August 24th, 2009

The work scheme of an independent Flash developer

by Vadim Starygin

In consideration of all the feedback which this post has generated, we have decided to remove it from the MochiLand blog. While it’s great to have opinions heard and a perspective from another side of development — at the same time, we don’t want to be in the position of being seen as endorsing game development practices that are in the gray area. It’s clear from all the feedback (thanks!) on the article that people’s expectations of MochiLand content are high, and we aim to deliver.

About the Author: Vadim Starygin

Vadim Starygin is a trained Russian Navy Officer who loves to create flash games. In late 2007, he gave up his job in a PC-shareware company, where he worked on MMO-flash and PC ports to flash. He now enjoys his career as an independent flash developer and writes for his own flash-game development blog.

This entry was posted 3 years, 9 months ago on Monday, August 24th, 2009 and is filed under Games Industry, MochiLand Topics, Tutorials. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

http://www.mugalon.com Tobias

Hi Badim,

nice Article but your blog seems to be down…
http://www.untoldentertainment.com Ryan Henson Creighton

Hey, Badim. Who’s that little green character with the pointy ears and the brown bathrobe in your post? You’ve demonstrated some phenomenal creativity coming up with him (her?).

Is he magic? Does he fly? Does he wield a sword made out of light and help a young farm boy realize his true potential as an intergalactic warrior? Does he speak to that warrior from beyond the grave and help him overthrow an evil overlord in outer space? Does he talk like Grover?

These are just some ideas i had for that character. You should use them.

“If you’re not naturally talented at art, the next issue to be resolved is where to get good graphics. The easiest, cheapest, fastest way is to use sprite sets. The most popular of them are the hits from consoles (Megaman, Zelda, Sonic).”

The easiest, cheapest, fastest way to get a new TV is to throw a brick through a store window and take one.

i have no idea why GamerSafe and MochiMedia are holding you up as some shining example to the industry.

i call douchebaggery.

- Ryan
http://evolutionlive.blogspot.com/ axcho

Ryan, I had similar feelings reading this post, so I’m glad to find that I’m not alone.

Badim, I like your stuff but I was disappointed with the quality of this article. I suspect that the information you present is too obvious for experienced developers, and too vague for newcomers to get much out of it. Your audience may be wannabe game developers, but it seems to me that the best way to help them is not to give them shortcuts, but help them *learn* to be better developers.

For example, Kyle Gabler’s “How to Prototype a Game in Seven Days” article is a great set of guidelines, that will help a new developer *learn* a lot in a short amount of time. That is the way to get more people sustainably making games for this market. I fear that your article, if it helps anyone at all, will get newcomers half the way to success and leave them stranded with no idea why their games are failing and no idea how to proceed.
http://www.gamingyourway.com Squize

Ryan, you’ve beaten me to it again.

I just love the idea that the first port of call should be to use ripped ( ie copyrighted ) images. That it’s somehow ok to do, and if you can’t find the ones you want then finally look to pay someone for their talent.
http://www.elite-games.net Badim

Ryan, why? i didnt get your point of view. Does it personal or I step on your business somewhere?
… or if you about copyright – you always welcome at Newgrounds! that is definitely place where you should share your concerns. And before going anywhere further – check my portfolio and find any zelda/x/sonic games, or any similar. idea of this article to let you know that there is what there is. rest is personal choice.
http://www.elite-games.net Badim

Axcho, in my defense, i can count people who come to this market from my blog(/articles), and there will be more then 10. i can count again only successful people, who in addition didnt used copyright stuff – and again there is more then 10. all information is great, but not everybody have full team, or skilled enought to do everything. i have choose poser for art. someone have choose SNES games. that is working, and everybody should know that. you have to know market, before say smt like ‘i have a business’. i`m still dont have one, and still researching, and still trying. this article is overall experience. if you against copyright, good for you – me too.
http://bowlerhatgames.com/ Josh

Do not reuse code you wrote for clients without their permission. If you independently built a game engine, and then reused it for your client, that’s fine, but they own any code you specifically made for them unless you came to another agreement that says otherwise.

Do not use sprite sheets that are under copyright without permission of the owners. That’s illegal. Some communities are informally okay with it, but if you plan to build your own business and make money from creating Flash games, you should do it all legally and either hire and artist or create your own art.
http://www.untoldentertainment.com Ryan Henson Creighton

Badim – i DID check your portoflio, in fact:

http://www.elite-games.net/games/247/elite-forces-clone-wars.html

The logo for your Clonw Wars game looks suspiciously like the LucasArts logo for their property, which is also called “Clone Wars”.

Oh – wait. Did i say “suspicously”? i meant EXACTLY:

http://www.lucasarts.com/

Front page prominence, too. This property must somehow be improtant to them.

The only reason you’re not picking tiny paper bits of LucasArts’s Cease and Desist letter out of your ass is that you’ve flown under their radar. i’d be happy to toss them an emil about your game, if you like – that is, if you want to find out how copyright and trademark laws are actually enforced by multi-million dollar IP owners.

And let me say this: if i ever found you or any other dev making an unauthorized sequel to one of MY games, you’d have to drop a few bucks on an English translator to help you through the court proceedings.

Certain creators take their intellectual property very seriously. Man up, and start acting like a responsible member of our community. Renounce this post.

- Ryan
http://www.untoldentertainment.com Ryan Henson Creighton

Hi, Ryan Creighton (@untoldent).
Badim (mrBadim) is now following your tweets on Twitter.
A little information about Badim:

0 followers
0 tweets
following 1 people

(laughing. out. loud.)
http://www.photonstorm.com Richard Davey

This article is a great summary of everything that’s wrong with the Flash game world at the moment. Not once does it suggest that developers should put actual thought into making something worthwhile and original. Just clone this, rip that, get code from here. And justify it all by saying newgrounds will still take it. That’s kinda sad if you think about it.
http://www.elite-games.net Badim

i just joined twitter to answer you about ef-clone wars… but anyway, if you prefer personal offense… that is up to you.
http://www.elite-games.net Badim

Josh,
>If you independently built a game engine.
actully, that is up to you – sell engine, or leave it. and contract that you singing up – you can sell game(result), or you can sell engine+game. engine can be sold exclusively or not. dont transfer all rights to engine and use it for future(in this particular case). “Clients” only own that you had sell them and what is listed in papers, not all.
http://evolutionlive.blogspot.com/ axcho

Badim, I’m glad you have helped a lot of people, I just think that you have the potential to help a lot more.

“This article is a great summary of everything that’s wrong with the Flash game world at the moment. Not once does it suggest that developers should put actual thought into making something worthwhile and original. Just clone this, rip that, get code from here.”

I have agree with this. I hope that someone will write a better article that shows the way to a more glorious Flash game development future. Maybe I’ll write something like that, once I get more experience…
http://www.shortandhappy.com K. Thor Jensen

I have to agree with the majority of the commenters here – this article is atrocious and I’m shocked that Mochi is lending their endorsement to it. I don’t know where the writer comes from, but here in America we kind of like our copyrights.
http://www.untoldentertainment.com Ryan Henson Creighton

K. Thor Jensen – the author is from Russia, where i imagine copyright and trademark laws are rather … lax. (What’s the last internationally-known IP to come out of Russia? Yakov Smirnoff?)

We’re all a product of our environment. But Badim should be taught that rip-offery is uncool, and the Mochi team should give their collective heads a shake for endorsing this article.
http://cavalcadegames.com/blog cavalcadegames

Here are some new English words that might be useful for Badim:

1. unscrupulous: oblivious to or contemptuous of what is right or honorable.

2. creatively bankrupt – unable to show any signs of creativity.
http://www.aorchard.com rosedragon

oh my god! stealing IP is not how you start a business and neither the work scheme of independent flash developer. This more sounds like work scheme of a robber!

There always better way to do than stealing others’ IP, you actually can get free graphics on lostgarden.com , provided you follow the usage guidelines. There always another way that is not involving of ripping out people’s work!

So now, mochimedia encourage robbers?
http://cavalcadegames.com/blog cavalcadegames

@rosedragon – they could care less. Mochi serves games with copyright infringement all the time. If it serves them good, they can turn the other cheek.
http://www.wazooinc.com wazoo

it’s already yanked, but based on the comments I can only gather what was posted.

How are Flash developers ever going to be taken as serious content creators worthy of purchase?

Flash gaming is finally entering a “new age” where you can actually make enough money to stay afloat vs. working for years for pennies (if that) from ad revenue.

Make great content, make awesome games, make compelling gameplay that treats both the Flash developer and the player with nothing but the respect it deserves all around.
http://www.elite-games.net Badim

Cavalcadegames,
>2. creatively bankrupt – unable to show any signs of creativity.
http://cavalcadegames.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/rpl-update.jpg
right. but that is not my experience.

Wazoo, it can be good point, if all developers will use some kind of code, or whatever.

so far, i wonder, why you(all ppl with comment that should offend me personally) judging like this? in article there is many ways to develop right product. you can simply use top100 flash games for this year, and put % for each method. after that you will see, what i see. or you can wait for next article.

what you doing wrong here – you pointing wrong method to do good business. ok, if you doing that once, but blaming me for whole market is just awkward.
S

So unnecessary to remove it. But everybody has to play internet cop and be saints, just because they get the chance.
http://www.elite-games.net Badim

article will be up in my blog =) everybody welcomes there =)
http://tronster.com Tronster

Just saw this article linked from “gaming your way” blog.

I am conflicted the post is down. The author believes there is little wrong doing by ripping sprites. The law says otherwise. Personally I think it’s fine unless any money is generated.

My background; I was the last maintainer of the “Open Source Zelda” (OSZ) project in the early 2000′s. We got rather father in the C++/OpenGL based program until a letter from a lawfirm Nintendo had hired sent a cease and desist. After some communication they made it clear we could use our code (all from scratch) but the sprite we had lifted from NES emulators could not be used.

It took some time, but today, working in a AAA studio, I understand that a company with a popular IP needs to be careful it is not misused and mistakenly taken for something “official”. It takes just one hot-headed individual to be offended and then launch a lawsuit. It would not surprise me either that such an individual would go after the original IP’s owner because they have deep(er) pockets. It’s whack; C’est la vie.

My hope; the original author sees the perspective on why the post created controversy and revises his opinion on the matter of ripping “art” assets.

Cheers.
http://bowlerhatgames.com/ Josh

>”Clients” only own that you had sell them and what is listed in papers, not all.

To avoid any legal confusion, make sure your contracts say that you will retain ownership and right to use any part of the code you want to reuse in the future. As I said, if you wrote code from scratch for your client’s project, they own it, unless your contract says you do. This is work-for-hire, and that means the results are theirs. You can probably get away without that clause, and many clients probably wouldn’t mind, but you may find yourself getting sued by an old client because you’re reusing code from games they thought they owned the source code to entirely.
http://www.elite-games.net Badim

Josh, i already told that =) there is no default value – seller sells stuff only listed in papers, no more, no less. there is no default contract – always read, negotiate, edit them before signing, so you cant be sued. or if you dont care for this project – sell all right, erase it from hdd – that is another way not be sued.

and, when you giving away all sources, keep in mind that all code should be written as additional papers to contract(i dont know term for english), other way you dont fully transfer right for particular code, and you cant be sued for re-using it. and so on, so on… there is really easy to make sure that you cant be sued, and have right to re-use the code, that is can be done without (local or global)law degree.
http://bowlerhatgames.com/ Josh

Most contracts written up by someone else will probably say that full source code belongs to the person/company that is asking you to build a game for them. I guess my real point is that you should always read and understand that part of your contract carefully. If you want to keep any source code for re-use, that particular clause will prevent it, so you need to edit the contract and discuss this with your client. Most clients will assume that they’ll own the full source code to a game you write for them. Even if the contract doesn’t explicitly say that, you should discuss it with the client and make sure they understand that your desire. Not only is it safer for you, it’s also important for having a good relationship with your client.
http://blog.elite-games.net Badim

Josh, didnt i told that already in my comments?
http://bowlerhatgames.com/ Josh

Yes, I think we agree, for the most part.

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The work scheme of an independent Flash developer

About the Author: Vadim Starygin