How does "unpaid and a cut of profits" work?

News & General Discussion
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(Problem resolved)

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Yeah, look out for them.

We are currently unpaid, and will continue to use the free version of unity until which time we believe that we can afford all the licenses.
(Totals around : $23,000)

I used to have the prophecy of “Yeah you get 15%”

But it is highly unrealistic and un motivational.

So I use a system of “Points” in which I award points for the amount of work someone does,after a set time of selling the game (say a year) we rollout the payment.

That is if there is profit at all, I stand on my word that this is mainly a fun and experience building team

Formule : (Your Total Points) * (Profit / Total Points Given Out) = Your Profit

Seem to be a good motivator too

EDIT: I also like to make an online contract too, stating the rights and responsibilities of team members

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Badly (in the majority of cases). The vast majority of people running projects on this basis are doing so because they don’t have the experience, skill, or connections to raise funding; and as such they usually don’t have the experience, skill, or connections to actually deliver a finished game.

Written contracts, a milestone schedule, profiles of the team leads, and a full breakdown of the financials, including very firm definitions of the point at which “revenue” turns into “profit,” and a description of which revenue streams you get a cut of. (If the game is ported to a new platform by another team, do you get a cut of the profits from that? etc) You’re effectively investing in the project, so treat it like you’d treat any investment.

Something other than this, to be honest.

Seriously, it’s a question of risk: “a cut of the profits” is worth literally nothing if the project does not make it to market. In the worst case - or the common case, for a lot of these projects - you will walk away with $0 revenue, which means you’re losing money (assuming you need to pay your bills). You need to decide how likely you think that is, and how much time you’re willing to invest - for example, if the project is planning on going to market in 3 weeks and you just need to build stuff for a couple of days, then maybe it’ll be worth it, because you’re not losing a lot of time and a three-week project is going to be small enough in scope that it’s less likely to fail.

Some projects use a mixture of wage and share, which I think is reasonable - if the project never ships then you did get paid a bit for your time, but the share gives you a good incentive to deliver quality work that will help the game do well.

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Normally, It doesn’t work. People will come and go. They will retain copyright to their work. Your game will be fraught with legal hurdles and no sane company will touch it. I applaud the previous posters attempt to make this fair. But it dilutes the points of the people at the beginning - someone could spend a ton of time, and get 500 points, and when you’re desperate at the end, you start giving them out like candy. I suggest going completely free (or “non-profit”) and then going commercial when you have something you can show.

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This is true, however I really try to make it fair, the members also have a say in the amount of “Points”.

My formule works too, as it determines the percentage they get, i don’t have to hand them out like candy as if they are all small it will just make the percentage higher

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I see the error of my post that was removed

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The game never makes a dime and you get 100% of the profits !

Seriously, most games aren’t profitable , know this before accepting a profit share

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Note that with many people, making a game is the prime goal, the money is an after thought. A person may work on a game as a hobby, and another may wish to collaborate as a hobby also. The royalties promise is just what project leaders offer to assure that if anything does come of the game the people who helped won’t be screwed out of any profits it makes. It’s not about inciting people to join.

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Yes, potential payment is a really good motivator, i completely agree

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Its not that bad.

  1. If you can do it with people you know (in person). If you cant then communicate frequently, ideally via voice/video chat.

  2. Ensure ownership of the assets is clear. For example on a project with lots of contributors you may want a clause which says if they pull out you have a fixed price which at which you (or the project) can buy the assets.

  3. Work with people who are of a similar skill level. If you have 10 yeas of experience with numerous delivered titles you are likely to become frustrated with people who are in their first year of a game dev course.

I’m working on two collaborations at the moment, one is going quite well and should be looking to launch soon, the other is moving forward slowly but amicably. In the first case the worst that could happen is that the artists pulls out leaving me with a completely working game, and an exact idea of what art is needed: I’ll just go and hire someone to do the art.