Contract with a builder???

Hi there,
I have been asked to project manage a build in SL.

This is for one of the clients for the real world company I work for, who want to set up in SL. I have found a very good builder who will do the job, but am unsure about how we will organise the contracts. This will be a pretty expensive build - probably at least $10,000 for a whole sim.

Does anyone have any thoughts on contracts for this - ie between us and the builder, and between us and the client? Any examples I could see would be really handy.

I doesn't fit into any of the normal kinds of contracts we would use,(we do marketing) and before we go to the solicitors to get one drawn up, I wondered if anyone would have a pro forma that we could see, or maybe adapt?.

Thanks for reading and I would really appreciate any feedback.

Cheers,
Bute

Sorry - not a lawyer so I can't help with a standard form but I would suggest you contact any company that regularly does web design work as that would likely fall into this category of contract.

For that knd of money you would want a lawyer to draw up a RL contract between the contractor and the purchaser. Anything less would not be prudent.

If the contractor is charging such an amount I would suspect (hope!) that they have done this before and may actually be able to answer more questions than the community on the forums can.

I am sorry, but I find that a rediculous amount. We pay our builder L$10,000 a week. Have you checked the builder link out, for a better price?

Essentially it should be the same as a contract for any other remote worker (artworker, web developer, whatever) from any particular territory, shouldn't it?

$10,000 is not a ridiculous amount, not for a professional design and development of a complete private sim, and I do not beleive it is an uncommon amount to charge. It may even include the cost of the sim itself.

At $100/hour, that is only 100 hours of work, or about 2 weeks. We are talking real world wages, and a real world contract. You pay your builder the equivelant of less than $40US a week, which is less than an hours work for most professionals.

What Dnel said.

$10,000 is not an uncommon amount at all for professional work. It's actually a fairly low figure, considering the amount of work that goes into a professional project. Without divulging any confidential details, I can say that I personally have never worked on a professional project in SL with a total price tag that small.

Bute, by all means, draw up a legal contract. Make sure your builder is a pro, that you can depend on him/her to get the job done, and that he/she has plenty of experience. Make sure he or she is reputable both in SL and in RL. In other words, treat this hire just like you would any RL hire, and manage the person just as you'd manage any contractor in RL.

You probably realize this, but I'd highly recommend you shop around. It's entirely possible that the builder you've already found is great, but it certainly can't hurt to make sure. Don't just settle on the first guy to come along who shows you a nice previous build, and says "look what I can do". Explore all the available options, from private individual builders to full size companies that specialize in commercial virtual world development. There are plenty of each to choose from.

Reputation goes a long way in SL. Ask around about who's good. Talk to other companies that have had projects done in SL, and find out who they hired to do the work. Ask about their experiences. What was good? What was bad? Visit the numerous existing commercial projects, and see which ones you think are really good. Talk to the individuals/companies who made them.

All that, of course is just general stuff. I suspect you may have been looking for more detail than that though. If you find the answers you want here, great, but if you don't get the level of detail you're looking for here, give us a shout at Electric Sheep Company. I'm sure somebody in our business development department would be happy to offer you a few pointers. I wouldn't expect any hand-holding, and I certainly can't speak for anyone but myself, but generally we don't mind offering a little advice where we can. Good luck with your project.

Wow I would be broke in one minute

Thanks for all the great feedback on this question.
Re: the comment on it being expensive - I can only say that we thought that was extremely reasonable for the amount of work and time involved, but if someone can do the same for L$10,000 per week - then we'd love to talk to them )

Just to give you a little more background. We have decided to go with this particular builder, as we and them, are both UK based. We spoke to a lot of ppl in SL about this build, but in the end, decided to go with someone we could easily go and meet face to face. This is in fact, was the exact opposite of what we had wanted to do, but unfortunatley seemed the best option in this case. This was a real disappointment for us, as the idea of working remotely, within SL, with a contractor who may easily be on the other side of the world was fascinating.

Maybe next time

We're still finalising this project, and waiting for start approval. If anyones interested, when we've finished and handed over to the client, we'll post in here and you can see what the results are like.

Cheers,
Bute

Is it Moopf?

I know a few custom builders and do allot of custom work myself. Seeing someones portfolio of work is a must especially if you are trusting them to create a whole sim. But there is more to building a sim than just being a great builder. Some of the most technically efficient builders in SL have absolutely no imagination/design skill. Yes, they could perfectly replicate the Sisteen Chapel from rl images, but give them a design brief and they struggle to turn your vision into a finished product. At that price you should be getting something special for your money so you need to ensure the builder has the imagination and design skill to create your vision. Maybe set up a small project to test their abilites something that must be derived from their imagination and deisgn skills rather than copied off of the web.

I've seen islands built by a "proffessional" for 5k US and more that are no better and probally alot worse than many of the "unproffessional" builders whose works cost a fraction of teh price. People like Ceera Murakami and Luna Bliss are just two of the sweetest and easiest builders to work with. Not to mention they are both highly talented and can make private islands look very unique and be a one of a kind attraction. There is ONLY so much that can be done in this virtual world and once you have built for awhile you really do get to know all the effective building habits rather quickly so I would not be too quick to be "snowed" under by someones claims of being a professional or a Corporation dedicated to making your island dreams a reality.

My advice to you is to talk to Cerra about how she manages her build projects, Her projects are the best run in Second life with clear cut goals, objectives and deadlines.
Also she has a wide range of friends and knows a large number of other builders, scripters and other content creators here in Second life. I feel she can be a great asset to you even if she doesnt do the build for you.