When indie bundles go bad...

dislekcia

http://site.gamingallthetime.com/gamerx-stories/ifk-the-end-aftermath-espionage-and-whats-next

I had never heard of Indie Face Kick until now. Clearly that should have been a sign... This is a totally crazy read (premission indeed) and illustrates wonderfully why you should do your due dilligence research on everyone you're involved with from a business perspective. Stay away from the mickey-mouse operators, unless you're really, really sure about something being worth it. Or else crap like this happens.

For reference, I'm calling the Indie Face Kick dude the crap operator, although Biart7 isn't a model of awesomeness either.

Tuism

Holy crap, that's quite a story. So this was a matter of inexperience coupled with plain evil who's out to take every advantage they can... Stick to the legitimate stuff, pay your taxes, pay your dues, do research. If it sounds too good to be true it probably is, etc.

dislekcia

Nah, I don't think that there's plain evil involved here at all, just selfishness.

The IFK guy seems like an entitled "me-too" internet type who thought that it would be easy to set up a business selling bundles of indie games. His selfishness meant he just assumed a bunch of stupid crap instead of understanding why and how bundles were successful, so he blinded himself with dollar signs.

The Biart dude just sounds like a developer who had something offered to them, thought that sounded like a good idea and went for it. Twice. His selfishness meant he didn't read a contract properly and found himself in a position where he was going to lose money that he felt he'd already earned. The shouting and screaming stems from that. Probably.

Shouty and whiny deserve each other, IMO. Plus I have no idea what's with that 2 month clause in the bundle contract. I'd never sign something like that. Especially if it had typos. Yick.

EvanGreenwood

I guess "beware of publishers who wish to tie you into contracts that aren't in your best interest" is a good lesson to learn from this (and that bundle organizers aren't inherently more noble than other kinds of publishers).

The internet is full of horrible game portals and fly by night game publishers, and now bundles is the new parasitic pastime of such folk.

But they're pretty easy to spot. Their plumage is a deep shade of protecting-their-own-interests-above-those-of-others with a distinct not-really-offering-anything-of-value pattern, while their mating call is an ear-piecing I-have-no-fucking-record-of-success squeal. In many parts of the country they are multiplying out of control and destroying the natural habitats, and hopes and dreams, of the lesser game developer species. Shoot on sight.

Of course, there are publishers and bundle organizers that genuinely do help the game developers they work with, obviously.

P.S. (incoming rant) Personally I've been finding many of these bundles more than a little lack-luster. I'd even go as far as to say many of these bundles seem to be benefiting developers who are actual shit, at the expense of the reputations of other developers on the same bundle. For example I felt the Indie Royale: The Summer Bundle had MASSIVE peaks and valleys of quality, except the peaks weren't that high and the valleys could have consumed whole continents and still have had room to drown you in.

Tuism

I guess being in the business for real for a long time grants you the see-through-the-bullshit vision that you guys seem to possess :) Cos my first reaction was that the guy was at least sincere about getting and giving people their due despite difficult situations (aka fail due to inexeperience). That could have been read as spin, too, I guess.

I'm aiming to be fly by night :P Hopefully that doesn't mean I'll be a dick about it :P

Actrox

I guess being in the business for real for a long time grants you the see-through-the-bullshit vision that you guys seem to possess :) Cos my first reaction was that the guy was at least sincere about getting and giving people their due despite difficult situations (aka fail due to inexeperience).

One thing to always keep in mind is that there is always two sides to a story, and they are both wrong. Humans lie, they think of themselves first and what matters to them, they feel what everyone else does is influencing there lives, but don't believe there actions influences others. It's human nature. So when keeping this thought in your head, you can re-read his post, and realize he clearly did something to piss off that developer which he isn't telling us about.

Also that contract isn't worth crap really. The parties are not described or undersigned, no date ect unless thats not the complete document.

Rigormortis

@Actrox, I read that between the lines too. Obviously the dev was unhappy about something. We are just not let in on that something. The saying I usually hear is that there are 3 sides to a story. The first person's side, the second person's side and the truth.

I don't really know what else to say about this though. It makes me sad(and quite angry) to see people treat each other this way.

dislekcia

Remember that everything in a contract is negotiable. Sometimes the outcome of a negotiation is that you walk away from something, that's totally ok to do as well. Anyone that tries to pressure you into signing something or threatens you with censure somehow if you walk away is not worth doing business with. It should always be a relationship for mutual benefit, if there's pressure involved, then it's never going to be mutual and it's best to just get out of that situation as fast as possible...

There's a concerted effort by a group of indies right now to keep negotiating away some of the worse clauses in Amazon and Microsoft's game distribution contracts, for instance.