IGF 2008 Finalists and Winners Get Lawyerly Help

By: Derek Yu

On: August 21st, 2007

tom buscaglia

Gamasutra reveals that all the finalists for this year’s IGF will receive help from “Game Attorney” Tom Buscaglia, with winners receiving some one-on-one consultation.

All Finalists – All finalists will receive a free copy of Buscaglia’s Game Dev Kit. The Kit contains essential information and forms for new independent game developers: Starting a company, contracts and NDAs, and advice on managing copyrights and intellectual property ($295 value).
Category Winners – In addition to the $2,500 cash prize, winners of each of the seven major awards will also receive a free one-hour consultation with Buscaglia ($400 value).
Seumas McNally Grand Prize – In addition to the $20,000 cash prize, the Seumas McNally Grand Prize winner will also receive ten hours of free consultation with Buscaglia ($4,000 value).

Nice work from Simon (source!), Steve, and Matt! The IGF is in great hands.

  • fish

    that is amazing news!
    what a brilliant idea.

    i applaude.

  • Xander

    Sounds great to me! With all the bizarreness of games releases these days and the rediculous amount of choice (not to mention pressure) it’s a great idea to give finalists not so much a push in the right direction, but rather the directions themselves, letting them know what’s ahead for them depending on which one they’d rather take.

    Of course it’s also always beneficial to just pay attention to how things work out for other indie devs, whether you’re joining some kind of Playstation Network scene like Everyday Shooter (I need to play that. Let me play it. I want to play it already!) or simply releasing it for free on just a single day and waiting to see whether word spreads throughout the net. However, if someone’s just thrust $20,000 dollars into your hand, I think it’s definitely a good idea to explore ALL your options first.

  • http://www.g4g.it FireSword

    Wow the book! too bad i don’t live in america.. well that desk leg was short it comes handy the book to fix it loool

    Did Buscaglia use chrono-timer when he starts talking with his clients? Beacouse i would like to ask him if i can sue the microsoft for releasing Vista… hahahahaha

    Cya.

  • Kornel

    I’d rather have those 4,000$ than 10 hours with some old guy xP.

  • 400$/h

    What kind of good can this man do for you within a single hour, that he can afford to charge 400 bucks per hour? To me this seems like an outrageous price.

  • http://www.fadupinator.com larsiusprime

    I’ve worked with Tom, and I’d like to point out that the Naysayers here are idiots.

    When a publisher first contacted me about publishing one of my games, I talked with an old industry veteran who said, “If you can’t afford a lawyer, YOU CAN’T afford to do business.”

    Seriously. Tom is one of the best guys int he business – he’s a laywer in the GAMES industry. There are very few lawyers who actually understand our industry, and Tom is worth his wait in gold.

    Here’s what lawyers do: they write all those legal forms you need to give to everyone who’s worked on your project. They help you incorporate. They help negotiate for you. They let you know if that contract you’re about to sign is filled in with subtle little details that sign away the IP on games you haven’t even worked on yet.

    If you want to get screwed over by your publisher, then by all means, don’t get a lawyer. But getting a lawyer for free, and Tom Buscaglia of all people, is worth more than any money you would have gotten instead.

  • http://josephkingworks.blogspot.com Joseph

    thats a great portrait, he looks like a pornstar or something…

  • Dan MacDonald

    Tom’s a great guy, his passion for helping developers with the legal aspects of game publishing comes from his overall passion for gaming. He got into quake pretty hardcore a few years ago (ran a clan amongst other things) and started realizing the need to help game developers and mod makers not get screwed by unscrupulous publishers. He’s one of the very few people who actually advocate and work with developers. So yeah, he gets my vote :)

  • Prio

    Even _lawyers_ who try to represent themselves these days often get into trouble because they’re unfamiliar with the particular area of the law they’re dealing with. Trying to handle legal affairs as a _non-lawyer_ is an act of suicidal delusion. Sort of like standing on the train tracks believing that trains don’t exist.

  • 400$/h

    Sure a lawyer is a necessity when your negotiating a contract, but I questioned that a single hour would do any good. Seriously this isn’t even enough time for him to ready through a contract so what can possibly come out of this single hour?

  • Wondering

    sounds like this lawyer is doing himself a great marketing service here – without his inclusion as a ‘prize’ most indies probably would have never heard of him

  • Dan MacDonald

    I don’t know, I see him at every game conference I go to. He’s actually pretty active and he’s been doing this since the early 2000’s so he’s not some upstart attorney trying to make a name for himself with games. The reason there aren’t more attorney’s doing it is because frankly it’s just not that profitable. Most mod teams and indie developers just don’t have the cash to hire an attorney. He really does do it because it’s what he’s passionate about.

    I wont deny the obvious marketing potential of having his name be a prize for the IGF, that just means he’s not dumb :)

  • Derek

    Yeah, I don’t see any problem with him getting something out of it, as well. Win-win is the best situation, right? :)

    He’s obviously earned his reputation with the work he’s done.

  • http://www.fadupinator.com larsiusprime

    In one hour, Tom can tell you exactly what is going to go wrong with your project as you currently envision it, because you are not a lawyer.

    I met him at a conference, and he sat down and gave us an hour of his time and told us everything that we needed to do; before him, we knew none of this stuff. He set us straight and put us on the course for success.

    An hour is very valuable because he gave us his years of experience. Also, the REAL prize in there is the GameDevKit – the legal starter kit. That thing has all the forms you need (contributor release forms, NDA’s, etc,) to manage your IP, and lets you know what you need to do to start yourself up. That’s the real key. And in 1 hour he can let you know all the ins and out of your specific situation so you’re not hemmed in by the genericness of the devkit.

    And above and beyond that, you get to pay a very generous man for his time if you need more. $400 sounds like a lot, but how does getting screwed out of TENS OF THOUSANDS of dollars by a publisher sound? Penny-wise, Pound foolish.

  • 400$/h

    Yeah sure if he could achieve all that in a single hour it would be a great deal, but I suppose he will need more than that to really help you and 25 hours of his time cost you TEN THOUSAND dollars. I admit I’m no expert in the field but to me that doesn’t seem to be much time. Basically 3 working days. Can easily be summed up during negotiations.

    If I was one of those evil publishers that screw people over to make this world a worse place one contract at time and I was negotiating with an indie that hired a 400$/h lawyer I would do this:
    Delay, delay and then delay some fucking more. Keeping that lawyer as busy as I can.
    Those indies will run sooner out of money than I do and once they can no longer afford legal counsel and are desperate to close the deal because they can no longer pay their bills, I will really screw them over.
    Now the indie is stuck with a bad deal AND four figure lawyer bills.

    I’m not questioning wether Tom is a good lawyer or not. I’m just questioning if any IGF finalist can afford his help. Maybe I’m underestimating the budget of an average indie developer but my guess is ‘HELL NO!’ so this single hour with Tom will be your ONLY one and no matter how good he might be, it is not enough time to get to know and analyse your situation and “tell you exactly what is going to go wrong with your project as you currently envision it”.

  • http://www.g4g.it FireSword

    What game lariusprime?

  • http://josephkingworks.blogspot.com Joseph

    Well an hour of counsel is better than nothing…

  • http://www.igf.com/ Matthew

    We’re aware that a single hour is a little troublesome. In any serious situation, like a contract negotiation, it’s probably just enough time to realize that you need *more* time. Tom himself was wary of this–he didn’t want to send the message that he’s just advertising his services with this teaser hour. In the end we decided that one hour is better than nothing, and that the 10-hour award helps balance it out.

    Personally, I think the real value of the hour won’t be the legal advice on a particular wording in an NDA or contract. Tom’s been in the industry a long time, and he’s seen all kinds of deals from all kinds of people. The real value here is the big picture he’ll be able to give you: What *kinds* of deals to look for, what sorts of numbers are ballpark good, which trap terms are commonly used to shaft developers, etc.

    Our other intention was to signal publishers that IGF finalists will have *some* kind of legal advice behind them. People treat you differently when they know you have a lawyer on your speed dial.

    And finally–although others have already pointed it out–Tom isn’t some upstart. I mean, the guy sits on the *board of directors* for the IGDA. He’s been active as a lawyer in the industry since 1991. I don’t know about you, but I was an 11-year-old in ’91…

  • PHeMoX

    “Sort of like standing on the train tracks believing that trains don’t exist.”

    Lol, they don’t exist until the very moment they hit you .. which is exactly why they are so dangerous. ^^