Our futures

Wallpaper taken from lemontree

From the recap of the first week of class, I understood that this course is to prepare us for future careers in the gaming industry.  It was wholly clear, coming in on the second week, that high school group projects had not prepared our members for the intense cooperation required in designing the Black Tide studios.

For our top five rules we focused on team efficiency and communication. Failure to complete a task causes setbacks for the entire team. Failure to communicate could mean an oversight, which again, creates a setback. Creativity prospers with the combination of open-minded individuals passionate for their project, and that is the vision we have for our group.

Individually, we assigned members of our groups to learn about and explain a variety of legal forms which everyone is subject to. To learn and understand these now will ensure we understand the terms and conditions to which we accept a job offer.

The LLC, or Limited Liability Company, is ideal for a startup company due to the flexibility allowed in both management and accounting aspects. It is also designed for the owners to handle losses for the first two years, rather than relying on investors or a larger corporation. We ruled out C- (standard corps with unlimited shareholders and strict meetings) and S- (smaller corps with a restriction of 100 shareholders) Corps due to our absence of shareholders.

We chose to include a NDA, non-disclosure agreement, to our company so our ideas and plans remain confidential from third-party groups. Meanwhile, the NCC protects the company’s actions if an employee were to leave the company. It may keep a previous employee from joining its competitor and revealing company plans. The NCC usually ends after a specific period of time or only applies to a certain area/company.

IP (intellectual property) agreements protect the “creations of the mind,” generally involving any form of art including: animations, logos, literature, music, words, phrases, etc. There are laws to further protect these which include patents and copyrights. As our company involves a great deal of artistry and innovative thinking, a well thought out IP agreement will protect our employee and the company from disputes involving creative properties.

EULA, or end-user license agreement, allows the purchaser – our customers – to use a copy of the licensor’s – our – software. The user must accept the EULA before using the product. It may protect the licensor from extensive cost of damage should the software cause damage through improper use.

We are currently subject to many of the legalities above without investigating them at all. To be a successful startup or employee, one must understand the concepts and their importance. Learning about these terms is a step in creating our futures.