Please do justice with me !! [Client using me badly]

News & General Discussion
1

Hello All,

This thread is about what is happening with me with 1 client.

I met a client, he wanted me to design a game for him called Monster Milkshake.

It was the copy of Milkshake Maker by Bigh Fish Studios.
Reference - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKaC0KfjV7M

I was in bad need of money and i agreed to do the stuff in 820$.

I got 400$ as advance

I created the entire game. Client said, only few alignments are left, He mailed me 35 points list. I completed all.
It took him 4 months to supply all the textures, i had to wait and redo sooo much stuff again and again.

Finally when i asked money, client says, there are tap,drag issues, you need to changes few animations etc etc.
Client kept on adding new objects even [which i all added].

Client got the graphics made from a designer at 300$, and never paid him too

The current situation of the game is this - My Screencast

I did sooo much work which took months. I spent on some assets too. And till today i have got 400$

Now the client says, i pay you 200$ , send me the game with the code.

What should i do in this situation ???

*Note - This is 1 game, i am doing 2 games for this client and he wants me to do something similar for the other game too.
Other game is 100% complete, this is 98% complete [only tilt feature is left].

My client is middleman to end client, i know this. What i can see is the end client is very demanding.
How somebody can be so so sooo demanding at just 400$ ???

  1. Am i being delivered very less than the real job [am i being fooled by the middleman] ?
  2. Should i refuse to give the code and release the game myself [paying the artist his money] ?

Please please advise

2

you should have clearly stated the scope of the project. revisions can be ok within a certain amount already stated, additions and new features should be part of something else. You’re in a bad situation for sure. As for what you should do, on my end I never deliver anything without receiving the final payment. Just send the final payment invoice ( $420 that should have been already stated before) and see how it goes.

3

I wouldn’t give him the game until you’ve been paid.

What kind of contract was signed? That might indicate something you might be bound to.

4

Nothing signed, middleman may have done something.

What should have been the right quote for this kind of game ?

5

You should write some kind of contract with your clients before starting with the project.
Ohh and you can give back the 400 dollars and try to publish the game yourself. :wink:

-GamehubDev

6

If you have any proof legally that he agreed to pay you $820 then I don’t see why you can’t take this to court. Or at least threaten to… I know it’s only $400 but still. If you did the Job then you should be payed.

Who knows… I know very little about the legal system :wink:

Edit: Another thing… It’s not very smart to deal with a Job and money without some kind of contract…

7

Well you are just stupid. Getting tricked just like dat.
1.) Have a detailed contract
2.) Never send him the project unless payment was made
3.) Have a lawyer
Dat is all

8

Jessica isn’t directly stupid. It’s a rookie mistake and she got 400 dollars out of it. She can demand 420 more because that’s what she was promised.

9

I would send him the built game, but not the code.

tell him the code will cost him the outstanding $400

10

820$ for a game like that?!? It’s worth millions!!! Don’t give him the code, just pay the designer and publish on your own! I swear you’ll make thousands of dollars! :wink:

11

Golden rule #1 : Don’t hand over any source code without full payment received!

Golden rule #2 : Agree upfront in writing in a CLEARLY DEFINED points list what the game will entail and the features. The more vague the document, the more the project is open to abuse of the client adding in more and more stuff. A well written document/milestone is meant to prevent this.

12

I see what happend here you are working for an outsourcer. I guess you could chalk it up as experience a hard lesson. 4 months for $400 thats slave wages

13

The work looks pretty good - pay the artist and publish this yourself, then move on. I’d give him an invoice with due date, let him know you need to be paid according to the terms or you’ll have no choice but to self publish.

14

And don’t agree to new changes mid project without adding them to a contract with a new fee in addition to the initial quote.

15

This++.

You need to play hardball from the beginning, clients have a sneaky tendency to add this or that ‘little thing’. Put the foot down at the start and say a big NO! If it’s not on the feature/milestone list, it doesn’t go in. If the client wants it in, it gets added to another list which is quoted on seperately. It is sometimes easier just to say ok I’ll add it in and we’ll add another hour’s work (especially on the phone or when talking over skype), but whenever it comes to money and spec everything should be agreed to in writing.

16

I think you’ll find that most of us have been through similar experiences in the past. Don’t give them the final product until you’ve been paid the agreed amount - you may feel sorry for the middleman, but at the end of the day that isn’t your problem.

Next time, make sure the client signs off on the scope of the project before it starts. Also add regular milestones for the project, and require payment in advance. And don’t ever undersell yourself - I generally won’t even look at clients willing to spend less than $10,000. The “cheap” clients are always the worst.
Remember that you’re doing this to make a profit - not provide a charity service. Quote high to begin with (regardless of whether or not you think they can afford it), negotiate your way down to something you both agree with.

Scope-creep is the worst thing to happen to any project, and it’s something you need to prevent. It seems most clients don’t even realize they’re adding to the scope of the project - after all, they’re usually very simple additions “Can we make the straw change color when you click on it?” - they have no idea how much time some of these small changes will take.

17

does he have a website? we can all do an old fashioned ddos at the same time, hold down F5!

18

I would not publish the game if I was you. Best you can do is keep the assets that are not paid for and walk. You may even get a phone call.

Its a bummer when this happens.

19

just watched the video… why would anyone want to replicate that game is beyond me.

20

Never do work without a signed contract, period. The contract should outline the scope of the project. How much you want to be paid for the project and how much revisions will cost (do not do revisions for free! they are not in the original scope! this of course excludes bug fixes…). Most importantly it should outline ownership. Without outlining ownership you are the legal owner of the work. Always receive half the contracted amount up front.

As for your current situation you withhold the end product until the client pays the full amount. If they refuse then you drop contact and move on to a new client. As is you’ve no legal binding contract so there’s nothing he can do to you and nothing you do can do to him. As there is no contract there is no legal definition of ownership. This means you own all the rights to the game (stupid client). So technically you could finish it and sell it your self if you want.

The next major issue is you’ve undersold your self. You should’ve charged into the thousands, not hundreds. Underselling your self brings out scumbag clients that tend to walk all over you.