My name is Marcus Stephens.
Every day that I monitor this page, I see Polyduck’s Topic.
Polyducks and I have corresponded via that Topic posting. I’m initiating a Topic to clarify, in case either a) my responses directly to Polyducks are tl;dr for some, or b) people only read the Topic headings, not the responses.
Here is the link to the full exchange between Polyducks and I: https://itch.io/jam/commercially-viable-game-social-justice-game-jam-1/topic/950846/this-is-unethical-spec-work-not-a-game-jam
Below is a reproduction of my clarifications that this is NOT an unethical spec work grab.
Hello Polyducks! Thanks so much for your thoughtful response. My name is Marcus, the host of this jam. Let me take a minute to respond.
This is not a Spec Work project for reasons I will articulate in a moment. But just to be clear, I’ve worked in corporate America for most of my life and spec work from designers, consulting firms, developers, screenwriters, directors, comedy / sketch writers, software providers, designers, etc., etc. is extremely common. I’ve worked with “famous” consulting firms who gave away astonishing amounts of work in order to land an account. Providers must always assess how much work to put in vs the likelihood of landing the deal, but it is an extremely common activity.
That said, this is not a spec work project because people who do not win the jam are free to do with their games whatever they wish.
By mandating that the game be commercially viable, I am essentially requiring that developers create a game that has at least a chance of making money for them. If I publish a viable game, I will then pour thousands of dollars into marketing that game. Non-winning teams are free to market their games as well if they choose. The story is robust enough that there will likely be a huge diversity of games emanating from it.
All of this is distinct from doing spec work for a company, where the company requesting the work nearly always requires that said provider sign an NDA which, among other things in my experience, usually introduces restrictions on the provider regarding usage of spec work for anyone else. I am requiring no such document.
Further, the micro-transactions do not pay off the $12,000. I see how this might be concerning, so let me be clear: when the publishing agreement is posted, it will indicate that the developers receive royalties for the game using the “from the first dollar” model, which means royalties will begin to flow to developers before I recoup marketing or contest costs. Very often, as I’m sure you well know, when an initial pay-out is provided by a publisher, the publisher will then withhold royalties until these expenses are recouped. We are not doing that. We will select a game in which we believe so strongly that we are willing to risk paying royalties from the first dollar because the game will be so good that there will be more than enough wealth to go around.
Lastly, the focus of this jam is creating games that give love to the social justice movement. I am enormously passionate about this movement, which is part of why I decided to go ahead with the jam, despite the fact that I am apparently making every conceivable mistake in the book. There might need to be an Appendix to cover all the mistakes I’ve made. I’m putting up sizeable amounts of my own money and screwing up sometimes but I’m passionate about this anyway and want to proceed. Let me explain – first from a business perspective and then from my perspective as a Black man.
Suppose 20 teams submit games. I will choose one winner, so 19 teams will not get the marketing deal and funding – but there will be 19 games in existence in the world that are focused on social justice, not just another boring af world-building game that has no value or relevance to what’s going on in the world.
Now look at this Jam from my perspective. I’m creating a Jam where tons of games will be created that will compete with mine. It’s entirely possible that one of the games from this Jam that I do not select takes over the world.
I would be happy with this outcome because there needs to be more games in the world that care about Black people and other marginalized communities. Practically every new game I see has no relevance to my life as a Black man – and developers just keep churning out more of them. It’s like no one in the gaming community even cares. But I decided to believe that’s not true. I decided to believe that there must be developers who care. So I figured: maybe they just need incentive.
So I designed a Game Jam with a) crazy generous prizing, plus b) a marketing deal worth thousands of dollars to help the winning viable game be successful - and c) a way to create lots of games that will likely compete with mine. From a business perspective this sounds completely insane. From a soul perspective, hopefully it will start to create shift in the thinking of game developers such that we get better, more socially conscious, super-fun games placed into the world.
So the video you presented - which is excellent btw – differs from this Game Jam primarily in that the non-winning development teams do not “walk away with nothing” for all their hard work. They walk away with a solid game, designed to have strong commercial viability, that hopefully does some good in the world.
I hope this helps address your concerns. & thank you again for your feedback.
Best,
Marcus