The document discusses various contractual, legal, ethical, and professional aspects of game development. Contractually, employment contracts outline job roles and rewards, while publishers provide funding for developers' games. Legally, intellectual property must be protected through copyright, trademarks, and patents. Ethically, games are rated based on their violent or sexual content and stereotyping should be avoided. Professionally, organizations like UKIE, IGDA, and BAFTA provide resources and support for the game development industry.

1. Unit 13
HA1 Task 7
Contractual,
legal, ethical &
professional
Nathan West

2. Contractual
 Employment – The purpose of the employment contract is to lay out the rules and actions you must
follow in the selected workplace & the rewards you will receive for doing so, such as with a games
developer contract they would give you a role in a games creation which reflects upon your skills for
instance concept art design, you would then be given a specific task like design the protagonist in 4
poses to give an idea for the digital artists & animators to bring it to life.
 Development – Game publishers Nintendo hold this kind of connection to popular game developer
company game freak, mostly known for there creation of the Pokémon series. The agreement
between the two company's will be the publisher gives the developers a large some of money to
create the game & to
 License – Once a publisher decides to create a game based off or including a developers creation
or film studios movie, they have to discuss the terms of the agreement between themselves and the
ip owner. An example of this is a non disclosure agreement, see next slide for example.
 Collaboration – A collaboration is where two games developers work together to develop a game
and share the money that the game profits from, an example of this is the newly released
 NDA – Non disclosure agreements, This is a process where someone signs a contract to protect
information considered to be trademarked or private, all members involved assure the contents to
not be exposed. An example of this used in games is when a developer is creating a new title and
does not wish for it to be exposed to the public, signing an NDA ensures that the contents of the title
will remain enclosed.

3. Legal
 IP – The Intellectual property in games is the foundation of any concept, IP is protected by
Trademarks, copyright and patents, IP’s allow the developer to benefit from what they have created,
an example of a chosen IP would be Nintendo’s favourite red plumber, Mario.
 Copyright – These are the rights that the creator of the intellectual property are entitled to, copyright
is not exclusive to games and covers a wide range of media from oil paintings to advertisements.
 An example of copyright’s effect in games is in the early 90’s Nintendo of America took out a law suit
on Atari Games Corp for Creating unauthorised copies of the 10NES which were titled The Rabbit
 Trademark – This is essentially the branding of the goods which separates the real from the cheap
replicas, Trademarks are protected through intellectual property rights. A popular example of a well
known trademark would be the Sony PlayStation logo.
 Patent – This is best described as the formula or secret recipe of the intellectual property, a patent
allows the creator to fully secure their IP from any form of unofficial 3rd party production, such as
unauthorised plush toys displaying features or similarities to your secured IP.
 Registered design – This is simply a right for the creators design and visuals officially listing the property
as the inventors work, an example of a Registered design is the unique form of the Nintendo
GameCube systems controller.

4. Ethical
 Violence – Violence in video games possesses key elements such as, blood shed, Cursing, gore and physical
combat, most games with minimal amounts of these features will have a rating of Teen, whilst games Rated M
for mature will only be available to a considerably older audience and will contain a much higher scale of
violence.
 Rating – These are used to sort games into different sections depending on the age group it is suitable for.
Games are rated based on the contents and whether or not the game contains scenes of strong signs of
violence, gambling, gore, cursing or scenes of a sexual nature. An example of a game which contains all
these features to some degree would be THQ’S own, Saints row the third.
 Education – This would be when you learn something from your experience with the game, not specifically
suggesting games that contain numbers and written pieces of history. Games from the assassins creed series
highlight key pieces of history and redevelop the events in their own way to make the game more suited to
their target audience.
 Stereotyping – In the games industry Stereotypical games will contain notions that have been adopted over
the course of a lifetime but are not necessarily the truth, a stereotypical war game will contain features such as
a muscular soldier running through a battlefield to save a fallen comrade. An example of a game that does
not follow the stereotypical route is Lara Croft of the Tomb raider series
 Addiction – People who spend a prolonged amount of time playing games are likely to become obsessed
depending on the level at which the addiction is the player could in time prioritise playing their favourite title
over simple every day necessities such as bathing, eating and sleeping.

5. Professional Bodies
 UKIE - This is a Professional trade body for the UK’S interactive entertainment industry, UKIE’s main purpose is to ensure
the video game and interactive industries are in the right environment for their goals to be achieved aiding as a
financial and legal backup.
 IGDA - The largest non profit membership supporting every game creation from AAA Blockbusters developed by the
biggest names, to the small group based indie based production and even possible collaborations between the two
with the help of the IGDA’s Extensive opportunities network
 Women in Games – This is an organisation which focuses it’s energy into the needs and wants of the females of the
games industry, encouraging more talented individuals to feel comfortable as a woman in the business.
 BAFTA – The home to all things game related and responsible for the annual British Games Awards, One of the best
sources to discover the latest features and events the gaming world has to offer.
 MEF- The Media Education Foundation distributes Documentary's to inspire fresh views on the Impact of Mass media.
These Resources are commonly used more so in school’s than any other client.

6. Bibliography
 http://www.sloperama.com/advice/articl
e58.htm
 http://www.igda.org/?page=about
 http://www.womeningames.com/