Should I be working for royalties?
polycounter lvl 2
Alright so I got this job offer and they want me to work for royalties. Here is my situation. Right now I am playing poker professionnally 3 days a week and working on my portfolio 4 days a week. I think I am getting close to a skill level where I can start charging for my art. I never had a paid job before so taking their offer would not directly cost me money beside the time spent on their project vs what I would have made job hunting some freelance job. I also talked with them about my fear of working a couple of months on something without being able to put it in my portfolio because of the NDA and they assured me that I would be eventually able to share the work I've done.
My question is what are the thing I should clarify with them if I do take the offer? Should I take the offer to gain experience since the chances of me landing a job in the next couple of month are low and that I would probably just keep working on my portfolio anyways?
My question is what are the thing I should clarify with them if I do take the offer? Should I take the offer to gain experience since the chances of me landing a job in the next couple of month are low and that I would probably just keep working on my portfolio anyways?
Replies
Promises of "royalties" are just a way to get people to work on a project for free; most of these projects never get finished. If you're fine knowing both of those things, but you really like what they're doing, it might still be a good experience, but treat it the way it deserves to be treated: an unpaid project you're doing in your spare time.
If you are working for royalties, you are essentially financing their company with free labour. You are their dream investor: you are putting all of your resources into THEIR company and getting nothing but a promise back.
As I said in another recent thread, a contract is your chance to communicate clearly what each side is promising to do, and what you'll both get from the partnership.
Oral agreements are crap! And very unprofessional. But mostly just crap.
but if the project leader has got money to pay you but still chooses royalty based work for you then he also doesnt believe in the project and is trying to scam you for free work. These individuals are dangerous , avoid them at all cost.
if it's a team full of artists and no coders then it's neither going to see the light of day (might still lead to decent foliopieces though).
if it's a programmer looking to team up with an artist to make that prototype that then attracts funding then that must be Joao's 0.1 % where one day perhaps - if you don't get scammed - you might see a return.
Cheerio