My Background

In the late 80's, early 90's I was working for a company called GEnie. GEnie was an online service (like AOL, except 100% text-based) that was owned by General Electric. I was working here part-time while going to college, but I was also developing game development tools (map builders mostly) under contract for various development teams.

On one of these I was to create a map builder. Well, I didn't work on it as dilegently as I should have and ended up missing my date. I got a contact from the team I was contracted to, but I avoided them. Finally they got ahold of me and I used the old "it's not fair! You guys expected too much!" Amazingly, they didn't just nuke me on the spot. They asked if I could do my best to finish ASAP so they could continue forward. I said I would. Well, now my conscience got the better of me so I worked day and night, and added in some bells and whistles that they had originally wanted...sort of to say "I'm sorry". Then something worse happened.

I delivered the project and they were very very pleased with it, so they sent me a check. But do you believe that after all that day-and-night work I put in, and after all the additional little bells and whistles that we hadn't agreed upon, that they paid me only what they were contractually obligated to pay me! I was mad! How dare they pay me what we agreed to when I didn't do what I was supposed to originally, delayed their scheduling, and then worked my butt off to over-deliver late? I hope you can see the immaturity here, because it's extremely evident. They came through on exactly what was agreed upon, I did not. And just because I decided to do more (out of guilt), it was never expected of me nor was any additional funding agreed upon by them. In a nutshell:

20 year old, inexperienced Krylar = stupid

Moving on: my first personal contract for a full game was really for a suite of 2 online turn-base strategy war games. GEnie was, at the time, the premiere online service for games. They worked with the likes of Kesmai and Simutronics, releasing such games as Air Warrior, Legends of Kesmai, Cyberstrike, Gemstone, and so on.

There was a company named A.U.S.I. (now known as Mythic Entertainment, of Dark Age of Camelot fame) that was working on an online version of the game Diplomacy. I was approached to code the front-end for this game, and agreed. Half-way into development, GEnie asked if I would be willing to code two full online games for them. I was entered into 2 contracts at this point with them, and I had no clue what I was doing...but, hey, I was a cool 20 year old with 2 game contracts!

As I was rounding the 80% mark of development on the Diplomacy front-end, the Games Product Manager at GEnie decided to leave the company. The person that was newly hired to fill that position was horrible. He had personal issues against the president of A.U.S.I., and thus took me aside and slowly twisted my words into what seemed like me saying that A.U.S.I. was terrible to work for. I didn't feel that way, but that's how it ended up being portrayed. Let me just say, for the record, that I have worked with Mark Jacobs (president of Mythic Entertainment, then president of A.U.S.I.) for the better part of 10 years and I find him to be an upstanding member of the game community and someone I completely respect and trust.

So, when this event occured, it was devastating to my relationship with A.U.S.I., and also, as you can imagine, with GEnie.

Next this new product manager started looking over the milestones on my 1-to-1 contracts with GEnie and started wanting changes. I didn't want to work with him at all at this point, and I got my wish. The VP of business development at GEnie learned of what had happened and came to me with the offer of letting me out of my contracts with the company. I took that offer and walked away.

I continued doing contract work for teams until around 1995/1996, when I was approached by the old project manager at GEnie, Jessica Mulligan (current Executive Producer for Asheron's Call). She was then working at Interplay as an Executive Producer in their online division. I interviewed with her and got the job of Producer.

When I arrived I was immediately placed as the Producer of a game called Rolemaster: Magestorm, which was a FPS-Magic game based on the Rolemaster board game series. The developer of this product was none other than Mythic Entertainment. I thought this was going to be a turbulent event because of the prior issues at GEnie, but thankfully Mark Jacobs and I hashed out the past events and never looked back.

This was my first look at the opposite side of the contract. I was now the one authorizing the payment of milestones and such, as opposed to collecting them. Since Mythic had been down this road a hundred times, they made life easy on me because they knew the ropes. I worked exclusively with them for about 4 months and then started getting other games in from different companies.

By now I had seen enough of the other Production crews woes to know that there were some things I needed to watch out for. The primary thing was developers that either couldn't, or worse, didn't want to deliver what they said they could. I'm not going to mention the names of those I had negative experiences with, because that's not ethical, but I will share some pitfalls.

One contract that came across my table looked interesting. The COO of the Interplay Online spinoff wanted the deal done, so I got on it right away. Everything went great with the negotiations. I got the milestones negotiated (what was required and how much we'd pay for each), got our business guys to do the contracts up, and after a few edits from both sides, we signed. It was a glorious day. That's where the joy ended.

The first milestone was way off of what was to be expected, so I called the developer to discuss. He said that he'd decided on going a new direction with the product. We'd signed a contract on an already defined direction, so a new direction wasn't something that we would entertain. We had hard timelines, marketing to get out, and online publishing partners that were expecting content. As you can imagine, I was in a bit of a huff. However, I tried very hard to maintain composure and just work with this guy to get the proper delivery. He finally acquiesced, or so I thought, and said that he'd get everything to me in two weeks.

Instead of doing that, he spent two weeks working with his lawyer to find holes in the contract. They succeeded in doing that and it ended up costing us many many thousands of dollars with no product to show for it. I thought for sure I was going to be fired. My fate was worse, though, as instead I was retained and put immediately on tougher contracts because I had now learned a valuable lesson: not everyone is honest.

At about the 6 month mark in my Interplay Online career, the company was finally made into its own entity and named "Engage games online". So Interplay was no longer directly involved, which meant that we were on our own to get funding, etc. For me, I had picked up many more contracts, some with trustworthy developers, some not.

All those that were trustworthy worked hard and were excellent to work with. Many times we would pay extra, non-contractually obligated, funds because those companies were struggling finanacially. Why did we do that? Because we believed in them and they never let us down. All those that didn't deliver on promises, we'd try to work with but eventually dropped them from our schedules, without asking for our funds back

Around 1 1/2 years after I started with the company, I was promoted to Executive Producer. This placed me in charge of the full production process of all Engage games. Since there were 60+ people working for me (directly or departmentally), and a deadline of 6 months to get out a slew of online games, a lot of the upfront game reviews and negotiations were out of my hands. However, I still had to work with contracts on milestones, etc., and I was ultimately responsible for all work done in-house or externally developed.

Roughly 2 years later funding was harder and harder to get and Engage sadly downsized, eventually drifting off to being no more.

I've now been with AOL for nearly 5 years in their game division. I've worked with Electronic Arts for 3 of that 5 years, and prior to that with many online development houses.

That's likely way more than you ever wanted to know about me, and certainly way more than I ever wanted to tell. However, this is how I've learned a lot of lessons that will hopefully rub off on you in some way on the following topics:

Designs

Many developers come to a publisher with an idea of what they want to do. First-time developers bring a couple of storyboards and a brief overview design document and look for a deal. Some get one, but typically not without having to get a little deeper into the design process.

A design document is not just a couple of thoughts being jotted down. It's the determining factor as to whether or not the developer really understands what he or she is getting into. If I see three characters sketched and 5 pages of design, I know right away that this project is not thoroughly thought out, unless a person is making a game of solitaire or a Defender-clone. While there is no set page # that determines a successful design, you can bet that a role-playing game with 5 pages of design better be using a 2pt font and be back-n-front on the pages, because you know as well as I do just thinking up the rules for the magic (assuming it's magic-based) is a long drawn-out process. Check out any AD&D manual and you'll see what I mean.

So, the developer puts in a creative design document and it covers 90% of the bases. It's a simple enough game, so I only have to weed through 20 pages. Nice, I like that. But, wait, there are some issues I'm seeing that the developer mentions, so I want to make sure the developer knows how to address them.

Thus, a technical design doc is brought into play. Here the developer pens out the issues that are known to be a challenge and notes how he/she plans on approaching those issues. As the producer, I look at these issues as a time-sensitive point to be reviewed in the milestone negotiations.

Milestones

A milestone is simply a point in time where a set piece of work, agreed upon by all parties, is delivered for review, approval, and payment. Typically, I follow the following when making milestones (thinking larger game here):

• Pre-Alpha 1: This is just to show that something is going on in the development process. It's not expected to be fully playable, but it should give the indication that the developer has gotten into the project.
• Pre-Alpha 2: At this point we should be seeing a roughly laid out map with some characters able to navigate them (maybe even a stupid NPC or two moving around). The UI should be in place and ready for some QA and focus group review as well. Basic sounds are in.
• Alpha: This candidate should have at least one playable level (doesn't have to be completely skinned), all UI pieces implemented, basic AI NPC's in, some sounds and music should be in, and the product should be feature-complete. What I mean by feature-complete is that is that all the buttons are there, etc. If you click on the buttons, they may just bring up a dialog box that says "Not done yet" or something, but what we want to make sure of is that all of the buttons that will be there, are there. Don't confuse this is a 100% functioning game. It's not. It's a feature-complete game, not a complete game.
• Beta 1: All those buttons that we talked about before should now be working. We should also have all the bugs fixed that were found in the Alpha candidate and we should see a second (and maybe third) level completed. The first level should be completely skinned too.
• Beta 2: All Beta 1 bugs are fixed. We now have all the levels in place, though they may not all be fully skinned. We also have all the game-mechanics in place and all character types, classes, spells, weapons, etc. At this point we're going to do a bunch of balance-checking issues, QAing, and so on. A user-guide to playing the game is in a rough-format.
• Gold Master (GM): All levels are skinned, balancing is approved, QA is approved, credits are finished, etc.

Now, this is just an overview and not a full milestone layout, just to give you an idea of things. Milestone layouts can be either extremely detailed or just an overview as above. Either way, both parties must make sure that they have in writing what is expected at each point.

Financials

Negotiate what you think is fair for your time and for the product you're developing. Don't negotiate based on what someone else got, because that makes no difference.

If a person came to me expecting the same funds for their PacMan game as I just paid for an online 3D FPS magical role-playing game that supports 3,000 users per server with 10 unique levels, 7 character classes with paper-doll-style customization and a comfortable 16-simultaneous players per arena...I'd laugh, buy them a drink, and wish them well.

Be logical, be realistic, and by all means, be professional.

What's the best way to do better financially on a deal? Prove yourself. Show what you have completed and who you've successfully worked with. Remember, this IS A JOB. Yeah, you're the owner of the development house, but the publisher is paying you for services rendered. Just as when you're interviewing for a job, you ask for what you feel you deserve. Your employer may disagree, but if you demonstrate that you will be a valuable employee--based on your past employment record--you may be surprised.

Communication

The onus is on YOU, the developer, to communicate any concerns you have during the development process. If you feel you can't make a deadline in time, tell the publisher NOW. Don't wait until the 2 days before and say you can't make it. That's totally unprofessional and makes you look stupid. And don't run to the publisher saying that the dates are unfair...remember YOU agreed to them at the time of negotiation.

But, not to worry! If you are completely upfront with the publisher, and it's clear that you are working your butt off to try and come through on promises, only the most ruthless publishers will bite your throat. Most have already planned for the little slipups and are therefore okay with it. Don't fool yourself, though, you still have to work very hard to demonstrate that you are giving it all you've got to complete the project on time.

Imagine that you are an employee and your boss comes and asks you to do a report and how long it will take you. You tell your boss ON THE SPOT that you will complete a project in 2 weeks. Now your boss has gone and told his boss, who told her boss, etc. The 2 weeks is up and everyone has their knife and fork out, ready to sample this dilectable report you've prepared and you say "I didn't do it...and it's your fault! You're unreasonable with your expectations!" Um, bye-bye bad employee...we'll get someone with a clue to take your position.

If, however, you're the smart type, you'll say to your boss "give me about an hour to review the data and what I'll need to do (based on what you've ALREADY discussed with your boss), and I'll give you a solid date." Your boss, if he/she is even remotely reasonable will give you that hour. Now, you take that hour and really think it through. If you can say 2 weeks, then you're all set. But, wait, you thought about all your other duties at the job site. Sure, if they weren't there, 2 weeks wouldn't be a problem. But if you still have all this other stuff to do, it'll push you to 3 weeks. So you go back to your boss and say, "it'll take me about 3.5 weeks to complete it." Yep, that's right, I added .5 in there because you never know what's going to come up.

Same goes with your publisher. Don't just offer up ideal times, take the time to think about things. Do you have family responsibilities, another job, other projects that you're committed to? These things will affect your ability to spend 100% of your time on this project. Again, be realistic.

Also, the publisher should be looking at the design documents, technical documents, etc. and realistically looking at things. So while you may say "2 months!", the publisher should be responsible enough to say "umm....you sure about that? What about A, B, and C here?"

So, make sure to PHONE your publisher at least once a week to make sure you talk about any issues that come up, even if it's just to say "Everything is moving as planned!". If you don't, shame on you because it WILL come back to bite you eventually.

Can't I just use email? Certainly! But be prepared for miscommunications there. Email doesn't give off personality or voice-inflection. However, you should ALWAYS (and I mean 100% of the time, here...ALWAYS) follow up each and every call with an email detailing what you believed the telephone agreement was, and ask your contact to reply that they agree or with anything that isn't accurate.

When Things Go Wrong

You have a number of options when things go wrong, but the first step you should make is making things right. The only way to do this is to either go in for a face-to-face meeting or get on the phone.

If this doesn't work, then you can:

• Request a re-negotiation.
• Request a cancellation of the deal. This may require legal intervention, depending on monetary/rights issues.
• Finish your project based EXACTLY on milestone/design objectives, and never work with them again.
• Jump ship and face potential legal action.

Whatever you do, don't go running around saying how the publisher is bad, stupid, untrustworthy, uncaring, etc. At least not publically. Sure, if a friend of yours comes up and says "Hey, Bert, would you work with ABC publishing on a game?", by all means tell them that you would not (assuming, of course, your name is Bert).

But running out and telling the world that you had a bad experience with ABC publishing only succeeds in accomplishing three things: 1) satiates your ego, 2) makes you look stupid to anyone other than those that are equally stupid, and 3) makes all other publishers put up a red-flag because they know what type of developer you are.

If there is an individual at the publishing house who is a total idiot, then by all means contact his boss and share details. Make sure you have proof to back up your claims so you don't look like a whiner, but don't hesitate to call. If the boss ignores you, then either grin-and-bear it and NEVER work with them again, or try to back out.

Conclusion

Of all the things shown above, from my personal history wins and woes, to the details listed about working with a publisher, it all comes down to one thing: communication.

I cannot emphasize enough how important it is to communicate. It is literally the difference between a good experience and a bad one. So TALK to your publishers all the time and life will be 100% better than if you just keep your yap shut and hope for the best.

All the best,

-Krylar

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