There are some things you should know before you sign a contract, but you probably missed them if you’re an indie developer — your job is to make games, after all, not parse legal documents.
That’s why games lawyer Chris Reid returned to GDC 2017 to deliver a practical talk on what every indie dev should know about contracts.
Intellectual property, privacy, licensing, distribution and almost every legal issue important to developers is handled with a contract. With that in mind, Reid covered the five contracts every indie needs to understand: contractor agreements, publishing agreements, game development agreements, NDAs and EULAs.
For each type of contract, he described when it comes up, why it matters, and what terms to include and avoid.
It was an incredibly useful talk, so don’t miss your chance to now watch it for free over on the official GDC YouTube channel!
About the GDC Vault
In addition to this presentation, the GDC Vault and its new YouTube channel offers numerous other free videos, audio recordings, and slides from many of the recent Game Developers Conference events, and the service offers even more members-only content for GDC Vault subscribers.Those who purchased All Access passes to recent events like GDC, GDC Europe, and GDC Next already have full access to GDC Vault, and interested parties can apply for the individual subscription via a GDC Vault subscription page. Group subscriptions are also available: game-related schools and development studios who sign up for GDC Vault Studio Subscriptions can receive access for their entire office or company by contacting staff via the GDC Vault group subscription page. Finally, current subscribers with access issues can contact GDC Vault technical support.Gamasutra and GDC are sibling organizations under parent UBM Americas