I am writing this topic to inform you about a strict policy I will stick to in the future. It is to avoid frustration in publishing affairs and to achieve fair deals for both sides. I ask you to use the same policy, because you will only get ripped off if you don't. Period. If you disagree or have additions to this post, please reply here or email me. Please understand that I do not encourage you to "flame" or in any way give unconstructive criticism nor will I answer to such attempts. Here you are: Niels Bauer Software Design - distribution policy Version: 1.0 of 18th April 2002 Please understand that we want to only participate in fair deals that offer a win-win situation for both parties. To accomplish this we will stick to the policy explained herein. We do not sign contracts that give a company or single person the exclusive or not-exclusive right to sell one or more of our games without limitations to certain editions. For example: We sign with you and you "do your best to publish our games" and pay us a certain amount of royalties from the deals you are able to succeed in. What we can agree to is to give you the license to publish our games in certain editions - for which of course you would need to pay the full sum in advance. For example: You want our games on your CD that has an edition of 5000 CDs. We sign a license agreement and you pay us for 5000 CDs. We understand that - because your risk is higher - the amount to be paid in advance will be lower than the other way. Please make us a fair offer and you will get a fair deal in return. Thank you for your attention. [edited by - Jester101 on April 18, 2002 11:54:59 AM]

I absolutely agree... I''ve been following the same ''procedure'' for some time now. If I''m dealing with a company who''s track record I''m personally not aware of (i.e. I have not dealt with them before), I will not sign any contract that doesn''t include a reasonable advance payment.

I''ve been caught on too many deals that promise the moon, and just deliver some cheese.

Jester: didn''t you always suggest self-distribution without the "help" of publishers?

Thank you for your reply.

Yes its true. I have always favored self-distribution.

that kind of policy has nothing new to imitate....

it''s just that you so-called "indie" developers
allow yourselves to be raped with the wrong agreements
and then complain when nothing goes your way....

licensing a product, or technology that you''ve created
has been a practice for years....
look at the music, film, and any other "creative" industries
for examples....
it''s analagous to the "e-commerce" procedures many of you
already implement.....except a distribution company is
buying the right to distribute your products in bulk rather
than on a single copy basis.....

it all boils down to knowing what kind of agreement to sign..

why don''t you wake up....

you indies have so much potential as a whole.....
but it''s moot since you''re being
squeezed out by bigger companies as we speak....

why don''t you band together and support each others products?
there, you might have a chance.
i''ve been to most of the people''s websites as a result of
"lurking" on gamedev.net since it''s inception....
i''ve played some of the games and have been impressed.
but in almost all cases....you lack a grasp of the bigger
picture of your industry(so-called indie, i mean) as a whole....

coming from someone who''s....
been there, done that.

He forgot to mention his name

Possible:
Alex de Vries (or perhaps someone else)

Or he sounds like the guy from garagedeveloper.com

No you got me wrong. I am in no way frustrated or something. This is just my policy which makes sure that I will NOT be frustrated in the future. Actually I am completetly satisfied with the online sales alone. I do not depend on any publishers or retail sales or something.

And yes: This kind of policy is absolutely nothing new. But it seems to be NOT used in the computer games industry (budget market; I don''t know and don''t care about the AAA games market).

"Or he sounds like the guy from garagedeveloper.com"


no,wasn''t me.


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