September 23, 2012 at 11:55 When a project has more than one founder
In game development, founders are usually creative people who dream of creating decent games. And even with the predominance of casuals, when in addition to professionals, absolutely “left” people seep here who want to quickly cut down the dough. To distinguish such people is not a particular problem. Those who come to gamedev primarily think about creativity, money goes by the wayside, unlike other professions such as bankers, speculators, officials and the like. Therefore, initially, respectable people trusting each other gather in game dev.
But you can’t go far on one trust, we change over time, and if at the start the founders agreed, then completely opposite plans for further development appear over time. As an example, the founders of the Space Rangers eventually disagreed, one decided to do fantasy games, and the other still made games in the style of science fiction. And this is not the only example, there are many of them - www.gamedev.ru/industry/forum/?id=162545#m10
Therefore, initially there should be only one person who individually takes all decisions on the development plans of a game or studio. With the obligation to listen to the arguments of the other founders, however, he alone must make the final decision. If your team doesn’t have such a person, then there is a high probability of the collapse of your brainchild according to the principle “neither to yourself nor to people. And do not think about the selectivity of your team, they say this will not happen. Thinking like this, I once paid for it :)
In the end, the question arises, how do other founders get out of the project, without a quarrel, when will it go awry? I periodically think about this and came to such conclusions. Initially, it makes no sense to assign fabulous interest to each founder: 20%, 30%, 50% is a bad idea.
The share of profit for each founder should be as low as possible, for example 3-5%. After paying these percentages, your team will have 80-90% of free money that needs to be allocated to salaries (including the founders), advertising, office and other expenses. If after all expenses the money remains, then they are divided between the founders working in a team in a percentage ratio (the sum of all percentages is added up and accepted as 100%).
Due to such low interest, the founder who left the team will not take the lion's share of the profit from the project, and at the same time will have a steady income from his past works. And at the same time, it becomes possible to accept new founders as a team at any stage of the project development.
If someone worked on a project without a salary (as usually happens in a game dev with several founders) for a long time and made a big contribution, then you can make it a rule to double its share after leaving the team.
What is a “big contribution”? For example, a person worked full time for six months without a salary and laid the foundation for the project. You can also agree on the payment of salaries at the current market value during his work on enthusiasm. But not immediately, but according to the possibilities of your current profit from the project.
Thus, a 10% share of the profit is obtained, plus another $ 30,000 - $ 60,000 bonus when one of the founders leaves the project. I think if you follow these rules and initially give similar things to all the founders for approval, then there will be much less grudges and quarrels. And fans of your game will be able to continue to fan from it :)
But you can’t go far on one trust, we change over time, and if at the start the founders agreed, then completely opposite plans for further development appear over time. As an example, the founders of the Space Rangers eventually disagreed, one decided to do fantasy games, and the other still made games in the style of science fiction. And this is not the only example, there are many of them - www.gamedev.ru/industry/forum/?id=162545#m10
Therefore, initially there should be only one person who individually takes all decisions on the development plans of a game or studio. With the obligation to listen to the arguments of the other founders, however, he alone must make the final decision. If your team doesn’t have such a person, then there is a high probability of the collapse of your brainchild according to the principle “neither to yourself nor to people. And do not think about the selectivity of your team, they say this will not happen. Thinking like this, I once paid for it :)
In the end, the question arises, how do other founders get out of the project, without a quarrel, when will it go awry? I periodically think about this and came to such conclusions. Initially, it makes no sense to assign fabulous interest to each founder: 20%, 30%, 50% is a bad idea.
The share of profit for each founder should be as low as possible, for example 3-5%. After paying these percentages, your team will have 80-90% of free money that needs to be allocated to salaries (including the founders), advertising, office and other expenses. If after all expenses the money remains, then they are divided between the founders working in a team in a percentage ratio (the sum of all percentages is added up and accepted as 100%).
Due to such low interest, the founder who left the team will not take the lion's share of the profit from the project, and at the same time will have a steady income from his past works. And at the same time, it becomes possible to accept new founders as a team at any stage of the project development.
If someone worked on a project without a salary (as usually happens in a game dev with several founders) for a long time and made a big contribution, then you can make it a rule to double its share after leaving the team.
What is a “big contribution”? For example, a person worked full time for six months without a salary and laid the foundation for the project. You can also agree on the payment of salaries at the current market value during his work on enthusiasm. But not immediately, but according to the possibilities of your current profit from the project.
Thus, a 10% share of the profit is obtained, plus another $ 30,000 - $ 60,000 bonus when one of the founders leaves the project. I think if you follow these rules and initially give similar things to all the founders for approval, then there will be much less grudges and quarrels. And fans of your game will be able to continue to fan from it :)