#a non-disclosure agreement

[bitchesgetriches]

Predatory NDAs Just Got a Lot Harder To Enforce

Within the last six months, three major changes have drastically reduced the enforceability of predatory NDAs.

These changes provide general protection to all impacted employees, and specific protections for victims of sexual harassment. With this, it seems the power and popularity of predatory NDAs is finally waning. And workers are gaining back ground they never should’ve lost.

Keep reading.

If you liked this article, join our Patreon!

[aro-of-fortune]

Let the saint sleep

[askagamedev]

Especially with so many projects that were never announced probably getting canceled right now due to layoffs and studios dissolving, how risky would it be for devs to keep personal copies of their work/builds?

I always thought NDAs were generally time limited, and at least that way the work wouldn't be entirely lost for ever. Is that even something devs generally want?

There are certain things that studios and companies can ask us not to do but have a real hard time preventing, especially if the company is going through a death spiral process. Keeping a personal copy of stuff I worked on, especially in an age of remote work, is one of those really hard-to-prevent things. If the company or studio is going under, almost everyone is losing their jobs and the motivation to maintain operational security is very low. Nobody in security cares when their main priority suddenly shifts to finding a new job. In these situations, leaked stuff happens a lot more often since there's little motivation for enforcement.

It's much harder for workers who are let go from a company that remains alive, since breaking NDA would result in being liable for a bunch of damages. However, if I don't disclose anything and just keep stuff private, the studio cares a lot less about whether I have those files. They don't really do much forensic analysis of the workstations of former employees, they mostly just wipe them clean in order to protect the company from potential liabilities from accidentally finding left-behind personal files of the former workers.

The thing about old game projects (especially for cancelled games) is that there's really only so long that the old stuff is even viable. The inevitable passing of time will decay any knowledge of the project and its workflow. If we release information and development stuff about games that were cancelled, say, two console generations ago, it is unlikely that the current IP holders and leadership would be super angry about it because so much time has passed. This is considerably different from releasing information about a game that was cancelled this year, where things are still raw and legal action is still a very legitimate threat.

The main benefit to holding on to old projects is primarily for personal education. There's a lot to be learned if one can go back and study the way things worked on an old project. How did they set things up and why? How can I learn what decisions my seniors and leads made, and why did they make those decisions? How did they solve these problems? Can I use those same techniques? There might be some element of internet influencer points if old stuff gets released to the public, but that typically gets glossed over the way trivia is treated. In my opinion, the real value in old project assets is in the educational content it can provide.

[Join us on Discord] and/or [Support us on Patreon]

Got a burning question you want answered?

Short questions: Ask a Game Dev on Twitter

Long questions: Ask a Game Dev on Tumblr

Frequent Questions: The FAQ

[unrestrainedbalderdash]

Neurodivergent aspec who doesn't want to be outed call that an NDA

[alien-girl-21]

Si quieres un poco de mí dame paciencia y verás

“Baby?” His eyes lifted from his glass, seeing Jere getting past the plants and standing in front of him, brow slightly furrowed. “Is everything okay?” “No,” Bojan finally admitted, “it’s too much for me.” Jere shuffled his way into the empty spot in the sofa, bumping their shoulders together and his hand going to his knee, giving it a soft squeeze in reassurance. - Bojere week day 2: Finding comfort in one another

Going strong on the second day of bojere week 😎

[ominouspositivity-or-else]

my professor: *has the canvas page up* me: sick!!! i wonder what books i need canvas: the syllabus is locked until January 10th at *time the class starts* me: me: i guess this class is top secret then, huh?

[hellsbroadcaster]

Does the smile stay on during sex, Alastor?

                       .　　. ˚　. ╳ ⊹ ―    ❛  Some would consider that a rather personal question, but well, ❜ he smirks, back bending backwards as he chuckles gleefully.   ❛ What do you think~? ❜  

[toasterman76]

where's my fucking iphone 5

It's coming! Do not ask questions :)

[jerseydeanne]

"they revealed how the Prince later demanded that the girl sign a non-disclosure agreement in a bid to prevent her speaking out about their encounter."

[viewmonster-deactivated20230122]

ive been getting back into vtubers after like a year and a half of not keeping up with them and redditor hololive fans continue to be the most annoying people on this planet

[bitchesgetriches]

Predatory NDAs Just Got a Lot Harder To Enforce

Within the last six months, three major changes have drastically reduced the enforceability of predatory NDAs.

These changes provide general protection to all impacted employees, and specific protections for victims of sexual harassment. With this, it seems the power and popularity of predatory NDAs is finally waning. And workers are gaining back ground they never should’ve lost.

Keep reading.

If you found this helpful, consider joining our Patreon.

[spynorth]

hey bestie

we need to update the signature on your nda before we go back to using those terms.

[emperornorton47]

Yesterday's news felt like an anticlimax to me. Indicted for paying off Stormy Daniels was not what I had been hoping for. The man has been calling for violence since he tried to overthrow the election and this is what we get?

The wheels of the Grand Jury continue to turn. I remain in wait and see mode.

[askagamedev]

Code Names and Secrecy

I had two related questions today on keeping things quiet in the industry, so I thought I would answer them together.

Devolver Digital left a comment under the "Return to Monkey Island" trailer saying, "You'll have no idea how hard it was to keep this secret for two years." It made me wonder, what are the precautions to keep secrets in the gaming industry, particularly when dealing with license games where people outside of the game developer/publisher are ncessarily (sic) involved with production?

Is it really necessary for studios to have "code names" for projects? What is the point?

It’s important to note that the reason for secrecy is primarily for marketing purposes. We want to keep a big project quiet until we’re ready to show it and get players excited for it. If our product is tied in with another product or IP with a big planned push at some point in the future, tipping our hand too early can lead to a cascading set of reveals we or our business partners were unready to make. For example, revealing a new mainline Pokemon game too early would spill the beans on an entire new pokemon generation, which would affect merchandise, animated series, and so on. As a result, we usually put in safeguards to prevent such leaks from happening, both punitive and practical.

The first major safeguard is just the boilerplate Non-Disclosure Agreement. We all know that revealing things too early costs money and time - it hurts the effectiveness of the company’s marketing campaigns, so all employees must sign NDAs where they promise to protect the company’s trade secrets under penalty of being held liable for any damage their loose lips may cause. I can talk about the design principles in abstract, but I can’t talk about the specifics of the game I’m working on. Everybody who goes into the office has to sign an NDA, even visitors and family members. 

There are other practices put into place to protect against this beyond the NDA catch-all. Project code names are pretty standard operating procedure just so developers don’t accidentally spill the beans in public settings or to coworkers who aren’t yet read in, like when discussing work topics over lunch in a public space.  At one point, before the announcement of the PS4 and XBone, my studio had to use code names for those console versions of the games in order to keep even internal developers not on those teams in the dark about what was going on. This was not because our publisher/employer did not trust us, but because Sony and Microsoft were legally covering themselves and requiring this compliance from my employer. 

Beyond this, it’s also possible that the project itself can change over time. Just because the final result is a Monkey Island game doesn’t mean the project initially started out that way. It might have been another game idea entirely that had the Monkey Island IP brought on later in the development process. The project still needs a name, even if all of the details aren’t yet set in stone. That’s where code names come in.

[Join us on Discord] and/or [Support us on Patreon]

The FANTa Project is being rebooted. [What is the FANTa project?]

Got a burning question you want answered?

Short questions: Ask a Game Dev on Twitter

Long questions: Ask a Game Dev on Tumblr

Frequent Questions: The FAQ

[tuxedosaiyan]

[unichrome]

Hello new followers and welcome to the best and only place on tumblr for the malware fandom