How to find a good scripter

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#1

Short intro

This could be rephrased as everything you’re doing wrong when searching for a scripter, and after.

If you’re having problems finding a scripter, or many scripters end up leaving your projects part way, this post is for you. It should also be noted that without following these points, you’ll be able to find a scripter, but they’re unlikely to be as good as you’d hoped or you think they are. If you want someone who knows exactly what they’re doing, and will do it, follow these steps.

It’s also worth noting that most programmers who you contact will not tell you what’s wrong with the way you present yourself, or the way you plan to manage the project.

Problems with your pitch

Ambiguity on the workload

The absolute most important part of your pitch to the scripter is putting across accurately and clearly, exactly what the project will entail, to the dot. If there is even a hint of ambiguity in what you’re asking for, or you are ‘unsure’ about what the project will require, then the scripter has no way of knowing how much work the project will be, and therefore cannot accept any kind of payment or percentage. This is also very important as one of the most annoying things that can happen when working on a project is that your employer tries to add something to your pre-agreed workload, while staying at the same price.

Quantifying what has already been done

When you and the scripter to-be decide on a price, they need to know exactly what’s been done, how it’s been done, who’s done it, and what’s left to do. If you are not a scripter, it’s very hard to give a hard percentage of the workload that has been completed, and you should assume that whatever percentage you provide is not accurate. While something may appear like a small task to you, depending on availability of APIs, the scripters knowledge in that specific area, and the limitations of the platform, that task may be huge. In the same way, this can apply to tasks you view as extremely difficult, that may be very easy as a result of pre-made APIs or scripter experience.

To show the person how much has been done, give them:

  1. A hard figure provided by you or the previous scripter, saying exactly how much has been done in that person’s opinion, clarifying directly that this figure comes from you or the previous scripter.
  2. Offer to show them exactly how much there is to do, and how much has been done, in the form of a list (trello is perfect for this)

Getting them to trust you

Trust makes or breaks a project. If the scripter does not trust that you know what you are doing, or that you will pay them at the end of the project, they will not take the work.

To prove to them that you are 1. Trustworthy and 2. Experienced, let them know about previous projects you have worked on, how they went (were they successful?) and how you would grade yourself in terms of experience. It’s also good to tell them more about yourself, such as whether you are in the devforums, how long you’ve been on the platform for, if you devex etc.

Overall, your goal is to show them that you are trustworthy, friendly, experienced and prepared to work on a project like this, remember when you hire a scripter, especially for a percentage, they are dedicating a large portion of their time to your project.

Payment

Equally as important as everything else on this list is payment. My main rule to follow here is that getting a ‘good deal’ on scripting does not exist on roblox. If you think you’re getting a good deal, what this means is that the person who is working for you is either inexperienced or that you have not properly communicated with them what the project entails. If you at any point feel like you’re paying them less than what it’s worth, and it’s too good to be true, that’s because it is. Go back and check that you have given them all of the information, and that they have a complete 100% understanding of the project.

Every person, not just scripters, that is working on your project should feel like they are getting properly reimbursed. This is not just because it’s a decent thing to do, not properly paying people may result in them

  • Getting stressed out and doing shoddy work
  • Leaving the project
  • Leaking your game
  • Publically denouncing your practices

Realistically, on the majority of games the scripter should be receiving 50%+ of the total game’s revenue.

Contracts

Please make sure you refer to the disclaimer when reading this entire post, especially the information below.

Now, after getting caught up in how to attract a scripter to your project, you may have forgotten to look out for yourself, too. Make sure you are happy with what you are offering, and that both you and the scripter are legally protected.

Should I have a contract?

The short answer is; yes.

The long answer, however, is that while you may have a contract, you must not fall back on it. Tracking down someone’s real, legal identity, proving that they were the ones who stole your assets, and that they intended or did release it is near to impossible without spending a lot of money. Likely an amount of money that is not worth it for what you’re making off the game.

Contracts are still useful, though, they allow you to threaten the person with concrete legal action, which while it’s unlikely you’ll take, it’s still a possibility in their mind. Often this is enough to have them cease whatever it is they’re doing and move on.

What should I put in it?

Note that this is not a full, comprehensive list, things have been missed out and only relevant information that will help you find a good scripter is included.

DONT

  • Put a clause stating that the scripter will receive no compensation whatsoever if they do not complete the project. It’s always better to agree with them as, when and if they decide to leave a fair price for the work they have completed up to that point. Scripters may decide to leave due to financial problems, family problems, or issues with the project’s workload.
    Having a clause saying they will not be paid if they leave puts them under immense stress, as they are faced with the possibility of sometimes months of work being taken by someone for no payment at all. This on its own will put off many scripters.

DO

  • Make sure to set out exactly what has to be done, and an exact timeframe for it.
  • Have an agreed on payment, for the exact specified work.
  • Specify that the tasks must be completed to a certain degree of quality, or the person you are hiring can do a bare minimum, bare bones job.
  • Allow the contract to be flexible on time and payment (to some degree, of course, be very careful with this)
  • Make sure the person who is signing the contract is old enough to do so, and that they live in a country where contracts are applicable.
  • Include a contract termination clause if either party would like to leave the project/ terminate relations.
  • Include a clause to do with asset theft and distribution of your game’s scripts, images, meshes, etc.

Thanks for reading, hopefully this is useful, let me know if I missed anything out.

DISCLAIMER:
Make sure to seek a legal professional before making any legal related decision shown on this post and it’s replies. I AM NOT A LEGAL PROFESSIONAL, THIS IS NOT LEGAL ADVICE

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#2

As the person being hired, I’ve run into some of these issues quite a few times—thanks for this post! It might also be worth mentioning that it’s important to show the scripter you trust them. A disconnect between developers or negative environment can make their job much less enjoyable, and hiding information from developers (such as the current financial situation) can seem quite sketchy.

16 Likes
#3

Agreed, trust is so important and it goes both ways. Since Roblox isn’t a platform which has companies with the power of AAA game studios on it, we have to rely on trust rather than lawsuits

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#4

This is helpful even if you’re not looking specifically for a scripter, since most of these apply to everyone, especially trust.

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#5

In addition to this, even if you believe that you have no need for a legal agreement, it helps to have exactly what each party should deliver written out on paper (ties into “Ambiguity on the workload”). A proper agreement is imperative if you would like to appear professional and avoid unnecessary confusion in projects.

5 Likes
#6

[Rephrased, didn’t mean to sound toxic in any way]

I find it humorous that scripters are addressed as people hard to communicate with or people that aim to be addressed in this certain way. They are peers to others after all! Great information provided in any case, getting the “to-be-hired” person to get a better view of what needs to be done, and the specifics of the work is a true resource that should be put to use in all hiring scenarios!

5 Likes
#7

Not the post we deserve, but the post we need. Like Dandystan stated, I have run into these problems a couple of times, so it’s great that someone made a post about it.

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#8

It’s important for people to know, that at least from a US perspective all code a programmer writes is their intellectual property, and this remains true even if it’s work made for hire, because code is treated as a literary work. When hiring a programmer without a contract transferring the copyright, you’re basically buying a non-exclusive usage license. I don’t think this is necessarily a bad thing, just something to consider.

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#9

On another more direct note, it’s something I see too often that people underestimate the utility of code samples to judge a programmer’s skill, and overestimate stuff that may look pretty but is really less complicated.

Backend systems can be considerably more complex than some code that makes a UI disappear. It’s also important to remember that without the visuals that building, UI, and animations add, programming will look quite visually unimpressive.

You cannot judge the skill of a programmer without having a competent one look at their code - there’s simply no other way about this. Those who would hire a programmer should consider having a friend or someone else they know with such experience give the person’s code a look, even if the hirer is unable to understand it themselves.

6 Likes
#10

Wanted to add that in the United Kingdom (and most other European countries), if you are paying someone to do something; the employer owns the intellectual property. But this usually happens because of an employment contract, you should not rely on this alone if you and your dev is in GB.

Nether the less, you should always have a clause in the contract (if you have one) that transfers exclusive rights to you. I have had this issue before, where after payment, a previous developer performs a valid DMCA take-down request since it’s technically their intellectual property.

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#11

Along with seeking a legal professional before making any legal related decision

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#12

By trust I mean for large projects, if it’s small one off contracting work this isnt so important, but for a large project there needs to be trust going both ways on things like asset theft, fair workload, fair payment etc, you can’t rely solely on the contract for these things.

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#13

Putting effort to pitch your game and really sell it to the viewer, goes a long way. If they love it so much, they may want to be part of the game development without straight-up pay - particularly helpful if you don’t have much money to hire scripters. I’ve seen a lot of hiring posts for x new game, but often it just looks so boring and uninspiring; the posts that have excited people about the game, have usually been able to partner up with good scripters without even mentioning upfront pay.

3 Likes
#14

It’s important to differentiate between employee and independent contractor, however. This seems to show that UK law for this is quite similar to that of the US, so it’s really important to consider this matter in contracts, I agree.

I don’t think it’s so important that rights are transferred over. An irrevokable license might be a better fit in many cases. From my point of view, there’s way too much code that benefits from reuse between commissions to agree to anything more, but that might just be me.

2 Likes
#15

I hope someone makes a post for other development speciality’s such as Graphics, Building, 3D Modellers etc. Could help a lot of people

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#16

The most important thing to keep a scripter around is have things for them to do. I’ve run into the problem so many times. I join a team and they have all these ideas, and then they aren’t silent after a day or two. If you expect scripters to stay on your team, show that you truly need their skills by engaging with them over the project and asking for their input on it.

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#17

I started to look for a scripter recently. This will definitely help me make sure, my soon-to-be scripter will be happy to work with me. Thank you for posting this!

2 Likes
#19

I’d like to emphasize how important it is to have a proper pitch, lately I’ve seen a lot of job offers were the one posting it is afraid of their super cool idea being stolen so they dont explain a thing unless it is through discord.

Execution is much more important than the idea itself, if you can’t explain why your idea is so cool then nobody is going to get excited to work on it.

5 Likes
#20

This is actually really helpful but the topic name “how to find a good scripter” is kind of deceiving cause this didn’t really teach how to find a good scripter, it taught me how to get a good scripter, but that is just my interpretation of the topic name

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#21

As someone who has gone through these problems repeatedly, I can say this post was very informative and accurate. I’ll definitely make use of this information, thanks SteadyOn :+1:

4 Likes