I'm currently in development of a physics engine that may border on being a full game engine. My intention is to license it out for hobbyist game and/or engineering purposes in addition to developing a game around it. My question is, what should I be doing while I'm still in development to protect myself from potential false litigations or theft? More specifically, what documentation and record keeping should I be making during development? and how should I proceed to protect my work upon completion? Any insights, comments, or concerns would be appreciated as I am rather ignorant of these matters. Thanks in advance.

Only really worthwhile answer is: "talk to a lawyer". IP laws vary wildly between countries and potentially between states.

How/why would someone litigate you while you're still in development? If no one knows about it outside your head, how can they know enough to sue you?

But, yeah, if you're starting a company/business you need to retain a lawyer.

-me

I didn't mean that they would come after me during development. I just remember reading that certain documentation should be written up during development so it can be proved that I actually designed and created my product and didn't merely copy someone else's ideas and claim it as my own.

And I'm developing in California, U.S. if that helps anyone give advice.

As for the lawyer... I'm a broke college student and have no money with which to procure said lawyer. :/ but that would be a good idea of I was able to hire one.

time and date stamp all documentation, include copyright notices in all your code, and otherwise be diligent. As far as I'm aware most files are automatically saved with creation dates so I'm not sure what else exactly you have in mind. But if you're still worried give me a call or shoot me an e-mail.

I'm going to leave off on a note I hear so often here at GDNet: "Make games, not engines."

> I'm a broke college student and have no money with
> which to procure said lawyer

So how do you plan to enforce your copyrights should infringement occur? Just to emphacize on the real value of your copyright notices -- i.e. they are as good as your willingness to enforce them in a court of law.


> My intention is to license it out for hobbyist game
> and/or engineering purposes in addition to developing a game around it.

Just a note on the business side of things. The value of middleware is in the support. Code need to be constantly upgraded, bugs fixed, documentation added and polished. But more importantly, customers expect to be able to call you at midnight on Halloween night and have the full attention of all your team because of a looming deadline and things just don't work.

GNU-licensed free source code out there is exactly that - free. That's because nobody will take your call if you need support. The reason EPIC, Valve and Id make money on their game engines is because not only they have proven technology, but they have sharp brains available to answer your support call.

-cb

Quote: Original post by cbenoi1
> I'm a broke college student and have no money with
> which to procure said lawyer

So how do you plan to enforce your copyrights should infringement occur? Just to emphacize on the real value of your copyright notices -- i.e. they are as good as your willingness to enforce them in a court of law.


> My intention is to license it out for hobbyist game
> and/or engineering purposes in addition to developing a game around it.

Just a note on the business side of things. The value of middleware is in the support. Code need to be constantly upgraded, bugs fixed, documentation added and polished. But more importantly, customers expect to be able to call you at midnight on Halloween night and have the full attention of all your team because of a looming deadline and things just don't work.

GNU-licensed free source code out there is exactly that - free. That's because nobody will take your call if you need support. The reason EPIC, Valve and Id make money on their game engines is because not only they have proven technology, but they have sharp brains available to answer your support call.

-cb

In regards to enforcing the infringement, hopefully I'd have pocketed enough to get the lawyer at that point. If not, I could probably borrow the money.

As to the second, I'm going to always trying to work with people to make sure I'm providing a good product. :) and I don't think I'm going to manage to attract the kind of people that will be freaking out over stuff like that until much later. I don't expect to get that kind of reputation immediately.

and to madelelaw: Thank you, I just wanted to know if there was anything else I should be doing such as document any changes I make or my overall structure. And I fully understand that note, the main purpose of the engine is for an indie game I'm developing with friends. ... but it also occurred to me I could maybe get some money from licensing it out, provided the license is cheap. Any bit of money would be helpful. haha. but I would love to keep in contact with you for quick legal questions if its not too much trouble for you.

Licensing should be the furthest thing from your mind right now. People won't license it just because its there. You have to prove it can fullfill a specific goal and do it well. You should make your game first and if people start asking about the tools then think about maybe licensing it out. You should also remember its not that hard to integrate something like Bullet into an exisiting engine and its free. Now maybe if it was some point and click soft body physics you could have something on your hands.

The middleware market is getting squeezed along with the AAA console market. From a business perspective, you need a published game in order to promote your engine. The big middleware companies that don't develop their own games are struggling to compete against the Epic, Unity and Torque because they are well known and relatively cheap ($0). Licensing the engine requires a siginificant investment and upfront cost to cover the following: creation of a company to hold the rights to the engine, draft form license contracts, prospect/negotiate with potential licensees and administer the enforcement of your contracts, etc. This takes more then $0 and without an established product to showcase the capability you will not find many takers. Being cheap is not the main determinant of which engine developers ultimately decide to use. Even if you were successful in licensing the tech, you would end up spending a lot of your time supporting the tech rather than creating games.

The real value to you is in building your own proprietary tech and leveraging it to launch your own development house. A developer's value is primarily based on 3 factors: strength of original IP, strength of internal software development tools, and of course as the quality of the employees. You can find a lot of information online as well regarding available legal protections at the IGDA's website and information regarding corporate formation at the SBA.gov.

As others have said, creating a viable Middleware product is not a simple undertaking. It is a three part business. All the successful suppliers provide:
1. Code - to drive the game
2. Support - documentation + email/phone support
3. Tools - level editors and other tools to make the creation of a game more efficient.

By all means get into the middleware business but just be sure you understand how that business works (why people use middleware), the scale of the undertaking (all the things you need to do to succeed) and what your competition are offering.

Good luck

Thanks for all the advice. my main concern is just to be prepared for the possibility of licensing, the engine wasn't originally meant for that purpose. I just want to have the ability if my engine works successfully and impressively with the game its being developed for. That game would act as the showcase for most of the features.

Once again, I appreciate the advice, but I'd prefer that comments be limited to dealing with the legal side from now on. I've thought out the business side more than I've said here, but haven't said because its mostly irrelevant to my question. Many of the things you guys mentioned was already planned on being implemented, I did not expect people to license it "because it was there." I just need advice on the legal side.

Thank you.