MAMEWorld Forums - EmuChat - Re: The Day MAME Saved My A**

> > The best way to keep people honest is to take the profit out of everything.
>
> Remove profit (at a personal or corporate level) and you have removed the incentive
> to create a worthwhile product.
>
> > This thread exemplifies the need for a resource-based economy.
>
> No, this thread exemplifies the need for a good legal team when your publisher tries
> to screw you over. Sad to say it, but it is true and a not-uncommon experience in the
> development field.

I've been thinking about this over the last few days - thinking about the best ways to work it without needing lawyers, without risking payments, and while still being able to sleep at night.

For the last 5 years, I've been doing a fair bit of part time work through web sites like Rent-A-Coder (RAC) = 210+ projects completed so far. In Rent-A-Coder, a buyer sets-up a project and others (workers, coders, etc) bid on it. Or, if a buyer prefers, they can setup a private project just for a specific coder (or team of coders).

For your situation, dealing with games publishers, etc, you'd almost certainly want to stick with the Private Project route, so that others aren't trying to underbid you on it. It's just you and the buyer (the publisher) when the project is private. No-one else can sneak in and cut your grass.

The buyer uploads a specification. It could be just for phase 1 of a bigger project, or it could be a prototype, or it could be anything else - anything that is a well defied deliverable. If there are any ambiguities, missing information, etc you sort them out with the buyer before bidding.

Once everyone understands the work, the buyer sets the agreed deadline and you bid on the work. Or, for private auctions, you negotiate the price and deadline, and then bid the agreed price for the work.

You do all communication on the RAC project's forum - so everything is recorded if there is some dispute later on.

At this time, the buyer has to pay for the work in full (they pay Rent-A-Coder), and RAC hang onto the money until the project is finished and the work is fully accepted by the buyer.

If the work isn't accepted, then there is an abritration process - you put your case forward as to why the work is done (e.g. show how each item in the requirements is ticked off), and the buyer says where they aren't happy. If they have a point, you do what's required and then re-upload the work.

When the work is accepted, you get paid.

RAC charge a commission - ~15% for open projects or ~10% for private projects.

A *VERY* small price to pay for peace of mind. Much better than getting shafted, paid only half, slow paid, etc.

It might be a way you can work it and still sleep at nights without having a legal team on standby ?

Who knows, while working on RAC (or other work web sites), you may find other projects that you want to do.

The way I work on RAC is to upload storeyboards, q&d prototypes, etc before bidding to flesh out the requirements, and ensure I understand exactly what's required. This also gives the buyer peace of mind - they know I'm right on the ball. I also try and make suggestions for improvements any extra features I think would be useful, and these are usually highly appreciated by the buyer. I then bid on the project, and when/if my bid is accepted, I start work.

I upload my work in stages - e.g. once per week, so the buyer can see how I'm going and try the project out. I try and hold off doing too much further work until the buyer says "Yes, that's perfect !". If they say "could you change / fix this ..." or if there is anything at any stage the buyer isn't happy with, I fix it straight away and re-upload. Once I get a "Yes, that's perfect !", I move on to the next part of the work. Records of all of this discussion and work are kept by RAC. If there is any dispute later, these records are used by RAC staff to determine if the buyer has a case or not.

By working this way, the Buyer can never turn around and say - I'm not happy with the result, because they have been perfectly happy at every stage of the development (and there are records on RAC to prove this).

You might wonder if you can trust RAC with the money for projects worth $10,000's of dollars. That's a fair question. I've regularly trusted RAC with money up to about $3,000 - $5,000. And, there are teams of full-time coders on RAC, and they do much bigger projects and they regularly trust RAC with many $10,000's of dollars.

210+ projects so far, and I've never had anyone try and pull the "I'll pay you 50%" bullshit. It's also impossible for a buyer to slow pay. The money is paid to RAC before you start work. If the buyer does not accept by a certain date or cannot prove why they aren't happy with the work by a certain date, which is something like 2 weeks after you declare the work is complete, then RAC automatically pay you for the work. The RAC staff are good guys. They hate people playing games, being dishonest, etc.

If you prefer to work on Fixed Price or a Time and Materials basis, then RAC accommodate both of these models.

Working on web sites like RAC also leads to other work, and you may find other work you like, and bid on this, and this may fill in the "quieter times" with some nice little projects and these often lead to repeat work, especially when you do a great job for the buyer.

A ~10% commission to RAC is a *very* small price to pay for such peace of mind.

Maybe this way of working can help ?

If you would like more information, please feel free to PM me.

Moose