probably find plenty of information on the Internet that will answer your questions.

If you want feedback on your game, then don't fear putting yourself out there.  Try communities, such as this, or build rapport with other people that you can trust to look at it (if you're that concerned).  As for publishers, do your research and look into the company and see what other people say.  And of course, read their terms and conditions.

Which leads me onto the 'submission agreement' -- which basically is them covering their arses.  And any company will have T&Cs that do just that.

I'm not saying there aren't nefarious people out there, but like I say, do your research and don't be afraid! Be smart.

[bdsowers]

Regarding the submission agreement: if you have concerns, ask a lawyer. Don't ask a forum to translate a legal document for you. That's just asking for trouble.  That pretty much goes to any question of what rights you jeopardize. Legal questions are specific to country, state, region, whatever, so even if you get a good answer here... it may not apply to all cases.

Some things to watch for/ask a professional before signing any documents: do you maintain ownership of your intellectual property? Do you maintain ownership of your specific work? Are you signing away the ability to someone to use your work without restrictions? Are you under any non-disclosure agreements? Are they under any non-disclosure agreements? Are you under any sort of exclusivity restrictions?

That being said, you run a relatively low risk of people outright stealing your work. Everyone has their own ideas, companies have their own projects, and nobody has time to go recreating someone else's ideas that may or may not be good anyway. There *are* a few cases where this has happened, but they are crazy rare. Obviously companies talk about their projects and market themselves like crazy, and they aren't too worried.

(That changes once the game is released... the mobile space is relatively notorious for companies outright copying successful games. But those are proven games.)

[NicMagnier]

bdsowers is right.

It's not a question of right, but some of the big console publishers used to be not so keen in funding a project that was publicly announced. Often because  to keep a project secret/ a surprise but also because it allowed them to change the project in more deeper ways. These days I have the feeling this is less of a problem. It is very often that even the most conservative publishers pick up project already announced.

And yeah, don't be so over protective about a concept or an idea. You should always assume another developer is working on a game exactly like yours even though you think your concept is unique. Everything is in the execution and you did already months of work on your project so this is your edge. If you to a publisher you will not just try to "sell" them an idea, you sell them a project that is already half finished.

[ElstonGunn]

If you hang around these forums and count how many projects ended up failing because the developer ended up giving up, or ended up releasing the project and nobody was interested, you'll quickly find tens of thousands.

If you count how many developers somehow got screwed out of their work because someone else grabbed their idea, i don't know if you'll find anything actually.

There are famous developers with successful past titles that run public devlogs here. You probably have nothing to worry about.