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General Discussion / Be aware of fraudulent clients.
« on: January 24, 2019, 07:58:16 am »
Hello fellow Artists,
Today I'm creating this unfortunate post, with the purpose of creating awareness of possible frauds or scams like one I went through recently, even though the amount that I was supposed to receive was not substantial, it's still a loss.
First of all, I want to tell you a bit about me; I have been working with pixel art continuously as my main and only way of income since ~2013, before that I only worked for about a year in ~2009. I have worked with lots of individuals, a couple of small startups and one large company, this last one for a bit more than 2 years.
I want to share some tips about how to avoid such situations, specially for those who are in their beginnings as freelancers.
- Always ask and find out FIRST who is the person/company you are about to work with.
- If you are working with an individual or a small team with no background always charge per small packs of assets and not after weeks of work.
- Don't fall with over enthusiastic plans for an "amazing" game, everybody has cool ideas every day. Remember, you are working FOR them, not by the sales of the game.
- Try to have a downpayment upfront (50% is good) or a contract, or both. Online contract sites like DocuSign in conjunction with email correspondence make it much easier to keep track of your agreements.
- Be professional AND respect your client, you will be treated the way you approach to your client. And the same applies to the client, usually over enthusiastic individuals with over the top cool attitude are the ones you have to stay away from.
These are some tips I can share with you from my experiences.
I also want to make you aware of the last client that ran away with my payment, so you don't fall in the same trap.
Making some mistakes myself and trusting this client I was left only with his nickname in Discord "pina_collada#0804" and some of the assets I made for him and some references:
This is his Discord Avatar:
These are the assets:
Apparently the game and/or character is going to be called Cyber Hack, and the theme of the game is about this character roaming in the cyberspace, some sort of top down or isometric action rpg.
One thing to note is that this german client was very specific about wanting his character have these THREE DOTS in the face.
If someone comes across with ANY of these references now you know what to do.
Also, if you feel like using that caped-and-hood character I made feel free to use it, it's a freebie by me.
Today I'm creating this unfortunate post, with the purpose of creating awareness of possible frauds or scams like one I went through recently, even though the amount that I was supposed to receive was not substantial, it's still a loss.
First of all, I want to tell you a bit about me; I have been working with pixel art continuously as my main and only way of income since ~2013, before that I only worked for about a year in ~2009. I have worked with lots of individuals, a couple of small startups and one large company, this last one for a bit more than 2 years.
I want to share some tips about how to avoid such situations, specially for those who are in their beginnings as freelancers.
- Always ask and find out FIRST who is the person/company you are about to work with.
- If you are working with an individual or a small team with no background always charge per small packs of assets and not after weeks of work.
- Don't fall with over enthusiastic plans for an "amazing" game, everybody has cool ideas every day. Remember, you are working FOR them, not by the sales of the game.
- Try to have a downpayment upfront (50% is good) or a contract, or both. Online contract sites like DocuSign in conjunction with email correspondence make it much easier to keep track of your agreements.
- Be professional AND respect your client, you will be treated the way you approach to your client. And the same applies to the client, usually over enthusiastic individuals with over the top cool attitude are the ones you have to stay away from.
These are some tips I can share with you from my experiences.
I also want to make you aware of the last client that ran away with my payment, so you don't fall in the same trap.
Making some mistakes myself and trusting this client I was left only with his nickname in Discord "pina_collada#0804" and some of the assets I made for him and some references:
This is his Discord Avatar:
These are the assets:
Apparently the game and/or character is going to be called Cyber Hack, and the theme of the game is about this character roaming in the cyberspace, some sort of top down or isometric action rpg.
One thing to note is that this german client was very specific about wanting his character have these THREE DOTS in the face.
If someone comes across with ANY of these references now you know what to do.
Also, if you feel like using that caped-and-hood character I made feel free to use it, it's a freebie by me.
