I think I appointed a guy as co-owner of this company at one point but I mean do I have to live up to that since it was just a team at that point?
[/quote]
Well it sounds like no company currently exists, but yes I believe you should honour such a commitment if you gave it. Whether you are obliged to is a legal question I cannot answer, but socially you're going to have trouble if you renege on such agreements. If you want them to sign a legal agreement now, you'll probably have to include these promises.

Also I promised that I would give them a certain percent of the money when the game sold.
[/quote]
Again, I would recommend including that in any contract you want them to sign.

Also I was planning on giving them a certain percent of ownership for each product so that they would receive that percent of the payment for that product.
[/quote]
Are they aware of this plan? How many products do you currently have? What do you mean by "ownership of each product", do you mean IP rights? How does this plan differ from the royalties that you promised in the previous sentence?

It is probably too late to go back and try to establish ownership and protections after the fact. Talk to some knowledgeable adults, face to face, with a parent present.

Are they aware of this plan? How many products do you currently have? What do you mean by "ownership of each product", do you mean IP rights? How does this plan differ from the royalties that you promised in the previous sentence?

1. They are aware of this plan. We currently are working on the first product. By ownership I kinda meant the same thing as the royalties promised.

It is probably too late to go back and try to establish ownership and protections after the fact. Talk to some knowledgeable adults, face to face, with a parent present.

Okay thank you, I will try and do just that. But I have a question, if I can get them to sign a contract that says that the whole game belongs to me and they will recieve a royalty from the sales does that mean its not too late to go back? Because I do believe that they will sign that.

if I can get them to sign a contract that says that the whole game belongs to me and they will recieve a royalty from the sales does that mean its not too late to go back? Because I do believe that they will sign that.

If they sign it, then you can forget I said it might be too late to expect them to sign it, because, well, because they signed it.

[quote name='TTT_Dutch' timestamp='1314755728' post='4855709']if I can get them to sign a contract that says that the whole game belongs to me and they will recieve a royalty from the sales does that mean its not too late to go back? Because I do believe that they will sign that.

If they sign it, then you can forget I said it might be too late to expect them to sign it, because, well, because they signed it.
[/quote]

Alright cool. Now what is the best template contract you think I should use?

[quote name='Tom Sloper' timestamp='1314761902' post='4855731']
[quote name='TTT_Dutch' timestamp='1314755728' post='4855709']if I can get them to sign a contract that says that the whole game belongs to me and they will recieve a royalty from the sales does that mean its not too late to go back? Because I do believe that they will sign that.

If they sign it, then you can forget I said it might be too late to expect them to sign it, because, well, because they signed it.
[/quote]

Alright cool. Now what is the best template contract you think I should use?
[/quote]

I prefer contracts that use verbiage similar to "I'm in your codes stealin' your rights."

I seriously got negged for that? Wow... someone needs to lighten up.

*preps for another neg on this post. weeeee*

This sounds awfully shady... I mean if the team all helped to make the game and there wasn't any clear ownership of anything in place from the start, then there is no reason to say you own the game and everything having to do with it. You didn't make the website or program everything, so why should you own it without any contracts stating this?

It seems like you want to handle all the money and give out what *you* think is fair compensation... Kind of like "80% for me, 10% for each of you..." In my opinion you should all split the profits equally.

If it was always your intention to handle the money and paying your "employees" then this should have been negotiated and agreed on right at the start. Doing it later just seems like you're trying to deprive them of proper compensation.

Especially the part where you said you made one guy co-owner at one point... well then yeah obviously that guy should get a say in the money matters.

edit: also how do you even give negative/thumbs down on a post? All I ever see is "like this"

I seriously got negged for that? Wow... someone needs to lighten up.

*preps for another neg on this post. weeeee*

OFF TOPIC How do you even give a neg vote now? I didn't think it was possible. I thought we adopted the 'like' culture.

ON TOPIC I'm not involved in your project and dont know the finer details. However, as an outsider, it feels like you are trying to screwing your colleagues over somewhat. It looks like you have outsourced the work you couldn't undertake yourself and now you want to reap the majority of the benefits and pass on as little as possible to the other contributers. I don't mean to sound like an ass but I think everyone should be fairly compensated. You don't mention any percentages so could I be completely off the mark but saying "[color=#1C2837][size=2]I want to make sure that when I sell this game, all the profits will go to me, then I will pay my 'team' according to their effort" sounds like you will be taking the vast majority. I think you should show more respect to the rest of the team and hopefully you will work on more projects in the future

I must also add, congrats on taking a project this far though