FAQ

Questions for Negotiator Studios

• Can I have a free copy of x?

  The law requires that we answer no, although you’re welcome to try your luck. We tend to be sympathetic to developers asking for older less-used assets, but we don’t tend to give away actively played games nor their paid content as this is mostly an issue of scale and fairness.

• I have a great idea for a game you should develop.

  We’re glad to hear your ideas and discuss, but be prepared to receive honest criticism.

• I want to help you out with your game, what can I do?

  Unfortunately many small contributions don’t tend to be very helpfull for the development of most games. If you want to do some work, we prefer that you have specific goals in mind for yourself; you want to add something to your portfolio, you want to do an internship, or get paid. This way you will be motivated to go the length, and do meaningful work. As to what you can do, this depends entirely on your skillset. Fortunately, games tend to cover a wide range of skills, from composing music to programming to marketing to community management, so let’s discuss and see what you can do.

• Can I make content about one of your projects?

  We do not mind criticism or references to our work of any kind. If you make a video or other piece of content featuring our work, we do prefer that you link back to it in some way, at least to our main page. If you’re working on something you think we’ll like, feel free to let us know.

• Can I use x asset in my own project?

  The Unity Asset Store assets are subject to Unity’s own licensing, so you must buy them (unless of course the asset in question is free). If you want to use an asset from one of our games just send a mail to info@negotiatorstudios.com to ask for permission. Using images or sound effects is usually fine, but music and models are more iffy. We do not own full rights to all assets in all of our games, some of the songs specifically belong to Louis Da-Vita. So make sure to ask!

• I want to start out as an indie developer, what tips do you have?

  We have an entire page dedicated to this!

• How did you build this website?

  It was made in house using Jekyll & Minimal Mistakes.

• Where did the name Negotiator Studios come from?

  We discussed possible names for this company for a long time, during these discussions we would constantly offer jokes and respond with ah yes, the negotiator. After doing this for weeks, we really did not have a single serious idea, apart from one that you may have guessed by now. We settled on that, since it really fit well with our style of co-operation, everything is always up for discussion and every argument is to be considered. We negotiate the creation of our products, the way we spend our time and the offers we accept.

Questions for Ward Dehairs

• Do game developers play games themselves?

  I do and I think they should. Authors read books, composers listen to music, cooks go out to dine, why should game development be any different? If I avoided playing games I would feel like a hypocrite. That being said, it is unhealthy to play 12 hours of World of Warcraft daily. A developer should spend at least a few hours per week playing a new game and not spend many hours playing one game all the time. That is not to say that you can’t work on games at all without playing them, just if you have a central role such as a lead developer or designer, your work will suffer for having no experience from the other end of your work.

• What games do you play?

  I particularly love games that give you freedom to build and design working systems; Factorio, Minecraft, SimCity, Rimworld, Terraria. I also like online match-based games, I’m a longtime fan of Starcraft II, but also enjoyed Monster Hunter, Team Fortress 2, Killing Floor and Robocraft. I make an effort to play some shorter single player games, I especially liked Psychonauts, Super Meatboy, Furi, Half-life, Portal and Antichamber. As a child I had different Nintendo consoles and especially enjoyed Banjo Kazooie, Super Mario, Metroid, Legend of Zelda and Call of Duty (yes it came out on the Wii).

• Why are your games so terrible?

  Generally I try not to respond to overly negative criticism, except maybe to ask clarification. You can never satisfy everyone, especially so with games. I do present all my work -including my older and more embarassing projects- on this site because I want to give you an honest picture of my history as a developer. The quickest way to learn something is to try it, fail and learn from your mistakes. Do note I’m only advocating this approach in software development, not so much in business management or politics.