I was browsing the help wanted forum and noticed a number of groups offering either a small amount of money for one off contributions, or more likely offering a share in possible future revenue. How does this sort of thing work? In the case of the short paid contribution, people either have the know how to put together a contract for the work, or they use a freelancing intermediary like rentacoder, or they use something like paypal and do it under the table with the associated risks to both parties. When it comes to profit sharing that seems even more complicated, how do you work out how to do the split, when do you work it out, are contracts involved or do people just take it on trust? And a rather cynical question, but does this kind of arrangement ever actually work?

Freelance contracts work well. I've hired artists for freelance before and used a simple contract. (though the guy had a professional background so I wasn't really worried about him screwing me over)

In my opinion, it's not worth it to take risks by going on someone's word alone. This is rarely ever a good idea. The usual freelance contract works in a way that the client pays for the work as it gets done, and is either delivered small portions of completed work throughout the job, or is given the entire thing when all payments have been sent.

Contracts only do so much though... it's really still based mostly on trust. I mean if you're only able to afford a small amount to pay someone, it's highly unlikely you're going to hire a lawyer and take them to court if they rip you off or break the contract.

Profit sharing is a tricky situation also... it's best to know the other person really well first. Get it in writing obviously, and make sure everyone involved in the profit sharing can access untouched information about profits in order to make sure they are getting a fair deal.

Otherwise it's quite possible for the guy in charge of handing out the money to just lie and say that profits were low for the month and send you a small check while he takes a big chunk for himself.

Again, a lot of this is going to be based on trust so you should probably get to know the person first and possibly even meet face to face.

Profit sharing can work but it's definitely not something that always does work. A lot of the time, the game will not get finished and nobody will get paid anything. Then there is the situation that if the game actually does get finished, how can you be certain that the guy in charge won't just cut you out?

Unless the game does extremely well and starts pulling in millions, it probably wouldn't even be worth the fight to hire a lawyer and go after your share.

That's the sad truth, unfortunately.

Quote: Original post by Somnia
And a rather cynical question, but does this kind of arrangement ever actually work?

First, understand that the vast majority of the games in the help wanted section are never actually finished, or if they are, never turn a profit. No profit means nothing to share, so it is a non-issue.


Does it ever work? Yes, on small projects.

A voluntary split (such as 60/40 or 51/49) can work, and has worked for many people. I have seen a case of 50/25/25 that worked and grew into a proper business. It is generally a very bad idea to have 50/50 split, if only because sometimes difficult decisions need to be made and when equal partners disagree it can too easily result in dissolution of the partnership. (On afterthought, I'll rebalance their 50/25/25 to 49.8/25.1/25.1)

I have closely watched several people who managed to get their products off the ground. The most common one that I have seen is contracting for the art and sound, or less often formalizing with collaboration agreements and other proper legal documents to establish ownership and payment obligations of all parties involved.

Interesting thanks. The most likely thing I'd want to do with my project should it make sufficient progress is to put up some cash for some music or perhaps some art. It'd probably best if it worked on a pay per track, or pay per sprite sheet basis. I suppose there must be standard contract templates for that sort of thing. I don't know if it saves any bother or provides more security to use an intermediary site like rentacoder, I've read mixed things about that sort of thing.

Quote: Original post by Somnia
I suppose there must be standard contract templates

http://www.gamedevkit.com/

Bookmarked for future reference, thanks.