Juggling Chainsaws: Original IP vs. Work for Hire

In this 2016 GDC talk, ClutchPlay Games' Amy Dallas talks about balancing work-for-hire projects vs. developing original IP, what she and her team have learned from this process and how they've applied those lessons to maintaining the health of their studio.

GDC talks cover a range of developmental topics including game design, programming, audio, visual arts, business management, production, online games, and much more. We post a fresh GDC video every day. Subscribe to the channel to stay on top of regular updates, and check out GDC Vault for thousands of more in-depth talks from our archives.

Follow us on Twitter

Check out our Facebook page for GDC exclusives

[tehfn]

Anxiety maths. Like every interview for games dev as a programmer ever. My response, "you know my job requires google right?" :D

[oopsy]

I can't find the talk she mentioned F2P vs Premium the good the bad the ugly. I'm guessing they didn't publish it here on YouTube. Anyone have a link where I can watch it

[Haos]

Looks like Project X is not released yet.

[whatshendrix]

I like the part where she went "We made a game that fucking sucks but still managed to make $10k. Conclusion: it's difficult to be in this business, because $10k/year isn't enough".
Are there any examples of indie games that flopped, despite being brilliant?

[Haos]

The two thee games i keep playing on mobile are Transport Tycoon port, Angband port and Heroes 3 (via VCMI). I am sorry to say but mobile games are so crappy in general, that I cannot imagine anyone would even bother pirating these...

[tehfn]

She called thew piracy of her games "a pretty serious loss" but it isn't. It was money they never had in the first place. If you consider piracy as a threat to your income, you are not making good enough games. Which I can only presume is a side effect of making mobile games to survive.