I am 3D artist looking for job and i have found the Unreal Eninge discord, through here i have meet some teams who wants to work with me but instead be paying me they want to do “rev share”.
Then i have been reading on the UE website and i have found how the Dev grant works, we need to have the game prototype done before to send it but my question is…
Is there any way to build a team safely?
I mean, when you are in the first stage and you want to build the team, you can’t send the dev grant because you only have few concepts, so i would like to be sure if i join to any team, they will not scam to me, i don’t like the idea to start working for one team who i don’t know, and expend my time without a safe way like dev grant is, with legal name but just for the owner of the proyect…
So is there any way to build a team, and give to all the members of the team the security to be working without be scammed in a future?
The safest way to build a team, is to join a bigger game studio as a contributor with an actual salary.
You will hopefully make friends and contacts there. Ideally, you also go to industry events and meet-ups, and make contacts there, too.
Then, once you know how the industry works, and have enough contacts, some of you will get together and start your team.
The reason this works, is that you’ve all already worked with each other, and know how you work, and you can write up how the team will work ahead of time.
Doing business with random people on the internet, especially on a “work now, maybe exposure later” basis, can never be “safe,” in the sense that 95% of such projects fail to ship anything, much less make any money.
You are right, but i can tell you it is not easy to find stable job, much less with a big game studio because they want people who have worked previously with AAA games…
To work for one big company is my goal but while then i was looking for new ways to work, and then i have discovered through one discord channel the reveneue share method, i am not plaining to make my own game yet, i want to work with some teams (as 3D artist) because will be good for my CV to have some games done where i have worked.
Actually i have made stuff for some games but as freelance, so i think is a good movement to try to make your own game with small team, and then will be easy to find job with bigger companies
So that is why i am asking about if there is one safe way through Unreal Engine MegaGrants to have one safe way where people can create their team, before to send the dev grant, when the proyect is starting
Something like to sign a document through Unreal with all the team members
There is zero upside and all downside to Epic if they were to get into the “contract facilitation” business, so that won’t happen.
And, even if you have a contract, that doesn’t mean someone will actually perform on the contract – if they don’t perform, it’s still up to you to try to collect whatever the remedy is, which would be a lot of frustrating legal effort and heart-ache, and in the end, will the counter-party even have any assets to collect from? After all, even if you could collect some money, that’s not going to compensate you for the lost opportunity of working on an actual shipping title, which is what you really want to get.
I think your best bet, is either moving to some area with game studios (it doesn’t have to be Treyarch or Rockstar – there are plenty of mid-size studios) and look there. If that doesn’t work, try going to meet-ups, where you can find people in person, to work together with. That lets you get a much better read on the degree of flakiness to expect from people.