Time Passes When You're Not Looking

Suddenly it's July 2014. Not sure how or when that happened...


In the past few weeks I've finally finished the Celts books for Amber and the Liftoff! project for 13Mann. So now I can get to work on 'The Swordie Book' for Amberley and some more Call of Cthulhu material for Cubicle 7.


I've repeatedly decided to leave the games industry behind, but almost inevitably someone then offers me money to do some work for them. I like money, even if it's game-industry rates, so it's one more project then I'm out.


These days I'm more selective than previously about who I work for - largely due to the number of clients who have decided not to give me money after all. There's also the fact that in the past I've given good ideas to a client, so to speak, for little or no gain. I'm reluctant to waste good creativity these days, so I'm asking a bit more from the client. We'll start with paying on time - if you can manage that then you'll have my full attention.


On a related note, I had hoped (due to information from a third party) that there might be some resolution of the QLI issue. Turns out not to be the case. The short version is that I was never paid for most of the work I did for QLI, and I have records of an agreement with FFE, the overall license holder, that this work was first-rights-only. However, with the collapse of QLI, rights have reverted to FFE... only QLI never owned those rights because they didn't pay me.

No resolution seems possible at this stage.

The moral of this sad tale is that no matter how enthusiastic you are, no matter if you're working with a friend, get a contract. I worked on a handshake with someone I had reason to trust, and I lost out badly. Truthfully, I did know better but I allowed myself to be over-enthusiastic and put aside common sense.