When we wrote about the movement of professional game developers leaving to pursue their own projects in independent gaming, we had no idea how many people would contact us to talk about their experiences. Many industry professionals had thoughts and stories to share, and one of those in particular stuck out. He had another reason for people to leave the world of large-budget game publishing: it's common for contracts to include clauses that give publishers the rights to whatever developers work on during their spare time.

"I'm tired for a lot of the reasons you put out in your article," he wrote on condition of anonymity. "So I'm working on my own game in my spare time. However, doing so violates my contract, and this is probably true of most industry devs. On top of that, many contracts will explicitly claim ownership of things made on your spare time."

His contract gives the publisher he's working for ownership of anything he creates off the clock, as long as he's using the same skills for which he was hired. He also points out that in the industry, most clauses of this kind are much broader.

Daniel Fedor, who used to work at Bioware and is now independent himself, gave a questionnaire to 120 industry professionals, asking about their working conditions. "Over a third of respondents (46) said they were employed in-house," Develop reported. "Of those, 35 percent said they are contractually prohibited to sell their own side projects. Fifty-seven percent said their employer 'owns all rights to everything I produce.'"

This isn't uncommon when working in certain fields, but, coupled with the reality of developers working on creatively stupifying projects in the gaming industry, it can be a killer. Imagine if you get stuck working for two years creating a licensed game for a property you find boring, and you know that if you work on your own project you'll have to give it to your company when finished. Creative people need to be creative, and this is one way major publishers keep them from doing creative things.

These clauses can lead to talented developers leaving in order to pursue their own games, talent burning about because they're not willing to give up ownership of side projects, and even people like our source simply working on projects secretly. This may be common in the gaming industry, but it gives the best talent and the most prolific artists an incentive to leave mainstream development.