as the seller or as the partner waiting to get paid? we developed a game for the iPhone early on in the Application Store lifecycle - we had a good partnership deal; effectively $3500 US upfront development and 33% royalties. we've received royalty payments - however, as sales die out; the value of putting in more effort dwindles. in this case; a friend developed the game; and i maintained it - we have released a number of updates to the game tho. we didn't make a million dollars out of it tho - the partner distributing the game has probably; after 1 year - finally made enough profit from the game to cover the game design, artwork, audio and implementation costs. it is one of the grave realities of the app store tho.
dhondon, The only two reasons a "good" developer should consider working on a royalty based project are ...... a) the idea for the app has incredible potential (huge upside) b) the developer has absolutely no creativity of his own OR Formulated as a simple question.... Why would someone build an app for someone else, with them having no $$$$ in the game? Build your own damn app! This is a wake up call!!!! As to developers trying this gimmick ........ Put your money where your mouth is! If your idea is as great as you think it is going to be, flash the money! If you don't have any awesome ideas drop me a PM I can feed you some.
Royalties tend not to work so well with app development, a large portion of applications fail to make back their investments, and furthermore it takes a long time before alot of these apps even break even. Working for royalties would be a bad move IMHO.
I would say that a developer probably should say "no" to any request to work for royalties. With that said, I have for a few projects paid a musician / graphic artist with royalties. They've both been paid properly for their time at this point, despite none of the games they've worked on being huge hits. Actually I've found it's often cheaper just to pay up front than by royalties. So overall, I'd say just pay or be paid for your time up front. Simpler and lowest risk.
for art we commissioned; we asked for what was fair - and, i sales worked out; the payment would be an advance for royalties if it did actually take of; allowing them to earn more. sometimes it works; sometimes it don't!
One downside to working for royalties is that the project could be dropped at any time, and your left empty handed.
then, be sure in your contract agreement - that you can, if this happens release the application and distribute it on your own. it is your investment too and you should ensure you protect it as much as you can.
It's something you've got to weigh up. If someone is coming to you with a heavyweight license and offering you a hefty upside on a simple to develop app you're in a position to fund, then go for it if you think you can do the numbers! Just be carefull you aren't left pissing in the wind if the project falls through their end halfway through development. But if they're a major license holder why wouldn't they just commision you outright and retain full rights? Perhaps they can't predict numbers or clear the expenditure internally. It's worth asking that question to yourself or them. If someone has an idea but no existing IP and wants you to build the app from scratch from your own pocket then why would you? An idea is essentially worthless, but I'm guessing this isn't the situation. How about asking for an upfront or milestone delivered advance against royalties to fund or part fund the dev costs?
