Earlier today, the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) announced the creation of the Student Interactive Waiver Agreement and the Game Jam Waiver Agreement. These two new agreements will provide video game developers at every stage of their career the opportunity to work with union performers, even as the video game strike continues.
“With these new agreements, SAG-AFTRA can help support game developers at all levels who want to work with union talent and who want to learn more about producing video games under a union contract. Plus, our members are passionate about this industry and they want to be able to participate in these types of projects where the future of video games is being shaped,” said SAG-AFTRA National Executive Director & Chief Negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland.
The Student Interactive Waiver Agreement is designed for students currently taking video game courses at an accredited educational institution and provides an opportunity for students to work with SAG-AFTRA performers to satisfy course requirements during game development. The agreement requires that the project must be recorded entirely in the United States and must be owned by the student, acting as the producer or signatory.
To begin the process of registering a student project, visit this link: saggaftra.org/interactive.
The Game Jam Waiver Agreement is designed for video games created at “game jams,” collaborative events where designers and programmers work together as a team to create video games from scratch. One stipulation is that these projects may not include material recorded prior to the commencement of the game jam event. Under this agreement, participants can work with SAG-AFTRA performers and sessions fees and secondary payments are deferred, provided that the project does not generate revenue. If the project generates revenue, then SAG-AFTRA will work with participants to sign the project to the appropriate agreement.
The Student Interactive Waiter Agreement and the Game Jam Waiver Agreement add to the Tiered-Budget, Interim and Interactive Localization agreements as contracts that can be safely worked during the strike, with more than 180 games being signed to the union’s interim and tiered-budget video game agreements.
“With their restless creativity and freedom to experiment, student projects and game jams are especially playful and rewarding opportunities for devs and actors to collaborate. I’m thrilled that these collaborations can now be accommodated on a union contract just for them, so performers get the protections they need and developers can become accustomed to union talent and process from day 1 of their career,” said SAG-AFTRA Interactive Media Agreement Negotiating Committee Chair Sarah Elmaleh.
For the latest on the video game strike, visit sagaftra.org/videogamestrike.
