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Review with no documentation?

3 replies [Last post]
Mon, 01/05/2004 - 09:25
Anonymous

I have recently had a run of luck and got one of my oldest games requested by a well-known publisher. I rushed around and pulled together a prototype (since all my versions were hand-written) that was suitable and prepared to send it of...

...then I got hit with it...

the particular publisher did not want me to sign anything.
Hm. Curious.
My understanding is that publishers will REQUIRE you to sign a "We might be working on something like this... we have X amount of time to review it... this is not an offer to purchase... yadda yadda" document.

I went ahead and sent the game anyways. It's not particularly complex and I'm not overly inflated in thinking that my idea is the greatest thing since sliced bread and I should protect it with claw and tooth. It's cool, we've been playing it for 6 or 7 years... if someone "steals" it, so what? At least it was good enough to be stolen! :D

BUT for future reference... is it okay that this publisher didn't want me to sign anything? Most of the larger publishers refuse to accept games that require an NDA. Fine. But I was under the impression that ALL publishers required you to sign a document protecting their butt.

Tyler

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Tue, 01/06/2004 - 21:08
#1
Joe_Huber
Offline
Joined: 12/31/1969
Re: Review with no documentation?

Random_Person wrote:
My understanding is that publishers will REQUIRE you to sign a "We might be working on something like this... we have X amount of time to review it... this is not an offer to purchase... yadda yadda" document.

...

BUT for future reference... is it okay that this publisher didn't want me to sign anything? Most of the larger publishers refuse to accept games that require an NDA. Fine. But I was under the impression that ALL publishers required you to sign a document protecting their butt.

I wouldn't worry.

In all the times I've submitted games (FWIW, to Alea, Diet Evil Games, Hans im Glueck, Jolly Roger Games, Kosmos, Out of the Box, Plenary, R&R Games, and Ravensburger), I don't believe I've signed a single NDA. Of course, none of those companies are the size of Hasbro...

Joe

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Thu, 01/15/2004 - 04:14
#2
Anonymous
Review with no documentation?

We usually sign an NDA, and ask that you do as well... protects both of us. On the other hand, its an indication only that "they don't worry about it" that they didn't ask you to sign anything.
XXOOCC

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Tue, 02/24/2004 - 18:21
#3
Anonymous
Review with no documentation?

From what I've heard most big companies won't accept a submission if you try to make them sign an NDA. That's hear-say though, I'm not sure.

From my own perspective, I haven't dealt with NDAs either as Joe said. What I do is make sure before they send it that I'm not working on anything too similar by asking for a very short (1-2 sentence) description of the theme/base mechanics. For example "A bidding game about horseracing". If I'm currently working on a bidding game or a game about horseracing, I will tell the person not to send me their game due to potential conflict of interest.

I would think most publishers do not want to tread on anyone's toes - if they have seen a game, they generally would try to make sure that anything they publish isn't too similar to someone else's game. Of course, sometimes it happens inadvertantly - concurrent design, etc. But really it isn't good for ANYONE to unfairly use someone else's design, especially the smaller publishers, because reputation is everything and lawsuits are expensive.

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