An Offer I Passed On

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Jason Morningstar:
So Alderac Entertainment Group just got in touch with me, to offer me a job.  Here are the specifics:

I’d sign an NDA and then they’d show me their new property.  Then, between now and 15 May, I’d write a game for them based on their property as a “trial assignment”. 

The terms would be as follows:

I wouldn’t retain any rights and I wouldn’t get paid.  Several other people would be writing a game based on the same property simultaneously. 

The best would be published, and that person would be invited to produce more stuff for Alderac, with pay, if the initial roll-out was a success.

I politely declined.  Is this a common arrangement?

Eero Tuovinen:
Does seem sort of typical. This does not mean that I approve. I've turned down similar offers. I'd now burst into a hateful rant about NDAs, work-for-hire and artistic freedom, except it wouldn't be productive, and AEG is doing nothing wrong from their own viewpoint.

Perhaps the point I find most curious is that when I've encountered similar set-ups, either the reward has been a staff position or the required trial has been a design concept sketch, not a full-blown game. So this seems somewhat stingy - maybe it's the economy? Seems screwy to me that they want people to put up with a major admission routine for what amounts to a freelance job. Seems to me that it wouldn't be that difficult to compare portfolios, choose a freelancer and make payment contingent on delivery of whatever they want. That's how freelancers work after all, you use them because you don't want to get married with a staff relationship.

lumpley:
Well this way they get a whole game for free, it looks like.

I'm appalled.

-Vincent

Jason Morningstar:
The AEG guy was apologetic about the terms and recognized that they don't sound very good.  He promised me it would be a great foot in the door.

Adam Riemenschneider:
Yikes. Compare this to any other industry for a sanity check.

Home builders, web designers, mechanics, bartenders... don't work 6 weeks without pay, as some kind of twisted job interview process! They get paid, dammit... and so should game designers!

Just because I like my job doesn't mean I'll do it for free!

And ugh! A great foot in the door? Really? Seems like it sets up a really terrible beginning to the employer-employee relationship to me.

Sigh.

-adam

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