Protoculture Games are in a dispute with an artist and musician for Devil Engine, who withdrew consent for their works to be used, and claim they they are not receiving royalties.
As previously reported [1, 2], a former “key member” of both Devil Engine and another game Dangen published made several damning claims. These included allegations of unprofessionalism, incompetence, refusing to pay royalties, predatory behavior by then CEO Ben Judd, and attempting to seize ownership of the game through underhanded contracts.
Dangen Entertainment and Protoculture Games both announced in January that they had “amicably” settled their dispute; with the latter keeping the rights to Devil Engine. Protoculture Games’ legal counsel has found no issues with contracts, payments, and sales reports.
Now, what was the official Protoculture Games’ Twitter account has seemingly been hijacked by one of their developers. Shortly after the announcement that the previous matter had been settled, a new tweet stated the account was now under the control of Thomas and Joseph Bailey.
The pair acted as the artist and musician for Devil Engine, and claim that Tristan Chapman programmer and lead developer) had voluntarily given control of the account to them in June 2020, after they objected to “unnecessarily inflammatory and increasingly false accusations under the guise of representing all of our opinions.”
Due to the Baileys not condoning the majority of Chapman’s alleged behavior and statements, they state they will no longer be working with him in the future. They claim that “as such, Protoculture Games LLC currently does not have the right to use the art or music in Devil Engine.” Negotiations with the developer’s legal representative began.
Two other tweets also claimed that the game’s OST was being sold on Steam without Joseph Bailey’s permission. This had occurred while the game was still published by Dangen Entertainment, who had been accused of uploading the soundtrack to their YouTube account without permission from Protoculture Games. They also claim that two-thirds of the developers would not benefit from sales of the game.
A new tweet from the account discouraged people from buying the game, after the legal representative made it clear they would continue to sell the game with “our art and music without our permission and against our wishes.”
Once again they stated Chapman’s alleged “impatience and petulance” made it impossible to work with him. The whistleblower against Dangen Entertainment had previously claimed that the lead developer suffered from “many mental and physical disabilities,” including autism and dyslexia.
Stating they no longer had “energy or desire to continue squabbling with him or his legal counsel,” the Baileys asked those who supported the developer when dealing with Dangen to not buy Devil Engine.
Protoculture Games created a new Twitter account, and issued a statement on Steam. In summation the statement claims that other parties do get money from the sales of the game, and that after payment from sales under Dangen Entertainment “which was divided in a way that everyone involved agreed on, no funds were distributed from the third-party publisher, to either us or the other parties, for a lot of complex reasons.”
The statement also claims the relevant parties were informed as the attorney negotiated the rights and royalties to Devil Engine, and “they agreed to wait until an agreement was reached before working on resolving the current situation.” They also claim payments owed are currently held in escrow by the attorney, something that was known to other parties.
“The money is being held in our lawyer’s trust account. We have directed him to pay what both sides have already agreed is a reasonable share to the other parties, unconditionally, upon their telling him where to send the money. The money is literally theirs for the asking. When we say unconditionally, we mean it. We will not even ask them to continue negotiating with us if they do not want to, let alone actually sign an agreement if they do not want to enter into one.”
Continuing, the Protoculture Games state all future royalties will be paid out the same way, along with sales reports being shared to show “what we have both agreed is a reasonable share.” The statement concluded that while early development may have blurred who owned what rights, and after legal consultation, they will continue to sell the game with its current content.
“Like many small gamedev startups, there was a lot of informality during the development of DEVIL ENGINE. Now, years and a very successful indie game later, there is confusion about rights, there are hurt feelings, and there are a lot of accusations from multiple people, about multiple people. Our lawyer says that we are allowed to say that this really, really sucks and we wish it was different. But it is what it is and we would like to negotiate a reasonable settlement with everyone involved. If they are determined not to negotiate, that is their choice.
That said, after consulting with our attorney, we have decided to continue to sell DEVIL ENGINE, with its original content. If anyone takes legal action against us, we will respond appropriately and according to our legal rights.”
We will reach out to both parties for any further comments.
UPDATE: The Baileys have released a new statement via Twitlonger [1, 2]. As a “Clarification of our prior work agreement with Tristan Chapman,” the statement claims their work on Devil Engine “was never intended for Tristan Chapman to use as he pleased at his sole discretion.”
The Baileys claim their work was not “for hire,” under Chapman, and as such they never granted Chapman the rights to sell their work under new conditions in the first place. They claim Chapman made plans to sell Devil Engine without their knowledge or consent.
While they knew he was brokering a deal with Dangen Entertainment, Chapman’s legal counsel assured them that their rights would not be affected. The Baileys claim while they fulfilled their part of the terms, Chapman and his counsel did not as they “began making it clear they intended to sell our work regardless of any objections we had.”
They claim multiple requests to at least replace their work in the game were rejected. The legal counsel allegedly told them their work had their implied consent, and would take the matter to court should they attempt to file a DMCA claim. The Baileys claim they never agreed to such terms while developing Devil Engine.
In addition the Baileys reject Protoculture’s earlier claim that they agreed to the “reasonable share,” but their concerns are not primarily about money. Again the Baileys cite the alleged working conditions with Chapman; which include “repeatedly made rash and increasingly outlandish statements disparaging other developers, breaking non-disclosure agreements, and even slandering ourselves as well when we objected to his behavior.”
Once again, the pair insist the claim that “Tristan Chapman and Protoculture Games LLC does not have our permission to sell our work. We have never signed any agreement in the past that they are allowed to use our work at their sole discretion.”
Image: Steam
