Public Consultation - Professional Standards & Practices
The Indie Game Developer Network exists to help make the gaming industry a more vibrant, inclusive, and equitable place for everyone. To further that end, a number of experienced game designers and publishers have developed the Professional Standards and Practices for Analog Game Publishers, which you can view below.
The analog game publishing industry is a broad field with a large number of creators from varying levels of experience. This document proposes certain professional standards and practices for all tabletop game publishers. We hope that publishers will sign onto these common standards at a level which is appropriate for their organization to further the professionalization of our industry. This will offer baseline guidance for the benefit of our customers, freelancers, and industry on a whole.
The development of these standards and practices has been sponsored by the Indie Game Developer Network (IGDN), an international volunteer trade organization that supports indie game developers creating, publishing, and promoting fantastic games. The IGDN brings together a wide variety of developers–including pen and paper, card game, LARP, and board game designers–in a private environment where each and every member strives for excellence. We encourage and seek out diverse voices to join us, particularly among traditionally underrepresented segments of the larger gaming community. All game creators and professionals, including women, people of color, LGBTQIA+ individuals, and those with disabilities are encouraged to apply.
This document proposes professional standards associated with ethical conduct, contracts, customer relations, diversity, and conventions. It furthermore provides a powerful budgeting tool to help you determine your rates of pay on projects. Publishers may sign onto these standards and select one of three pay scales (Bronze, Silver & Gold).
Given the ambitious scope of this initiative, we are releasing the draft standards for public consultation from now until September 1st, 2021. We would invite all analog gaming professionals, new and old, to review the document provided under the link below and share any feedback you might have using the form below. We welcome your experience and insight to help strengthen the document and improve the industry.
Please fill out the form below to send us feedback on the above document!
The standards and practices team will implement the relevant changes to the document, and hope to publish the final version this fall. At that time, we will invite any interested publishers to opt-into the voluntary standards at the Bronze, Silver, or Gold levels.