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Hi guys,

I don’t really know where to ask about this so I’ll just ask this here. Hopefully some of you will have some helpful advice for me.

A year ago I came up with a concept for a game and developed a prototype for it. I really liked the way the prototype turned out and decided to try and find an animator to do the graphics for it and publish it.

I’ve turned to an animator I knew from previous work experience and told him I’m looking for either a payed freelancer or a partner to do all that is graphics for the project.

At first he said he doesn’t have the money to go in a partnership deal but he’ll be glad to do this as a paid job.

After seeing the prototype, however, he quickly changed his mind and decided he wants to enter as a full partner.

We didn’t sign any agreements or anything, but we did agree the project will be a 50%/50% deal with him being responsible for all the graphics and animations, me responsible for all the technical side of things, and game design related questions would be resolved together (Even though the prototype pretty much had most of the game mechanics covered).

He had opened a Facebook page for us, which generated a relatively big following and would constantly post on various game forums about the progress of our game. I didn’t think anything of it, as I trusted that him, being a stronger visual guy than me, would be able to create more appealing posts than I’d be able to generate. So I left it to him.

After more than 6 months of development we have reached a product that was almost complete, as far as I was concerned. I’d say it was 80% done.

But due to some time constraints I had at the time, I wasn’t able to give as much time for the project as I had previously given and my partner decided to break our partnership.

He claimed all the graphical elements in the game were his by right, all the code was mine and all the game design and ideas where legally no ones so we can both use them if we want.

He had recently taken another programmer to do this project and completely copied all the game mechanics our project had, a project that I had created the prototype for on my own! He keeps using our Facebook group and name to do as he wishes and you can pretty much say he fired me from my own project, taking all of my ideas and design for his own (but none of the code lines, of course).

So my question is really… Can he do that? Is it legal? Is there anything I can do? Because if I just take another graphics designer to continue with the code I’m making, I can’t just blatantly copy his graphics style. So why is he allowed to copy my programming style?

Any advice would be more than welcome.

Thanks,

Arseney

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At this point, since there are no contracts in place it’s a mess, but in general ideas are not protected anyways. If a game gets popular (ie. crossy road) then all the ideas are fair game for anyone to copy and you can see many clones in the store anyways.

If it weren’t ideas and instead was the code or the art it would still be a mess because you didn’t have any contracts anyways and it would be he said/she said in court (and most indies don’t have resources for court anyways). Take it as a life lesson to in any professional undertaking to always have a contract in place. They are there to make things clear and keep you out of court, just as much as they are there for if you do eventually wind up in court.

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This totally sucks and I’m sorry it’s happened to you. As @greggtwep16 pointed out, the only real good thing you can take away from it is the lesson to always have a contract. In any situation where you’re partnering up with someone, everything can seem to be all wine and roses in the beginning and later turn to garbage. Contracts are essential when working with anyone else.

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Yeah, a good contract can also prevent things from turning sour, because they force to to agree to everything up front.

The only advice I can give is to go chat to a lawyer. There’s probably nothing you can do, but they’d know better than us randoms on the Internet.

On a similar note… was there any written design? Or is he still using your prototype - or anything else you’ve done - as any basis for anything at all?

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Does that mean I can hire another artist and tell him “just copy what he did”, release the product before he does, and be in the clear?

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Yes but if the other guy had a lot of game info and other stuff out in public for long time you would probably seen as copier no matter what.

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“in the clear” is always a legal decision and best to consult with a lawyer. Remember, even if you do the right thing you can always be sued and have court costs. You might win the decision but you can always be dragged to court. However, given the fact that you have no legal contract neither party will likely be told they are “in the clear” from a lawyer. Evidence like emails, other written communications, origins of files, etc. could be used to reconstruct information but it’s going to be costly for both parties to go to court. Going to court would likely only happen if the game became uber popular and made a lot of money. In that case I would think that very likely neither of you are “in the clear” unless there really is no evidence. If the game never makes a lot of money the point is mute since you will both lose money by going to court.

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You you can … to a point. You can’t have them be exact replicas because art is copyrightable.

But look at it this way: If there’s anything to be learned form the great indie successes is that being first to market with an idea is a recipe for guaranteed failure. It’s those who come in later and refine those original idea that really make it big.

So he’s actually doing you a favor by being first to market with your idea. If it makes a tiny splash then you can make tsunami waves by refining it, and if it totally tanks then he just saved you the agony of finishing the last 10% that takes 90% of time and effort.

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So your advice is basically to leave it alone, go make another project and if by some chance his game will get succesful sue him?

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Sadly there is not much else to do. For suing him you would have to have the above said email, chat logs etc. to prove something and even then without contracts it’s a slim chance and you would probably just end up paying legal expenses for both parties.

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Angrypenguin has given the best advice. Contact a lawyer. A lawyer will tell you whether or not it is feasible to do anything about it given any evidence you have at your disposal. They will also tell you whether or not it is financially sound to do so.

Regardless of the outcome always use a contract for future projects.

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Hire a hitman, problem solved.

But seriously, take it as a life lesson and go ahead. If the game is good as you say, just have somebody redo the graphics.
Even if you had a contract, a lawsuit is always a pain in the ass and worth only if you are riding on lots of cash to burn.
Had a company before, been there already, even friends will back stab you at the first chance.

By the way, don’t you have the graphics original files?
If you have it, it should be pretty fast to modify it into something else if it is 3D. If it’s 2D then it’s easier to redo everything.

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You have emails/Skype chats as documentation right? They can be used in a court of law to prove that there was an understanding on ownership.

I think you really need a lawyer though. It is a very difficult situation.

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Thanks guys,

The game is really good imo. But good =/= profitable so I guess I’ll just leave it be for now. Not worth racing him just because he can sue me just as fast as I can sue him. If the game becomes successful, I’ll probably consult with a lawyer.

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Why not consult with a lawyer in advance? Make it clear that you’re not interested in actively pursuing it right now, but that if there’s the possibility of options if it does make a lot of money you want to be in the best position possible… whatever that may be.

What would suck even more is if it does make money some months from now, then you consult a lawyer and they say “if you’d just done X a few months ago we’d have a leg to stand on…”. (Aside from the obvious “if you’d had a contract…”)

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I don’t think I can find a lawyer to consult with on the matter for free. Or even cheaply.

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Did the relationship really sour enough that he just stole the whole show?

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That’s the thing actually. He didn’t argue with me, he didn’t fight with me, we are still friends on Facebook even.

He just said that he refuses to continue working with me and he also refuses to have all of his work on this project go to waste (God knows he could have made many other games with his graphics, but he doesn’t want to…)

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How much did you really contribute if the artist can just take the art and plug it into another game with another programmer and none of your code? It strikes me as odd.

It sounds like even if you did have a contract, you would have reneged on your side first. I understand that there are a ton of other factors going on in your life. But as you mentioned, you stopped dedicating time to the project which prompted the artist to pull out. I can understand wanting to pull out of a project that has stagnated.

When you are willing to put in the effort to finish development go back to the artist. You may find he had no better luck with the new programmer and is keen to return to the fold.

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Here’s the thing. You didn’t have a contract, but you had an agreement which can be used as long as you had it in writing such as an email, text or IM exchange that showed both parties agreed. And your agreement was 50/50 ownership. That is 50/50 ownership in the product, not just want you produced. So technically he owns 50% of the code and you own 50% of the art. As this was a partnership the project itself (the venture) is a single entity of which you each own 50%.

Now the tough part is how you agreed to split up the work. He could claim that you were no longer putting in 50% of the effort. On the other hand, if you spent more hours prototyping and programming that he did doing the art, you could make the same claim.

At any rate, as long as you have it documented in some way, you should be able to stake a legal claim to a percentage of the derivative work that he creates. You’ll definitely need an attorney to help you work out those details.

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