Indie devs get do-it-yourself contract creator

Plenty of indie developers could benefit from legal assistance when drawing up contracts, but far fewer can actually afford it. Bounden developer Adriaan de Jongh has tried to address that situation this week by releasing contract( )--pronounced "do contract"--a free tool for indie developers that helps create legal agreements in plain English.

Contract( ) is a customizable template that allows developers to specify terms with contractors, whether they are to be paid per project or per milestone, and includes considerations for issues like who retains rights to the work created, how compensation will be determined, and where any legal disputes would be resolved.

"Contract( ) is my attempt to transfer my experience, but also the experiences of dozens of other developers and attorneys, to other game developers," de Jongh said on the tool's website. "I use the agreements from contract( ) myself, and feel that this is the only way to make it as unbiased, practical, honest, but also as legit as possible."

The release of contract( ) also coincides with the launch of toolkit( ), a free indie developer toolkit that also includes Vlambeer developer Rami Ismail's previously released presskit( ) and distribute( ). As the names imply, presskit( ) is a tool that helps developers create media-friendly websites for their games to address the most common press requests, while distribute( ) is designed to organize press lists and preview build distribution, both to traditional media as well as YouTube and Twitch streamers.