Kevin Dent is CEO of Tiswaz Entertainment, an advisory board member at PlayHaven and chair of the IGDA Mobile SIG.
The following opinions are his own.
A few years back, I was on a conference call with an employer and he told me to compile a contract that would basically screw a developer.
As an employee, I duly started to write the agreement.
I compiled the contract; it looked pretty innocuous in terms of its content. I sent it to a lawyer to review and he asked me why I wrote such a harmless agreement.
I then pointed out a few clauses that tied everything together. Alone, they were harmless, but combined, it was like a cocktail of prescription drugs that were fatal when ingested together.
My lawyer didn't see that, so I sent it to two other lawyers and they didn't see it either.
Any move the developer made, they were in a checkmate position. When I pointed out the three clauses together, the lawyers laughed and said I should become a lawyer.
I am not proud to admit that I was very, very good at building that contract; I am proud that I deleted it and quit my job the next day.
Copy and copy alike
Since Facebook and the various app stores came to fruition, we have seen amazing, delicious and spell-binding content that's violently exciting.
Soon after, we've seen badly executed knock-offs. We roll our eyes and hope the knock-offs die a thousand deaths.
It's just something that we have to live with.
Then, last week, we saw Zynga release a game that looks pretty much identical to NimbleBit's Tiny Tower. We all wrung our hands in desperation because we knew there was no recourse for NimbleBit, a three-man indie, to take on the $7 billion market cap Zynga.
Yet, at this point, can I be bold enough to suggest that we do not use what we can legally get away with as our benchmark?
Longshot I know.
Not so LOL
And so to the Clonegate for this week.
A few months ago, social publisher LOLApps (part of the 6waves LOLApps group) reached out to Spry Fox, a Seattle-based developer, which is run by a couple of industry vets. They were looking for a pitch. Spry Fox presented a game called Triple Town that they were working on.
They sent LOLApps their first playable version, and worked the pitch the way you work a pitch. They then sent the beta to LOLApps and worked towards a publishing contract.
Then, one day, the executive director of business development at LOLApps, Dan Laughlin, sends a Facebook message to the Spry Fox's David Edery that you can read below (it's also on page six of the lawsuit).
That sinking feeling
First off, if it were me in that position I would never have sent the message, because I would not have been working for LOLApps by that stage.
As soon as I found out what we were doing, I would have tossed in my chips and left. The fact Dan was obviously distraught is terrible, I feel bad for the guy... No, I actually don't.
The other aspect that makes me sad is that Shawn Green of Escalation Games - who worked on Doom back in the day - was also part of this; Escalation developed Yeti Town for 6waves LOLApps and has since been acquired by the company.
Shawn is a veteran of the industry. He knows right from wrong... Of course, we have to understand his position, he was in the process of selling Escalation to LOLApps at the time. So what if he sold his firm on the back of taking those 30 pieces of silver?
Backlash
Ah, but you see fair reader, this is why I always, always, always say "Lawyer up".
I spoke to a source at LOLApps on Friday and they told me that chief product offer Arjun Sethi held an all-hands meeting to discuss this as a number of staff had threatened to leave the firm, and I personally have seen a number of resumes from LOLApps staff cross my desk over the past few weeks.
But even assuming this gets settled out of court - and it will because LOLApps is a VC-backed firm and there's too much risk to put this in front of a jury - LOLApps still needs to source new games from developers for its future business.
And, this is likely to be the main fallout from the affair; what developer would want to work with such a firm?
You can follow Kevin on Twitter.
Feature
PocketGamer.biz regularly posts content from a variety of guest writers across the games industry. These encompass a wide range of topics and people from different backgrounds and diversities, sharing their opinion on the hottest trending topics, undiscovered gems and what the future of the business holds.
Top Stories
News
Apr 27th, 2024
PocketGamer.biz Podcast Week in Views E09 - Supercell's Squad Busters goes global, Embracer Group splits, and Apple's Vision Pro flops
News
Apr 26th, 2024
Week in Views - Squads busted, Apple crushed, War zoned and Snoozin' with the Snorlax…
Feature
Apr 26th, 2024
Speaker Spotlight: Dubai Future Foundation's Faisal Kazim on leading Dubai's gaming charge
Events
Esports Future Summit | Middle East | Apr 27th |
Dubai GameExpo Summit 2024 | Middle East | May 1st |
The MENA Games Industry Awards 2024 | Middle East | May 2nd |
GameDev Atlantic 2024 | May 4th | |
Mobidictum Meetup Berlin May 2024 | Europe | May 7th |
Mobidictum Meetup Tallinn May 2024 | Europe | May 21st |
Israel Mobile Summit 2024 | Middle East | Jun 6th |
DevGAMM Vilnius 2024 | Europe | Jun 14th |
Popular Stories
News
Apr 23rd, 2024
Supercell’s Squad Busters soft launches today with over 100,000 Google Play downloads
News
Apr 23rd, 2024