I imagine this is not a common scenario (I didn't find anything searching for it), but I hope I can get some advice from a 3rd party which also might be helpful for someone else. Here is my scenario:
I started working on a prototype for a browser based, small community RPG, and made it public to a reasonably sized group of people about a month ago. It has had a pretty good reception and caught the eye of a publisher who approached me about wanting to either work with me or license the game from me. This was completely unexpected and I have zero experience with publishing, but am interested in pursuing it.
Some background on the company. They are a pretty new Chinese publisher that has split off from another major Chinese company. They are looking for some long term game investments and feel like my game would be a good opportunity for them.
They are open to just about any sort of arrangement. The options I've been presented with are:
- License to them for specific regions and work by myself (full creative control I assume)
- License to them and also work under them for a salary (more collaborative, less control for me)
- The publisher and I decide upon what changes I need to make before agreeing to anything else, and work from there
They have also asked for me to give them salary and licensing numbers. I think I can ballpark a salary. I've seen some general scenarios from research I've done for regional licencing, but I have no idea what is really realistic there or how to come up with a good figure to start with.
If I could ask about specific things, it would be: what might be the best license/salary situation to negotiate toward? Since they are asking me for numbers, and them coming to me with numbers is there anything I should be aware of?