BACKGROUND
I have several hobby projects which contains quite a lot of code.
Most projects are just prototypes but it still contains the general idea of a game I want to code/make.
I'm a C++ programmer and have been in 4 projects that has been released to the wild before I went on a solo adventure (quit my job).

Recently though, I was thinking that I still need some funds. So I was thinking in the line of “I'll work on my hobbies at the same time as I work”.
But what I know of is that Game Making companies often times have contract such as “You cannot work on anything commercially that is on the same line of work as this company" (not exactly how they write but just example). And adding to that “We own all work you do” or something of those lines.

My projects are in Git privately, so I could show my Commit history if needed for anything (such as a lawsuit?? I don't know…)

THE QUESTION
So how do I protect my hobby projects even though it's not for commercial purposes, which I mean:
1. Company I work for cannot steal my code, even though it's coded in my free time.
2. Company cannot steal the idea I've shared (if I possibly show it in the interview or talk about it in work after I've gotten the job)

Do I need to ask for a special type of contract for this? Which I mean, ask for protection of my hobby projects?

Please redirect me to the correct forums if I did come to the wrong forums… I apologize if I did.

The company owns everything you did during the time you work for that company that was inspired or helped by the properties owned by that company or other people working for that company.

If you draw a comic while you work as a buildings architect for a construction company, there is not a problem.

If you make a game while you work for a game company, the company could take all that from you.

A good thing you can do, is to prove somehow that the idea you had about a game came to your mind before you started working for the company.

If you had an idea about a game while you worked for a game company, the company owns it. Period.
If you work for a pharmaceutic company and your work consists in discovering antibiotics, but you invent a pomade for hair loss in your free time, the company owns that pomade.

If you used the computers of the pharmaceutic company to design a game as a hobby, the company could try to grab it.

Basically, and resuming it, you need to prove that your hobby project in NO WAY POSSIBLE was helped by the company you work at.

If you move boxes for a gaming company, and you make a game as a hobby meanwhile, the company can grab it. You could have seen some concept of your game on the computers of the designers while moving boxes around and get inspired. The company can grab your hobby project.

If you work on a game for 5 years, then work in a game company for 6 months, then you leave that company and work one year more in that same old game and publish it, the company you worked for, can grab it. You need to prove it is an older idea/work.

Generally, remember that you should not use any kind of resources of the company for your hobby.
And remember, that courts are not about truth or justice. Courts are about who can call more witnesses. And of course, the one that has money to pay a salary to you will have more money than you in a court. So forget to win a case against your company based on your word vs the word of your company. You need solid proofs.

Find a way to prove your hobby project is older. For example, never ever delete or lose access to your private git. For the period you worked in the game company, you should not submit no code to your git, because you can not prove you did not use a computer of the company to work on that code.

It is all tricky. Most probably, if your hobby game makes no money at all, and has not the potential to make no money never, your company would not spend money on lawyers to grab it. If you use the models of the game company, even if you are not making money of it, it is bad. They can go for you.

Resuming it a third time - prove that in no way possible, not even in the slightest, your hobby project was helped by all the kind of resources a company could have been giving you.

And read what you sign.

You're spreading piffle, @nikito , don't do that.

In some countries it is not allowed for people outside of legal subjects to give legal advice.

@zansin , have a word with a lawyer in your country, one who's specialized in these things. Explain your questions to them and your concerns, then they can explain your rights and the legal possibilities you have, fitted to your case.

@Green_Baron It is super normal people to ask things on internet.

The same way we could answer to anybody who asks something here “find a programmer and ask him”. But we don't do that.

People ask on internet. It is normal. He wants an orientation. Before spending depending of the country he lives in up to 500$ for a lawyer to be told the same.

And I am not inventing things either.

These people are likely to be fobbed off with low quality content that isn't helpful at all.

First of all, as said, it will depend on laws in your country and on your agreements. In my country it is illegal for the company to do that, unless they add a ‘competition addendum’ to the agreement. There are few requirements for that, like - additional income per each day you have to follow it.

If you have any such addendum on the agreement, I would first ask and talk about having a hobby like making games. Especially in small companies, in case they are not a game development company, it is likely they will simply remove that part from agreement. Remember that in the end you are also working with people, they also have hobbies, some of them even run other businesses.

Green_Baron said:
In some countries it is not allowed for people outside of legal subjects to give legal advice.

This is an internet forum and not legal company, now due to everyone of us living in different country giving a legal advice doesn't have much sense at all (even when some people here are lawyers, their advice wouldn't help at all).

I could point out which paragraphs of our law point to the above mentioned ‘competition addendum’ (what rights you have, what rights company has, etc.) but it would be absolutely of no use for anyone here who lives outside of Czech Republic. In case of court you can't defend anyone based on the laws in different country.

…

Take this to extreme, you are threatened by somebody outside, he apparently wants to assault you and puts his hand under jacket (so you think he has a weapon in there). A legal advice in my country is to shoot him dead. Why?

• You are allowed to have a firearm directly for self-defense (assuming you pass through all required checks - like safety firearm handling, legal test, etc.), or defense of other person (i.e. general defense)!
• You are allowed to conceal carry such firearm, but you are NOT allowed to do open carry in any way in public (there are exceptions though)
• You are allowed to use ‘any means necessary’ to defend your life when you are under a threat (assault, attempted murder)
• You have to use appropriate force while defending yourself (but this has to assume your point of view - when you shoot dead the one assaulting - there is only one point of view - he reached for a weapon from your point of view, whether he did have it or not is irrelevant … unless he survives, at which point he can defend and make your legal position worse - therefore shooting him dead is legally more viable option)

NOTE: This is a LEGAL ADVICE that puts you in better position in front of court which you will be able to defend, not a MORAL one. From my moral point of view it is better to prevent loss of any life if there is any way.

A more (morally) proper way to handle this (which has happened in reality at least once in last year) was using a firearm to point at assaulting person, make him lie down, and call the police to resolve the situation. Nobody was harmed and the incident was resolved in non-violent way! The use of firearm was commended by the judge, and firearm was not abused according to our court.

This legal advice is completely irrelevant when you move from my country to another, like United Kingdom, where you are not allowed to have firearm for self-defense at all.

You can dislike our law, but it is our law. With exception of very few pacifists most people do agree with this law and support it (and FYI - we are considered one of the safest countries in the world) - and politics will follow general public feeling on it, they can't go against majority as they would lose their offices.

…

My general advice is - talk to the other party first about your concerns in agreement, if you can't find any common ground it is likely you don't want to sign that contract (or if you really need, consult a lawyer in your country) … if you on the other hand do find a common ground - just change the parts you don't like in a way you are both satisfied.

People will share their advice and point of view on similar situations.

Zansin said:
1. Company I work for cannot steal my code, even though it's coded in my free time.

It is extremely unlikely any company will risk a lawsuit to steal your code. Many companies require you to get permission to work on a side project especially if you're hired in the game industry and working on a game in your personal time. This will range from company to company. Some companies you need to have permission at a publisher level, some companies only allow non-commercial, some are okay for as long as you're not making similar games, ect… Ask these questions in the interview and be upfront about your intentions and if you intend on going commercial or not. Also make sure all permission is in writing. Since you would have a paper trail nobody in their right mind would steal your work… In reverse… those companies are more worried about YOU using their code in your own projects.

Zansin said:
2. Company cannot steal the idea I've shared (if I possibly show it in the interview or talk about it in work after I've gotten the job)

You cannot protect ideas. You should also not be sharing any ideas about your own game at work that you don't want used when employed as anything you formulate on the job belongs to the company you work for. So if you decide to share some idea and the next day you have a meeting about how they will implement your idea in their game you might not have any legal discourse at least in North America.

During the interview process it is extremely unlikely anything will be used and if you're worried about it ask for them to sign an NDA, but good luck getting an interview if you make any employer jump through hoops. Also established studios are not wasting time and resources on unproven concepts coming in from potential candidates.

People get way too attached to ideas and all it does is create unnecessary stress and worry over nothing you can control. Everything you do in creative works was formulated in some way from another idea you didn't come up with, so put that into perspective. We all pull from others one way or another and until you create something it means nothing.

I would not hire a person who wants to work in the same field in his free time.
What if he is designing the story of the game for me. Then he has an idea and decides that it is too cool to give it to me “for the salary i give him”, he will keep it for himself and keep thinking about a less awesome game story for me. What if he decides the idea is worth a book, instead giving it to me?
If i pay to somebody i need his complete dedication.
And when we are talking about creativity, muse and ideas can come when one wakes up in the morning or when he is having a dinner outside in a Sunday night. And i want that idea for me.
A designer creates a great design for a fox-girl. Then he decides it is too cool for the salary i pay him and saves it for his own portfolio and starts creating another fox-girl design for me.
If you hunted a bug at work 8 hours in Monday, but did not find it, then you travel in the bus back home outside working hours and suddenly you solve it. Who owns it? It is about your work but happened outside working hours.
It is easier and makes more sense for me, to block the hobbies of the people i hire. In case these hobbies are in the same area.
If the area is not related, i am fine with people having their hobbies.

Harvard -

A contract is an agreement between two parties. It is not something imposed by one party on another, although an imbalance of power can make unethical exploitation possible. If you aren't willing to abide by the terms of the employment contract you negotiated, do not sign it and do not accept the employment.

There are two issues here.The first is any existing work you created before contracting for employment. You own those unless you are selling the copyright to your employer (which is not even legally possible in many jurisdictions). If in doubt, enumerate them in your contract.

The second issue is work created after contracting for employment. There may be clauses in your employment contract to the effect “we own all your thoughts” in which case, don't contribute to projects outside of work. There are legal precedents in common-law jurisdictions that support this clause as far as similar product lines – and if you're working in game dev and developing games on the side, you would need a particularly good and high-price lawyer to buy justice because of those precedents. Tread carefully using any equipment or software supplied by your employer… that could be grounds for claiming you coded stuff as work-for-hire too.

What it comes down to is make terms clear in your employment contract, and be prepared to walk away if you don't agree with all the terms. Then abide by the terms.

@Green_Baron So much “piffle” in this thread. Time for you to load another round in your gun.

Bregma said:
What it comes down to is make terms clear in your employment contract

Many of these contracts are written in a hard to understand language.
If i try to imagine it in practice - i stand in the office of the employer, not hired yet, waiting for the approval of the job position. Asking lot of questions about the contract. Employer and his secretary start to get nervous, i start to sweat. I ask them to call their lawyer to come over only for me. It all becomes tense. After a whole hour of negotiations, they just give up on my job application. I am imagining it practically now in front of my eyes, and it could work or not.

In theory you can ask your wife for an explication where she was the whole night.
In practice she could shout at you: “If you don't trust me, our relationship can not work.”, and no answer.

@zansin Personally, i would serve food in McDonalds and keep working on my hobby. Working for a company is exigent. In any case, you will need to make your brain work in another direction, or in the same but it is clash of interests. A job as a night guard is not requiring your brain to work hard. You can think about your project while staring at the monitors. Your mind will be burning calories only for your project.
Imagine you debug a data base on work and then have to come back home and switch back to your game. It takes time to switch and you are mentally wasted.