Must be a company?

[OgreMaster]

Hi everyone...
To negociate a game with a publisher, I must have or be part of a company or a single person with a website can do? Most of indie gamers are a company or just single person?

cheers

[Pyabo]

Short answer: You do not need to form a company.

Longer answer: Unless you form a coporation (and probably 99% of indies do NOT), your business is not an independent legal entity. Any contract you negotiate is really between YOU and the other party. For all intents and purposes, you are your business.

[OgreMaster]

interesting... :) thanks

[gpetersz]

And please regard or responsibility that comes out of this situation.
I cannot talk as a US/Canadian/UK resident, I can only talk as a hungarian one, but in my country if I sign a contract as MYSELF (and individual, the person who I am) and not a company (what I formed really to be able to contract that way) then I am liable to anything (looses and so) with
ALL of my wealth (house, car, bank accounts).

Probably it might be similar to other countries. If it is YOU who sign a contract that means it is YOU who will be liable to all things.

If you have a company (and the company will probably has a different bank account and different riches) then only the company looses anything, not YOU. The house what is on your name will remain yours.

Naturally it depends on the form of the company as well (Ltd., Plc and so).

I hope that helped.

[Dom]

The situation in the UK is pretty much the same.
As an individual, you will be personally liable for any losses/etc. incurred.
As a business, the business will be liable - up to the point where it declares itself bankrupt. At that point, whoever is seeking money can then try to sue you if you behaved fraudulantly/illegally as a company director. if so, then you would be liable again. If you behaved properly and in good faith, then they can't take you house/car/etc. The 'Limited' in 'Limited Company' stands doe 'Limited Liability' - i.e. the business is a legal entity and has its own money seperate to the directors bank accounts. (There are also various tax reasons why it is advantageous to be a company)

Any good solicitor/lawyer will give you a free hour to discuss this sort of thing, and can reccomend the best organisational structure for you. Also talk to as many government business agencies (Business Link etc. in the UK) to get free advice as well.

[Greg Squire]

(This thread probably belongs in 'Indie Basics')

Unless you are doing freeware games (which it sounds like you are not). I'd recommend that you get familiar with the basics of running a small business, as that is what you'll be running. There are plenty of free resources out there to do just that. I'm not sure what country you're in (I'm assuming UK due to the 'cheers' at the end of your post), but in the US you can run your business as a sole proprietor with minimal paperwork. This would mostly be just filing a schedule C with your personal taxes and filing a DBA form [Doing Business As] if your company name doesn't include your name.) There may be other state and local regulations as well. However a sole proprietorship doesn't give you much legal protection, so you may want to look into forming a LLC or S Corp.

Here's one starter link on the US Fedral Small Business Administration site http://www.sba.gov/starting_business/startup/guide.html. There are plenty more books and articles out there; just look for them.

Also, there are also some good articles at Tom Buscaglia's site (http://www.gamelawyer.com) that discuss the legal aspects of running a game business. (Of course this is based on US Law, but international stuff would be similar)

I believe that in the UK, it's pretty similar, but I'm not familiar with any specifics.