[casual_games] RE: negotiation costs

Fri Apr 7 12:53:08 EDT 2006

Adeo, I come from a traditional game development background where, on 
top of your royalty (10-30% in my experience, give or take, YMMV), you 
get a real advance against royalties when you sign that first check with 
a single publisher.  After Ryan drops his hard earned dough on a lawyer, 
gets the contract wrangled and signs the deal, are you going to cut him 
an advance check that covers those costs and maybe even some of the 
costs of building his amazing game?

I haven't had a hit yet.  Maybe I never will work on a hit casual space 
game.  Got another one in the works though, so hope springs eternal.  My 
experience with portals is that you deal with lots of them, you get 
checks for a few hundred a month (if that, some are falling far short of 
that #) and, realistically, you have no recourse if they decide to 
fiddle the books.  Let's take Tribal Trouble, a pretty successful indie 
game from last year which has actually managed to net 60K (source 
http://www.gameproducer.net/2006/04/...ribal-trouble/ 
<http://www.gameproducer.net/2006/04/06/sales-stats-tribal-trouble/>).  
Few guys worked for a couple years being funded by the govt. of Denmark 
so they could eat while building. the game.  Lets' say they sign with 10 
portals and drop 2K (Ryans low end figure) on each contract.  1/3 of 
their net, at 20K.  Those guys living on a subsistence wage, maybe, are 
now making even less.  Hope they don't have a mortgage, wife or kids.  
Anyhow.  What happens when they think they are getting screwed by a 
portal located on the other side of the world?  How much to get a 
judgement (not to collect, just a judgement), when they have to fly that 
lawyer around to try and figure out what is owed, take the portal to 
court, hopefully prevail (or they are likely on the hook for the portals 
legal costs as well) and then try to collect.  Hope you wrote Zuma.

I saw another developer recently who reported a 2K net after he and his 
team had worked for (as I recall) two years.  How happy would they have 
been when those checks started showing up and they had spent the 
additional 20K on portal contracts?

My advice?  If you want to develop in the casual space then read those 
contracts carefully, drop that first game into the market to see what 
you will actually earn (not what the NYT says you will earn if you have 
written the next Zuma).  You may find that most portals aren't worth 
spending 2K on.  The reality is that, in a cyber world, it is important 
to be able to trust your business partners because the cost of recouping 
lost $ almost always outweighs the actual $ lost. 

I know what I'm talking about.  About 10 years ago I noticed that a game 
that I had written in 1992 was still selling in the bargain bins - about 
4 years after release - and I just couldn't remember getting any royalty 
checks!  I spent the dough on a lawyer.  Got the friend rate, 
thankfully, still dropped a couple K on what I guessed was a community 
service project, didn't really expect to get my $.  Got a 56K judgement 
and they went out of business.  The company was Cyberdreams, the game 
was Darkseed.

My 2 cents, YMMV,

Lennard Feddersen
CEO, Rusty Axe Games, Inc.
www.RustyAxe.com

Lennard at RustyAxe.com
P. 250-635-7623 F. 1-309-422-2466
3521 Dogwood, Terrace, BC, Canada, V8G-4Y7

Adeo Ressi wrote:

> The $2-5K per portal referenced most likely refers to the legal time 
> required to properly review each unique contract.
>
>  
>
> Every developer should have a real lawyer review any agreement with a 
> portal, and these agreements tend to differ widely on the terms. A lot 
> of portals have legal clauses that they put in the agreements, but 
> expect to be negotiated out or changed by savvy developers relating to 
> rights, payment terms, and other distribution criteria.
>
>  
>
> It should be noted, as others have suggested, that most large portals 
> are now dealing only with a limited number of proven developers 
> directly. It is wiser to focus on making your game amazing than 
> attempting to negotiate expensive portal distribution deals.
>
>  
>
> With a couple success stories under your belt as a developer, it 
> should be easier to for you to negotiate. Get a good lawyer.
>
>  
>
>
> Sincerely - **Adeo Ressi **/ CEO / Game Trust
>
> **- get an arcade for your site- LaunchNow 
> <http://launchnow.gametrust.com/LaunchNow.php>**
>
> **- win $20,000 for your hit game- Casual Game Evolution 
> <http://www.gametrust.com/contests.php>**
>
> **- try some exciting multiplayer titles- TruGamer 
> <http://www.trugamer.com>**
>
>  
>
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