Hey, this is a question that has bothered me for the last few weeks. What are the steps I must take to sign a deal with a publisher. Not how to get a publisher, but how to legally sign a contract. I'm asking because I had an offer from Funvertising, but they asked me to send my game to them, and that a license agreement will be ready in two weeks time. I turned them down because - I'm not sending my game to anyone before I see some cash, and actually, I don't believe that it takes two weeks for a large company to make a license agreement. If the company is serious about it, then they must have license agreements ready on the spot - they just need to fill in my credentials and some more information.
But now I have started to wonder - did I do the right thing? What is the legal process of these kinds of things?

Thank you

Well first of all it all is dependent on your project you are trying to get published. Your right, it shouldn't take them 2 weeks to come up with something like that unless your talking about EA or Ubisoft. I've never heard of 'Funvertising' before, so I can't tell you I'm familiar with what they do (but I can assume from the title itself).

However, I think you should have sent in at least a demo. Before any publisher will sign your game they will want to see (or should want to see) some of the following materials:
- Playable Demo
- Design Document
- Screenshots
- Videos
- Etc.
BUT, Do not release anything prior to signing at least an NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement). This is a good way to protect your material of the game from them, and if you want to take it a step further then get a Copyright on your idea/art/etc. depending on how serious you are with your project. Releasing a demo or some sort of additional media to them will give them a firm idea of what they are working with.

I will say this, dont expect cash before sending them a demo. They might laugh.

and remember not to give them your full game , unless you dont agree with all the conditions in the contract , you should hire a lawyer to read with you the agreements

Hmm! Question how here can get copyrights? Is any special way or simply need write copyright to xxx in my documents!

Hello!

We where interested in the game of Leonardo under special terms of licensing (nonexclusive copyright with reselling for ingame advertising)

Leonardo offered to fix the bugs and send a version for "testing & quality assurance"

We offered to make a contract including the terms & copyrights for both repecting the international law from our company lawyer. This takes about two weeks.

We got - after we both agreed at terms and ca$h - a mail from Leonardo that he will not send us anything until he got his money.

Sorry Leonardo: We're a company placed in germany - you are a hobbyist (not a company) in Latvia.
If we pay you maybe we never see anything nor get a bugfree game or the needed service if there are bugs left.
In the end also the way (harshly) you wrote the mail gave us the conviction not to make any deal with you.

Good luck, Ulrich Seiffert / funvertising

As all the points they make are valid, I think Funvertising themselves just answered your original question.


(PS: I disagree that only a big company should take two weeks to make a contract. I believe the contrary: the smaller the company, the longer the turnaround. This is because EA for example probably has lawyers that do nothing but contract work and thus can give it immediate attention while smaller companies need to rely on lawyers who have many other things to do. Furthermore, I would be concerned about a boilerplate contract. I would be concerned that a lawyer hasn't reviewed it or that the terms we agreed to are not adequately stated. In short, IMO a week or two per review is normal for contract negotiation (especially when dealing with international law!))

Well the reply to Funvertising and the others is that I have the game demo, just look in the Showcase I thread, it is available for download to anyone. And second of all, "money before getting the item" is standard practice, just look at eBay if you want an example. In summary of all this - I have a demo and I can sign a deal.
Also, I still don't agree that making a deal takes two weeks, we live in the 21st century, the contract I must sign with a publisher are standard contracts, so there is nothing unique about mine, except ny name, surname etc.
And when talking about games - yes I am a hobbyist, but I'm also familiar with business, I run a security company here in Latvia, and no contracts I have ever made, have taken me two weeks, except the first ones, which I use now.

Actually I didn't send anyone to the forums, Funvertising made me an offer, so they had a look at the demo even before we started to communicate. But this is not a thread about Funvertising, this about the steps to take, to ensure that both parties are satisfied.
And speaking about the world we live in, we live in a dog-eat-dog world. I don't care if there is an NDA or whatever, if I send my game to someone, they can just modify it to make their own, and if I'm in Latvia and they are far away, I don't wish to waste my time proving something.

By this whole post, I have come up with only one sure way for me to go, and that is make a trial of my game to send to a publisher, and that's it.

So we can all put a happy end to this, you must look at it like this. Leonardo, you asked for help for a question you had. Fastlane and myself (for example) led you in the right direction from experience, so I think personally our answers hold weight over your opinions. eBay, like Fastlane mentioned, is not where publishers buy game rights.

If they agree to buy your games RIGHTS, then unless they mention otherwise you do not need to make improvements for it. However, if you want them to publish your game in it's entirety, then you will most likely be the one in charge of fixing the bugs as well as anything else they may want. Remember, they are in power here (not you) regardless of who approached whom first.

Following simple awareness steps and co-operating nicely will almost always lead to a happy ending somehow.