Severe hangover. I will not be drinking again.
Bumped into Xing from Microsoft, he was out last night and did not have a hang over. I was jealous.
Spent all day in a single tutorial called Deal Making for Developers, which was useful, but mainly all just common sense. There was a panel including the guy who runs Pandemic, the Mumbo Jumbo CEO and a load of lawyers - at times, it was a little bit like the whole point of the session was to sell their services as lawyers. They covered employment law, which while very US centric, pointed out the difficulty of enforcing non-compete clauses. The Pandemic guy suggested just not having one; you can’t enforce it, and not having it makes you an even handed employer. Plus if people want to leave, you should probably just let them leave…
Bumped into Lina and Nathan from CCP, they were out last night and did not have hang overs. I was jealous.
They also discussed ownership of work rights; if someone creates something on their own time, but on the company’s computers in the company’s office etc, then it’s pretty much the company’s (though I don’t think anyone would ever want to enforce something like that). The discussion about deal making was interesting, but again, just common sense; If we’re negotiating a deal and they want us start working on the game without a contract, we shouldn’t do it unless they give us cash first. Talk to more than 1 publisher at a time. Know when to walk away. Establish a term sheet before the contract. Don’t keep sending drafts between lawyers, fix the first draft straight away. Don’t give away your IP rights. Use a lawyer that specialises in games. Etc etc. All common sense stuff.
I went home to bed after this, I was in bits.