So with the Psychodyssey Doc now out and having fully watched it. I now am left with a very nagging question.
In the documentary, Matt Booty tells the DF team that future AF’s will need to be evaluated from a legal sense. Since Schafer has always stated DF will not own any of the IP presented is not owned by DF. Though of course as Booty stated any game project worked on during company time would typically be considered owned IP.
Im curious has this been hashed out yet? Will the future of AF change or will it now end?
I am also curious what the community’s thoughts on this matter are?
I really do hope they continue them, but it does seem like they can’t do them as publicly as they did at least. Hopefully they can at least hold private Amnesia Fortnights.
From what i took away… the publicity was not a problem… the only hiccup was df didnt own any of the games made unless they decided later they wanted to make them full games…
Which from a legal sense seemed iffy at best for an indie studio… and a big no from any moderately sized company
Yeah. I think thats the way it would have to go… Though it seems like the df team was hesitant about such an idea. With if im correctly recalling the statement in the doc Tim was worried that not providing that freedom for individuals to own ip not used… would lower the odds of people wanting to come forth with creative ideas.
These sort of mash ups aren’t exactly rare in the industry… just no one expects to own the IP they created using company time and resources. Tim should have never set that expectation when they were independent because it’s extremely legally grey and people would still participate because game designers are generally creative people.
Yeah… it is/was a very odd thing to be like… work on this thing… if we dont use it we wont keep it.
I know its not tied to just games… my company where i work… heck even my university had the rules of what you make on company time or company tools is the company.
The one after the acquisition is the one talked about in the doc. Booty tells them it can continue but after this one it needs to be looked at for legal reasons.
Yeah, that one was during the closure of the deal. We also don’t know what was said about that afterwards, it seemed like Booty did not know about it at the time. My guess is they shut that down.
No, I mean they probably shut the creators own the IP thing down. I do think the events will continue, great way to get new ideas for games going in the studio.
I would imagine the individual pitches (worked on outside company time) would not be owned by MS, but if the pitches get selected for AF and worked on for those two weeks, then they would be. But I’m just guessing.