Okay, I am a complete newbie. My friend and I are going to release a game in a month or so. Our first ever. We want to do everything correctly. We have a cool company name But I won''t mention it here yet. What I''d like to have is some advice from people who have released and sold their games. What I have found out is that your work is copyrighted as soon as it is in finished form. But then how do game developers protect their games while in developement while still showing unfinished versions of them at places like E3? We''ve not yet made a website promoting the game because of that very worry. I want to have a site that promotes the game we''re about to release and the one we''re going to work on next. What do we need to do to make sure we''re protected? In addition, does anyone recomend registering our game with the library of congress? http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ61.pdf Also, we planned on giving out a demo for free and then having people mail us a check if they want an actual copy. We might try to get some computer and video game stores to sell it. I have no idea if that would pan out or not. If there is a high demand then we''ll look into other online payment options, if there isn''t we may eventually just give them away or charge just the cost of sending it to people. As far as I know we don''t need any special licenses for this but I went to the California State Government website and found something about a sellers license? http://www.ss.ca.gov/business/checklist.htm If it is true that I need a permit to sell games I find it a gross violation of my rights as an artist and a potential businessman. The site also described Several business structures. A general partnership seemed to fit us best. The only people who have worked on this game are me, my best friend, and our other friend who did the music. There are also beta testers and people who will hopefully suggest funnier jokes than the one we''ve put in the game. We''ll give the testers and the guys who give us jokes credit, the music guy will get a small cut of the profits if there are any, and my partner and I will split the rest (probably just set aside that money to help with future projects). But do we really need to get a lawyer to help us file papers and crap with such a small group that hardly deserves to be called an organization? Finally, we already, of course, know how to register the domain name, but what do we need to do to secure our cool business name? Do we just start using it or do we have to register it with some agency or other? ----Steve

You cant protect the idea of your game. If you could, there would only be about 20 video games ever (since pretty much every other game is a variation or combination of a few basic game styles).

Similarly, you can''t protect your company name except by trademarking it, which is a bit expensive (will probably cost upwards of $1000).

As for a business, you are perfectly able to sell under your own name, but if you want to do business under this "cool company name", then at the very least you will need to file a DBA (doing business as). In Michigan, I just went to the county clerks office, filled out a form, waited for them to do a name search (make sure nobody else in Michigan is using that name) gave them my $23, and I was all set. Now I am free to do business under the name Kronos Software for the next 5 years, and I had all the necessary paperwork so that I could go open a business account at my credit union. California law and prices should be very similar.

Yes, I would file for a copyright once the product is done (actually, I just filled out the paperwork yesterday for one). It gives you some nice extra benefits should you find yourself needing to sue someone.

Also, like Darjk said, if you are serious, you are going to need to do more than just handle checks. Probably 95% of sales (if not more) will be via credit card. Sign up for an account with someone like SWREG. You can have them do all the details for handling the charge authorization and stuff. It''s pretty simple to do. They just take a small fee. They actually have pretty much the lowest fees outside of paypal (or a merchant account...but thats a much bigger responsibility), but they offer much better service options than paypal and are friendlier for people who don''t already have a paypal account.


Ron Frazier
Kronos Software
www.kronos-software.com
Miko & Molly - Taking Puzzle Games to A Whole New Dimension

Believe me, I have no illusions as to the originality of our game idea or the ability to copyright or patent game ideas. You can''t and I wouldn''t have it any other way. The game we''re making is basically a Dragon Warrior clone after all. But, as an example, what did Blizzard have to do to prevent other game companies making games in the Starcraft universe before they released StarCraft while still promoting it before release?

As far as the company name, lets say I want to call our company "Mr. Farty Pants Games" (not the real name, feel free to take it ;p ) . All I want to do is to prevent some other company from calling their game company the same name. Do I need to do something to prevent this or is it automatically protected as soon as we announce it? Is filing DBA the same in California?

As far as doing things by credit card, hell I''m all for it. I just want to keep things as simple as possible.

As far as registering copyright, am I just being stupid paranoid by worrying about putting our game in the mail?

I am honestly not trying to make things any more complex than they have to be, but I know absolutely nothing about any of this and I don''t want to regret not doing something later on.

----Steve

Actually the real inspiration for Starcraft was a little book called "Starship Troopers". Read it and you''ll see what I mean.

But what I was wondering was if the game is not finished, is it still protected? If I come up with a cool storyline I''m not worried about whether someone will do something like it, but am I protected from plagerism just as much as if it were a finished work?

If, during the developement of Starcraft, some other company had started to make a game where human space marines fight an alien race called The Zerg and they look exactly like the characters from Starcraft, would Blizzard have had legal recourse?

----Steve

Are you willing to sue someone that uses anything from your game, when you need to spemd at least a couple of thousand dollars for it? If no, you don''t need to be concerned about any protection anyway. Write copyright below everything and that''s all you can do. Getting a registered trademark could protect the name, but again costs you some money. Last time I checked $1500 for Europe (if I am right?).

My companies website: www.nbsd.de

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quote: Original post by gmcbay
In general, you don''t have to worry so much. Game companies have more ideas than they could ever implement, so the chances of them seeing your idea and stealing it outright are really slim.

This is the real heart of the matter.

Ideas are cheap and plentiful. They''re everywhere. I have over twenty games with at least an outline of a design that look plausible and feasible to me -- not counting all the "wouldn''t it be cool if..." ideas that come into my head.

That''s the first part. The second part is corporate inertia and the "not invented here" syndrome. The chances of a game company saying "Look at that! That idea is a gazillion times better than anything we''ve ever thought of!" is vanishingly small. Combine this with the probability of the same company saying, "Wow, let''s just drop everything we''re doing and use this guy''s idea instead of all the things we''ve been pouring our souls into for the past six months -- and we better hurry, so we can get it out before he does!" is laughably small. And then there would also have to be a meeting (really, multiple meetings) in which all the game company execs said, "Holy cow! You''re right, this idea is pure genius, and makes us all look like idiots. You''d better get right on it! Here''s a new bag o'' money to fund the project!"

That''s just not going to happen. Not in this universe.

What might happen -- the probability is exceedingly low if you''re a first-time game developer, but about a million times greater than the above scenario happening -- is that a game company sees your site, loves your work, and so buys your idea and employs you to make it. This is called "acquisition" and is the only realistic exit strategy for any clear-thinking small game developer.

So what are the reasons not to put all your best ideas on your site? Well, first you can work on only so many at any given time, so why give others (competitors in this over-crowded market) fodder for their thinking? Second, talking about things you end up not doing just makes you look bad. Better to promise less and deliver more. "Well done is better than well said."

With that in mind, don''t hold back on ideas if it could help you promote your game. Oh, and as for protecting your name, trademarks are good. But these days, the de facto trademark is a domain name. Get it, and put a website up, even if it''s just one teaser page.

Best of luck.


Mike Sellers

Online Alchemy: Fire + Structure = Transformation

Hi!

Use a company like swreg.com or regnow.com or shareit.com and all the others to handle the credit card processing (and other forms of payment).

McMc