SAG-AFTRA, the actors’ union, announced agreements to allow both students and game jam participants to work with union performers, despite the ongoing video game strike.
The union created the Student Interactive Waiver agreement and the Game Jam Waiver Agreement, both of which provide video game developers at every stage of their careers the opportunity to work with union performers.
“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 and chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland.
Designed for students currently taking video game courses at an accredited educational institution, the Student Interactive Waiver Agreement provides students a chance to work with SAG-AFTRA performers to satisfy course requirements during game development. The project must be recorded entirely in the United States and must be owned by the student, acting as the producer or signatory, and also meet certain other requirements. To get started on registering your project, please click here.
The Game Jam Waiver Agreement is designed for developers creating video games at “game jam” events, where designers and programmers work together as a team to create themed video games from the ground up. The project may not include material recorded prior to the commencement of the event.
Under this agreement, participants are able to work with SAG-AFTRA performers and session fees and secondary payments are deferred provided that the project does not generate revenue. In the event that a project generates revenue, SAG-AFTRA will work with participants to sign the project to the appropriate agreement.
These two new agreements join the Tiered-Budget, Interim and Interactive Localization agreements as contracts that can be safely worked during the strike. To date, more than 180 games have been 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, in a statement.