Indie game development is fun and exciting. You get to make what you want to make, without any restrictions. But, to be successful, you need to understand the business side of game development.
I know, yuck. You’re saying, “oh, I’ll make my game, it’ll be awesome and everyone will love it.” While your game may be awesome, unless you market your game, no one will even know it exists.
“But, there are so many games that seem to just be successful without any effort.” While that may have been true before the indie game boom (pre-2009) getting discovered by accident just isn’t a good business plan.
The indie game market is flooded. And it’s not a bad thing. It just means that more people are becoming interested in game development and want to create, experiment and enjoy video games. But with a bigger market, there is bigger competition.
There are some basic things that an indie game developer should know before publishing his or her first game and with this article, I will talk be talking about business licensing for an Indie Game Developer.
Licensing for your business is very important. Of all the things, it’s probably the most important thing to do, especially if you plan on selling your game, using in-game currency or in-game ads. Licensing includes registering as a corporation and contracts.
Contract, What Do You Need Contracts for?
There are lots of contracts you will need as an indie game developer. Probably the most important ones are your legal documents for the users of your website and games/apps. These include the “All Rights Reserved”, “Privacy Policy”, “Terms of Service” and “User Agreement”. These should all be publicly available on your website. I keep mine in the footer of my website, allow for people to easily find them.
The “All Rights Reserved” is part of the copyright law. It basically states that everything that is within your website or game/app (text, pictures, downloads, etc.) is yours, you hold the right to use it, and unless otherwise stated, people must ask for your permission to use your stuff. In short term, it means don’t steal my stuff and claim it as your own.
The “Privacy Policy” is important because it protects you and your users. This statement declares how you use any information that your users give to you, either on your website or your game/app. It state’s that you will protect your users’ information and it publicly states what information is required in order to use your service. Win – win.
The “Terms of Service” are the rules you declare in order for someone to comment on your website, purchase a product from you, or other services you might offer. If someone were to break your rules, your TOS would come into play and you would handle it accordingly. A good example is when someone creates a bot in an MMO to collect in game currency. Most developers frown on that and have some form of TOS to deal with the situation, including canceling service to the user.
The “User Agreement” is used for software and is a contract between the user and you. It is sometimes called a “software license” or “end user license agreement”. This contract states that the user will agree to the privilege of using or purchasing your software and promise to comply with all of the restrictions stated in the User Agreement.
Those are your most important contracts. You can find links to mine in the footer of my website, unitycontainer.org for a reference. You can also find them on many other game developers’ websites.
The other important contracts that you should have are a Confidentiality Agreement, an Employee Contract, and a General Contract.
The Confidentiality Agreement is for anyone working with you on your game. This states that anything created for the game is owned by your company, and not the creator. This protects your company from your employees or contract hires from steeling your intellectual property and claiming it as their own, or any information that you don’t want released yet. That’s not to say your employees would do such a thing, but it’s always nice to have the law on your side, just in case someone goes crazy.
The Employee Contract is if you hire any full or part time employees. This can state how the pay schedule will work, when the employee will receive pay, any paid holidays, paid sick days or paid vacation days you might have, and other various things. This contract helps you and your employee fully understand what you are offering him or her. This type of contract should also be used with interns.
The General Contract is basically the same as the employee contract, but can be used for contract hires and freelancers who do work for you.
Contracts are important, and you don’t need a lawyer to write one up. You can Google search for examples and write one up that suits your needs.
In the next blog post, I will be talking about Project Management.
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On another note, if you find any issues with either this website or any of my games, or have any suggestions or questions, Unity Container would love to hear them!