EDIT:
I just want to make it clear that I am not asking anyone to stop going on max games website or trying to destroy their image. I am only talking about my personal experience and I want your thoughts on the matter. If you decide to boycott Max Games based on what I said its your own choice and I don't necessarily encourage it (though it make me happy). The things I say here are only the facts.
Hello newgrounders. Since age of war fame started here, I decided to speak of that matter here first.
Age of War might have been stolen from me, in a legal way. Max Games is, as we speak, threatening me of suing me for damages if I release any other Age of War game.
Here is what happened:
When I first started working on Age of War 2, Max Games offered me 15, 000$ to develop it and to create a multiplayer version of it. We had a contract, explaining the project and the elements that should be in the game. An important part of the project was that I was not to develop any sequel of the game for 1 year after the public release of the game. That seemed fair to me and it still does.
However, some technical difficulties appeared at the time with AS2 and I literally had to re-code the game twice from scratch. As progress was made, it became obvious that multiplayer was out of the question and me and Max Games settled to not do it.
The pay was reduced to 10, 000$.
To my knowledge, we never wrote a new contract.
I was starting to get angry at that project because of the cost of it, since I hired 3 artists that worked full time in my garage, I was now at a 9,000$ cost. But hey, I gave my word so I had to complete it.
After an other month of full-time work, I realized that if I was to release the game with the content I had ready for it, it would have to be re-made in Actionscript 3. It was simply impossible for flash to handle a single large .fla . I was literally getting memory errors when trying to compile the game.
At the time I was a student in 3D animation, and my final year was already taking me around 80 hrs of work a week. I settled with Max Games that I would only be able to remake the game for a third time at the end of that school year. I was happy he was understanding and Age of War 2 continued to hover over my head like a dark cloud.
After that said year, I got a job in a Flash Game Firm that worked in AS3. I learned the language and started working my ass off on that game every single night when I came back from work. I completed the game in about two months.
When we were ready to release the game, Max Games paid me the second half and gave me some extra money because I worked hard. However, in the paypal comments, they wrote this:
exclusive no in game ads or sales or sequals or prequals we have distribution rights and as agreed in our contract, this if 5k payment part of a total payment with 3k remaining upon completion and submision of the public version at our distribution date we decide.
The 3k more is the amount they decided to give because I worked hard. I even searched my msn messenger history to find back the proof. The trick here, is that he doesn't mention a lengthfor the sequels or prequels. At the time I didn't pay attention and accepted the payment.
So here is the past.
Now here is what is happening now:
I wanted to create an iPhone version of the game. Change the graphics a bit, re-code the stuff, re-do the interface, etc. So I contact Max Games, just to tell them that the 1 year is finished and that I will be developing this version. I wanted to offer them some kind of publicity deal.
The response I got was clear: They owned the game for life, and I would not make any sequel except if I was working with them only. For some obscure reason, Max Games forgot about the duration of the deal and are now arguing that I sold the right to make a sequel for life. Which I would never do, its just stupid. They are believing it with all their heart and there is nothing I can do with it.
I even tried to work out a deal with them where they are clearly profiting and that would release the rights after an other year, but they don't wan't to hear anything about it. The conversation ended with them trying to scare me with lawyers and personal insults from them, saying I am a "dick", trying to steal from them.
So here I am, in the legal gray zone and a bit amused by how stupid this all turned out. To me, it is clear that Max Games is Scared. They paid a little money for a sequel from a game that was already ultra-popular, and they made a shit ton of money on it. Now that I wan't to go around and profit on my own ideas and creation, they want to use their power to gain even more money from me. They are scared because they know I can make something better and they are not able to control it themselves. So instead of being fair and wishing me luck, they try to block me from doing anything.
I still don't know what I will do. I might release a sequel, just to piss them off and end up in court. However, I am not a company owner and I don't have money to go in court. I might even lose because of that paypal comment.
I could also release a very similar game, called Army of Ages. That would be fun.
Thanks for reading that long-ass post. Please tell me what you think.
