Protecting yourself from people going rogue.

[dokancreations]

Hello guys, I am developing a game and I have fears that someone from my team might ditch me, take my project and go rogue.

What can I do to protect myself from such a scenario?

 

[Synx]

You should ask yourself why does the guy want to ditch and leave you; doesn't he agree with which way the game is going, isnt he getting (enough) rewarded for the time/energy he spents in it, does he feel the rest of the development team doesn't do enough, etc.

Besides unless you are developing a compelely finished game from the start, how would the guy continue the project on its own, after the first release?

As for protecting your game (why are you calling it 'My game' when you are in a development team?) if you are the leader/boss and outsource some parts of the game you can just share the parts the other guy needs to do its work. A programmer doesn't need all the models/renders, a writher doesn't need the game-code, etc.

 

[redknight00]

First of, don't work with people unless you have absolute trust in them.

Second, if they are getting paid, get a lawyer and write a contract.

 

[Avaron1974]

This is why a lot of devs work alone although you still see the occasional clueless one telling them to hire others to work with them.

I know 3 devs now that have been screwed over by people they got to work with them.

I remember when Chatterbox had all his characters deleted by a rogue member, OMVN had a lot of his second games stuff stolen and had to release the stuff he'd done on the second game early to stop the other guy doing it.

I know for me personally i'll work alone regardless of how slow it is.

The only 100% fool proof way of covering your own back is by only working with people you trust completely.

 

[I'm Not Thea Lundgren!]

What they all said, but also - don't forget to keep backups of everything you create.

 

[recreation]

I really don't know why people have such a big problem with that, just don't share the whole game folder with everyone and all the files with every team member. In a team nobody needs every file to work on the game, and if nobody has all the files except the actual dev, then nobody can steal the game, parts of it yes, and artist might be able to steal the character art, a writer might be able to steal the story, a coder might be able to steal the code, but nobody can steal the whole game.

But honestly, all that aside, if you think somebody you're working with would steal your work, then stop working with them. Like others said, if you can't trust your team, then don't work with them!

 

[mickydoo]

I know for me personally i'll work alone regardless of how slow it is.

Same, you couldn't pay me to help me, I learned how to do everything myself so I could do it all myself.

 

[GNVE]

Well I am not against hiring help though for now it would be on project basis (e.g. design complicated logo I can't hope to do myself). Using a good work for hire contract (meaning transfer of copyright or if that is not possible a worldwide exclusive non rescindable commercial etc etc etc. licence) So mostly there wouldn't be much opportunity to steal stuff from me. (a horrible collage of logo elements probably is not worth it.)
If I were ever in a position to hire part time or even full time employees I would be inclined to only use local people who could actually make it into an office. I don't know but I feel that would make it less likely for misunderstandings to turn into full on grudges and misgivings. But who knows that might be wishful thinking.

 

[79flavors]

What can I do to protect myself from such a scenario?

I guess it depends on the game engine you are planning to use and how you plan to divide up the work.

If you are paying for the work, get a contract written up. In the states, a work for hire contract is usually enough - but if you are dealing with people across multiple countries - you may need to investigate further.

If you are just getting a little helping hand from someone or someone(s) for free then quite simply don't trust them. Take any help they are willing to give, but it's your project - don't trust them.

If the game engine you are using means that you don't need to share the whole project with your collaborators - don't. Share what is relevant to their particular part of the project - but keep all the pieces under your own control.

Keep backups or implement source control management that allows versioning. If someone does something to an element of the project you don't like... revert it back to a version you do like.

If you aren't using a source control management tool, consider how you'll exchange versions of the project with others. Projects like

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have options where share nodes can have options set so

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, even if they are flagged as deleted. So the whole "person X deleted my entire project" shouldn't happen.

Consider having at least two sets of directories for your project. A "master" directory, where YOUR copy of the project exists in full. Then a directory to be shared depending on the breakdown of responsibilities within the project. If you only want your 3DCG developer to have access to the CG folder and 3D models... then have a set of folders for that. If you want to share everything with everyone, do that. But keep "your" master copy separate so that you only share what you want to share. Consider using other tools like

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and filtered profiles to keep all these distinct copies of your project (full and partial as needed) in sync with each other (i.e. sync only .duf files for example, or only .rpy file).

If you are doing things on a more manual basis... consider tools or websites like

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to view all changes being made by your collaborators when they send them to you (at least where such comparisons are possible). Although there are websites out there like

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that will compare stuff like text/source files for you, if you don't want to commit to using offline tools.

This should be considered a "off the top of my head" list of possibilities. Don't consider these the only options or even the best choices for you. Consider them instead as starting points... a hint of the possibilities. They each work for me, but then I'm a simple soul with a mostly technical background.

If you really want to get paranoid and you have two computers available to you, create a network share read-only on the machine where the day-to-day project files are stored... and use the 2nd computer accessing that read-only set of files to do your backups/versioning. That way, even if the main computer is compromised somehow - there isn't an easy route to the backups.

If all else fails... it's really hard to delete/alter a copy of project that is stored on a memory stick that isn't currently plugged in.

Slightly off topic... but... like any backup strategy... try to find a way to do off-site backups. Having the world's best backup processes in place at your home/office is great and all that. But if your house burns down, you lose all your data and your backups at the same time.

If in doubt... do it all yourself.

 

[79flavors]

As an additional thought...

Even if you aren't accepting any of my personal recommendations for software tools or approaches... Consider replying here saying which of these you approaches/tools you think you *could* consider and which ones are definitely things you would avoid.

That way, others can gauge your goals and level of technical experience - so that better suggestions can be made.

At the very least, you might want to explain if you're planning on using Unity, RenPy, RPGM or something else. Then say which parts of the project you are planning on working on and which parts of the project you be getting others to do.