3. BTec Level 3
Extended Diploma in Creative Media Production – Games Design
IP – Intellectual Property
Mary is a recent graduate from a top notch game
development program. She wants to bolster her design
portfolio for the sake of her job hunt. To do this, she
wants to build a team to develop a game concept she’s
passionately yearned to create since her youth. The
game charts the journey of Squea, an alien taking the
form of a sweet, pink nosed, golden eyed white kitten.
4. BTec Level 3
Extended Diploma in Creative Media Production – Games Design
IP – Intellectual Property
Squea seeks out the energy created through joy, which
she then converts to charge her spaceship. “Joy points”
are earned by finding and cheering up lonely and scared
young boys and girls throughout the galaxy. Mary
attracts a motley team of developers, including an odd
artist cousin or two, but it’s clear to everyone that she
is the driving force behind the operation.
5. BTec Level 3
Extended Diploma in Creative Media Production – Games Design
IP – Intellectual Property
As the game nears completion Mary’s cousin, Emily,
suggests they register the game with the Copyright
Office. Mary doesn’t consider this a priority and forgets
along the way. Additionally, she fails to include
copyright notices on the game’s assets.
6. BTec Level 3
Extended Diploma in Creative Media Production – Games Design
IP – Intellectual Property
Because Mary has full responsibility over all aspects of
the project, no one else takes it upon themselves to
override her. After submitting the game to several
game competitions and receiving multiple awards,
Mary’s team starts selling the game through digital PC
channels.
7. BTec Level 3
Extended Diploma in Creative Media Production – Games Design
IP – Intellectual Property
A year later, Emily finds an identical copy of the game
ported for free to the Android Marketplace. Furious,
she contacts Mary, who subsequently contacts an
attorney. The attorney informs the team that although
they still own the copyright in the game, their claim for
damages may be substantially reduced due to a failure
to register the game and a failure to include proper
notice of ownership to potential infringers.
8. BTec Level 3
Extended Diploma in Creative Media Production – Games Design
IP – Intellectual Property
Emily holds Mary responsible for the sudden dearth of
legal remedies and a massive falling out ensues. Family
affairs are now tense, and Mary (without consulting the
rest of the team) pulls her game from the PC
marketplaces. The rest of the team sues Mary, claiming
ownership and equal rights to exploit the work.
9. BTec Level 3
Extended Diploma in Creative Media Production – Games Design
Gaming Contractual Issues
Contracts and Agreements
Describe and explain each of the following:
Employment
Development
License
NDA
Collaboration
10. BTec Level 3
Extended Diploma in Creative Media Production – Games Design
Gaming Contractual Issues
Employment Contracts
The purpose of this contract is to set forth the terms of your employment - what the
company expects you to do for the company, and what the company will do for you
in return. Employment contracts at game companies are pretty much like
employment contracts at any other sort of company. The game industry
employment contract is likely to include clauses about benefits, confidentiality,
about inventions, and about not competing with the company during or shortly
after the term of employment.
11. BTec Level 3
Extended Diploma in Creative Media Production – Games Design
Gaming Contractual Issues
Development Agreements
Game publishers often hire game developers to create games for them. A
development agreement is a contract that spells out the terms of the development
deal.
Terms - This part of the agreement spells out how much the publisher will pay the
developer, what timeframe the developer has to develop the game, and if there will
be royalties, what the royalty rate is.
Ownership - It's important to clarify whether the publisher owns the IP or the
developer owns it.
Warranties - The developing company has to swear that it won't use anybody
else's source code and the publishing company has to swear that it has the right to
ask developer to create this particular game.
12. BTec Level 3
Extended Diploma in Creative Media Production – Games Design
Gaming Contractual Issues
License Agreements
When a publisher wants to make a game about a movie or something, the
publisher and the movie IP owner execute a contract spelling out the terms of the
license.
What's Being Licensed - The contract spells out exactly what the publisher is
getting the rights to use.
What The License Can Be Used For - The contract probably specifies that the
publisher only has the right to make a game that works on the Xbox 360 and the
Playstation 3.
Territory - The contract specifies what parts of the world the publisher's game will
be published in. Publishers always want worldwide rights, of course - but licensors
often charge more for that.
Term - The contract probably doesn't run forever. Most license agreements run no
more than 5 years.
13. BTec Level 3
Extended Diploma in Creative Media Production – Games Design
Gaming Contractual Issues
NDA and Confidentiality Agreements
Non-Disclosure Agreements, Disclosure Agreements, and Confidentiality
Agreements are pretty much the same thing. One party, in order to do business
with the other party, has to divulge (disclose) a secret of some kind (a plan to make
a particular game, or a new technology or process for making games, or a
business deal that hasn't yet been publicly announced), and has to tell this secret
to the other party. The other party agrees not to disclose the information - to keep it
confidential - else damage will be the result to the first party. In such an event, dire
things will happen in a court of law to the second party.
14. BTec Level 3
Extended Diploma in Creative Media Production – Games Design
Gaming Contractual Issues
Collaboration Agreements
The above types of contracts cover the most frequent types of contract in the
mainstream game industry. But a lot of people are building indie games or hobby
games, and for those folks a very important need is an agreement that cover the
all-important issues of ownership and compensation in the creation of games that
exist outside of the mainstream industry. Games that might or might not ever
generate any money. The majority of hobby and indie projects fail, and a huge
factor in those failures is who owns what, who's supposed to do what, and who's
going to get what. A collaboration agreement sets forth in clear terms how the indie
or hobby project is managed and controlled, who owns the IP, how the game is
intended to be used, how any possible income is to be handled, and how
termination of the project is to be governed.
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