Writing and publishing Co-Authored Games

Hosted Games
21

@Cataphrak
Oh, that’s good to hear!

22

@Samuel_H_Young Exactly my point. If HG authors are working in collaboration, there is a possibility they may drop out if there aren’t any deadlines to meet (although Cataphrak says this is not the case for CoG games either which is fine too). If someone drops out, that’s fine if there’s no contract involved. People drop out for all kinds of reasons.

My original post stated: It might make things more difficult if there was [a contract], arguably.

So if there is a contract involved, then what happens if someone drops out? Is the author entitled to any proceeds from the point of sale, for example? Does the author get a reduced cut now they have dropped out? All of these possible permutations to me means that either a contract would have to be very stringent if a co-author dropped out or it would not exist.

For me, I think it not existing is better because I believe Hosted Games should be open to any and everyone as and when they feel, including authors collaborating. Although it might throw up problems with revenue splitting, I believe most if not all of the people here are genuinely decent people and wouldn’t do such a thing to someone they have spent time working with.

23

@_jl
Decent or no, people might drop out of projects for totally justifiable reasons: they might find a full-time job that takes up all of their time (I lost a coder to this), their course load might end up being heavier than anticipated (I lost another coder to this), they might have family issues, or lose access to a computer.

I’ve learned that it’s generally best to have contingencies which allow you to replace a team member if they have to drop out.

24

@Cataphrak
With having coders on the team, are they still entitled to a share in the revenue?

25

@Harian
I’d say yes, but I should probably clarify that I was referring to coders on another project.

I do all my own CS scripting.

26

@Harian
Yes, but they should receive about half of what an author does, at most.

27

@Harian, the split of revenue would be decided between everyone who works on the project. Of course any coders should be included.

28

Though from what’s being said so far it seems that its almost certainly a better idea to author it yourself rather than with a group.

29

@Harian
Yes. Generally speaking, I prefer to write things solo.

30

@Cataphrak I agree entirely with this which is why I was originally stating that it’d be a bad idea to have a contractual agreement for any sort of partnership, regarding CoG.