Getting paid for your work

[RedCloud]

Is there any way of finding out if the people you are working for are legitement? Can there be any real assurance that once you've sent your work that they're going to pay you for it and not just run off with it and never hear from them again? How could I prevent it from ever happening?

[Tom Gilleland]

I Google every company name before I do business with them. You would be surprised what you find sometimes. Also Google the president of a company and see what you get. Here's an informative example. (http://www.wrightwood.com/stilldeaver.htm) :)

[Didier]

How could I prevent it from ever happening?

Use a middle-man like escrow.com ;)
Or make sure the person is a verified Paypal member

These things will eliminate the risks :)

Didier

[Ratboy]

Alternately, you can charge 'em twice as much and then get half up front :cool:

[RedCloud]

thanks for the help, very much appreciated.

[michalczyk]

You can also deliver a crippeled version of the work upon delivery date and full version once the payment has been received by you. Such things should be agreed upon in the contract.

[RedCloud]

What is a crippled version? Any more details of how to secure that you are going to get paid for your work?

[arcadetown]

Only work with people you trust. Most every time my radar was blipping and I ignored it, it came back to bite me.

If you mean freebie game licensing. Sometimes we license freebie online games where the developer wants up front payment however we've been bitten in past and won't do that. To alleviate concerns we suggest developer cripple it by putting a big "for demo purposes" message on the main menu or url lock so only runs on their demo site. Once they get payment they provide a good version.

If you mean a try/buy game then suggest you only work with companies that others have heard of or mentioned on these forums. Devs ask for recommendations on these forums from time to time in the form of "Have you ever worked with X?".