
How my fellow developer stole my Steam game from me - sergiotapia
https://medium.com/@sickbrick/how-my-fellow-developer-stole-my-steam-game-from-me-57a269fd0c7b?utm=em
======
fao_
"I made all the RTS buildings, tanks, some enemies, terrain textures and so
on. Maxwolf never paid me anything.

Since I never got paid I asked Maxwolf to help me finish my game SickBrick."

Well, there's one of the problems ( _Ignoring the misdeeds of the other person
and Steam 's inability to resolve this scenario_). If you're in a situation
where this person _won 't fulfill an existing agreement_, don't start another
agreement with the person. If they won't fulfill the one, you have no idea if
they'll fulfill any of the other agreements.

~~~
wand3r
He's a broke <20 years old and lives in Croatia. Stripe was created to solve
the payment problem because it's HUGE and doubly difficult outside north
America and on a tiny budget. His first "real" game.

Sure, you're right but something like this happened to you or someone you know
and you learned that lesson. He learned it , hindsight is 20/20 cut the guy
some slack. It's not like the other dev was the first developer to let a
deadline slip

~~~
astrodust
I'm not saying he's completely fault, but if you go back for seconds and you
get the same thing you got the first time, getting shafted, you were basically
asking for it.

If someone dicks you over, cut them out of your life. It can be difficult,
painful, and possibly the hardest thing you've ever done, but if you don't do
it you'll have even more regrets later on when they take advantage of you
again and again.

You're broke, you're desperate, you've only got this one contact, and you
figure, hey, what's the worst that could happen? Well, now you know. Now
you're still broke and even more angry than before.

That being said, if he's got a legal leg to stand on he should lawyer up and
go after this guy.

------
webaholic
And that is why the first rule of business is not to trust anyone. If you do
trust, verify that you have are in a position to take action if things start
going south.

~~~
__david__
That's a fine "realist" perspective but it hardly absolve anyone being a
crappy person, and seems a bit victim-blamey. Besides, this guy had a signed
contract and it didn't help.

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davidddavidson
Hindsight is 20/20, etc but a few things don't add up:

1\. You agreed to do some work for him, didn't get paid for anything yet still
continue to work with him (and considered him a friend)?

2\. Article says you gave the distributor 10% of sales but contract only says
5?

3\. Going along with a 50/50 split off Steam sales with no written contract
and you are doing a majority of the work?

4\. Continuing to partner with him after he steals your assets to release in
his name?

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retrogradeorbit
You need to see a lawyer.

~~~
anotheryou
will probably cost more than he has and he will get from it, plus a lot of
nerves

~~~
Cpoll
Not necessarily. You don't need to pay a lawyer too much to send a strongly
worded letter, and that can be enough to scare a low grade scammer into paying
back half of his earnings.

------
nurettin
So we need a way to sign games on steam (or any other publisher) that will act
as a proof of authenticity?

I would not be surprised to see the concept of multi-signing crop up soon.

