Task 6 Contractual, Legal, Ethical and Professional

Explain and illustrate the contractual, legal, ethical obligations and professional bodies within the games industry.


Employment Contracts are rules set by the employers to make sure the applicant's job and what he/she will do is made clear. To avoid workers from doing unnecessary activities at work instead of doing what they were hired for. The contract makes clear what the employee will be doing in exchange of money, benefits etc. This is done to ensure that no people who are unsure of the job apply to it. Without a contractual agreement, the employees might get fed up one day and say this is not what the job was originally advertised as and this could be avoided by  simply giving an employment contract at the interview.

Development agreements are like employment contracts but in this case, a publisher hires a developer to develop their game.  Like other contracts, the job and hours are made clear. In a developer's agreement however, the publishers give set dead lines and the amount of work, coding and developing that needs to be done within the given time.
Terms- When the hirer (publisher) spells out how much the developer will be paid and if there are any royalties, they're explained.
The publisher has to make clear if it owns the IP being used by the developers and the developing company has to swear it will not use someone else's code as their own. 

Licence agreement- When a publisher wants to make a game, film or anything about something already existing, they have to contact the IP owners to come to the agreement that sets any limits after the publishers have made clear what exactly they will use and how they will use it. The publishers also need to discuss about the territorial rights their game or film will have. Publishers want world wide rights but the owner of IP may modify this a bit and leave some restrictions depending on the published material itself.

An NDA is a legal contract between at least two parties that outlines confidential material, knowledge, or information that the parties wish to share with one another for certain purposes, but wish to restrict access to or by third parties. It is a contract through which the parties agree not to disclose information covered by the agreement. An NDA creates a confidential relationship between the parties to protect any type of confidential and proprietary information or trade secrets. As such, an NDA protects nonpublic business information.

A collaboration agreement is an agreement between two or more researchers that sets forth the nature of their working relationship in a research project. The agreement may include provisions concerning the intent of the parties to share data, research materials and facilities, and to publish research findings. 



In all indsutries there are levels of how good something is. For example in movies one can compare sounds, visuals, how good the cgi is, how good the acting is etc. To decide who gets an award for the best work done, there are awarding associations for every big industry. The national and more known ones are Ukie, Igda, Wigj, Bafta and Mef. Which are seperate associations for different industries. However those are just shortened versions of what they fully stand for.

Ukie, which is short for the association for UK interactive entertainament is the only trade body for the wider entertainment in UK. Its like the Baftas, it compares, nominates and awards the best work depending on the category it is in. WIdely used for gaming, Ukie recently started holding nominations for video games as it is technically a motion picture creation and classed as interactive media. 

Idga, is short for the international games developers association. Founded 19 years ago in 1994 in America, is a completely non profit organisation that  helps developers and helps them improve in any way possible. This applies to developers in particular. Idga connects their members (developers) connect to peers to promote professional development and focusing on issues that affect the developer community.

Wigj, short for women in games jobs. Women in games jobs is a non profit organisation that helps women get jobs in games industry. It makes sure it can do all it can to help encourage women into the industry and make it as easy as possible for them to enter the industry.

Bafta, The British academy of Film and Television Arts. The Bafta supports, promotes and develops the art of moving imagery in television, films and gaming. It evaluates all the different releases in the 3 different industries and awards the best one. They inspire and motivate the people in these industries to take risks, try new things and push themselves harder and create new higher standards.

MEF, Mobile Entertainment Forum. MEF Shapes the ongoing development of the industry through its regulation and policy & initiatives activity. We work globally with key stakeholders at a local level to advance a robust and equitable business environment that protects members’ revenues and facilitates growth.

A Copyright gives the creators of a wide range of material, such as literature, art, music, sound recordings, films and broadcasts, economic rights enabling them to control use of their material in a number of ways, such as by making copies, issuing copies to the public, performing in public, broadcasting and use on-line. It also gives moral rights to be identified as the creator of certain kinds of material, and to object to distortion or mutilation of it.

A trade mark is a sign which can distinguish your goods and services from those of your competitors (you may refer to your trade mark as your "brand"). It can be for example words, logos or a combination of both.

A patent protects new inventions and covers how things work, what they do, how they do it, what they are made of and how they are made. If a patent application is granted, it gives the owner the ability to take a legal action under civil law to try to stop others from making, using, importing or selling the invention without permission. This may involve suing the alleged infringer through the courts, which is costly and time consuming because it involves expert legal advice. 

A Registered Design grants exclusive rights in the look and appearance of your product. You can stop people making, offering, putting on the market, importing, exporting, using or stocking for those purposes, a product to which your design is applied.