What ways are there to hire freelancers for code, without them "owning" the code on their pc? And how likely is it with paid freelancers, that the game wont get to the release?

Development Programming & Scripting
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In short. Someone told me that if im hiring others for programming, the whole code, everything, will be on their pc. And I dont know how to feel about this?

In short. someone told me also that “idea guys” like myself wont release a game. “Idea guy” cause i wont do anything in the game. Why? He didnt answer. Even if i pay the programmers etc, he said, i wont finish this game.

So in short, I want to be the producer/director and i am hiring others to do stuff.

Never did games before. Only shallow basics of programming.

Is there a tutorial which shows me how collab works? Ive found ue collab feature, but this is not for c++?

What I think how it could work: I tell programmer what to do, they do it in ue on their pc, they upload it on github and i add that to my actors etc. Is this realistic?

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Try to make a feature compelte tic-tac-to game on your own and you’ll get a taste of how complicated making a game gets, and why experienced leadership/management is essential.

If you offered me $100k to make a game at orders from somebody who knows nothing about it, I’d turn it down unless all the money was up front.

You don’t have to be the most experienced expert, but you have to have proven leadership skills plus you have to know a good deal about the domain.

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me making tic tac will take 5345 years

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Right, so you are indicating you know nothing about making games and arent interested in learning. You won’t be able to effectively direct/manage the development of one then. You’d have as much of a chance as directing a submarine manufacturing operation.

Making games is complicated. People play them and then think they know what it’s all about. Playing games and making games is opposite ends of the universe.

You are wrong though - it wouldnt take you thousands of years to make tic tac toe. If you got serious about it you coudl probably learn everything necessary and od the work within one year. Then you’d be in a much better position to help manage or direct games. You’d be light years ahead of much of the competition, in fact.

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Then you’d be in a much better position to help manage or direct games.

example?

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If you want to give away your money to people to perform task you know nothing about, have at it. The kind of people who take that job aren’t going to be in it to make sure you win in the end.

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You could always learn how to make something yourself and save roughly $50k an year and the legal headaches of hiring people.

But realistically speaking, it gets easier if you made an working prototype that’s easily editable.

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no. an example of how i would help em better if i know how to code in c++

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i doubt i can do the game which i want alone. skillset is too diverse for that game.

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Well, what do you need, exactly?

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a programmer for sure.

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why are we derailing, the post is about the legal implications of hiring people to do work for him…
with the people doing the work having the ability to run away with the code and release the game on their own.

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Because that’s a sophmoric concern of someone that’s never worked professionally in the industry and doesn’t really need addressing.

Professionals will work professionally.
They wouldn’t go behind your back releasing a project on their own, provided they were properly and promptly paid for their work upon delivery.

OP should probably hire a firm, if he has no interest in learning. Or try and pitch his/her game idea to existing game making companies and see if anyone picks it up.

That said, “idea man” within the videogame industry is quite literally the last thing we need… Most games are already s*tty enough without someone who doesn’t know the first thing about making games giving people “ideas” on what they should make…
But it does happen alteady within the industry I suppose.

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The coders do not ‘own’ any code, your company does, as long as you create a contract that mentions that. You will however have to trust people with your assets and code, as long as they are freelancers working on their own PCs. Legally, they are not allowed to use your IP’s assets and code, but again, I think all that must be clearly written down in the contract. If anyone steals from you, publishes your game, and makes enough profit to justify suing them, you can sue them.

Now… in the real world, imagine I’d work for Ubisoft and steal their next Assassin’s Creed game, and launch it early under a different title. The first thing that happens is that nobody knows about me and my game, and nobody will be playing it, unless I have enough marketing budget. It’s like posting Lion King on YouTube and naming it… ‘The Little Lion that Could’. Nobody will find it. Secondly, it would be obvious that I stole content that is not mine, and sooner or later, especially if my game reaches an actual audience and makes some money, I will be in legal trouble.

You simply need a contract, legal and clear, that explains who owns what, what your company’s rules and expectations are, so on… you know, legal stuff.

It’s a matter of trust as well. If I work for you, even on location, on your company’s PC, and you give me access to internet, it’s highly unlikely I won’t be able to save my work or in other words ‘steal’ from you. But it’s also unlikely I would or even could do anything damaging to your company by keeping any of your code or assets. At worst, I guess, I could steal your entire game and simply launch it myself, and maybe make some money if I’m skilled with marketing. If I do an asset flip and just keep your code, maybe it would be good for business for you too. People always look for the same stuff they played and liked, and want more of it. Or me stealing from you can start an internet scandal that ends up helping you get visibility, free marketing. If it’s not good for your business, then you can sue me, prove that I’m doing something illegal, and that I’m making your company lose money, and most likely you will win, because you have legal proof and I have nothing.

In any case, all this assumes that you know what you’re doing and that your game has a chance to be successful. Most games ever made, or even published, are obscure Indie titles and have close to zero players. So if you have little budget and no experience making games, you’re worrying for no reason. You should first try making a bunch of games, get to the point where you’re hopefully able to make a great game, start making that potentially great game, and then you can maybe have a reason to worry about it. ^ ^ But like with any IP, you can never know… until you know. You can keep on making and publishing games… and nobody knows about them.

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15

I have a similar problem. I can code, but it will be too slow to do it myself.

I live in Sweden, and in my small town we have a game creator community. One of the thing they provide to their members a standard (game related) contract, both for the initial Non Disclosure Agreement (NDA) and the following contract for hiring a company to make the code for your game.
It might be the case that you hire two different companies. One for the code and one for the graphics (2D/3D and so on). Then I would suggest that You set up a server with Perforce’s Helix Core to give the coders and the assets creators a common space. Unreal Engine kind of like this environment.
Good luck!

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