I got my first license!

[Michael Hopcroft]

I secured my first license this week!

It may be from a small Ameri-manga publisher, but it's a LICENSE darnit and it's something I got! The cointract has been sitting in front of me for two days, all signed. Some publisher has enough faith in me to let me publuish the first game based on their work. or maybe I was just the first one to ask. Either way, it feels like an acomplishment -- and a challenge to make it worth their effort to go with me.

Now to fit the game into ym schedule and do it as rapidly and well as I possibly can so that they can start making money.

[Jeffrey Miller]

Congratulations, Michael!  May this be a fruitful and rewarding experience for you.

(That sounds like the curse "May you live in interesting times"! *grin*)

-jeffrey-

[Jeffrey Miller]

I imagine you can't talk overly much about the details of the contract (nor would, I imagine, it be prudent for you, too) but would you feel comfortable speaking about the process of obtaining the license, any legal issues that are in the contract that stood out or surprised you, and possibly a bit about the process which you interact with the license holders?

-j-

[Michael Hopcroft]

The preliminary steps for obtaining the licnese were done in face-to-face negotiation. I and the property owner were attending the same convention and I fell absolutely in love with their work. One line in particualr struck me as a perfect change-of-pace game for my line. We talked about it over the dealer's table and during the course of the next evening I worked out a proposal. I handed it to them ebfore the convention ended and they said they would run it past their lawyers.

After what seemed like an agonizing wait, they agve me an affirmative answer and sent me the signed contract.

The main detail about the deal that I do feel safe revealing is that I gave myself a deadline of 18 months. I figured that if I couldn;t produce a game in that length of time they deserved a company that could.