Credits in a game/app

Game credits are common in many areas of games, less common on others.

For example, you will generally find them on console games, you are less likely to find them on web games.

There are good reasons both for and against including credits, and it is a personal business decision.

1. What is the industry standard on such a thing?
2. And would it hurt the orginization in the long run?

1. There is no standard, but the IGDA has been working to get one established.

2. It depends. What organization, making what, and in what country? How do you think an organization might be hurt by crediting the creators of a game?

On a related note, perhaps you've heard the story about the founders of Activision. They were disgruntled Atari employees who quit because of (among other things, perhaps) Atari's policy against permitting creator credits in Atari's game.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Whitehead
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imagic
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/129961/the_history_of_activision.php?print=1

2. It depends. What organization, making what, and in what country? How do you think an organization might be hurt by crediting the creators of a game?[/quote]

I think it is only fair if I make a small intro about the studio so you can understand my question better.

- We are opening a new "studio" inside a well established communication agency in the middle east.
We had web development, cgi and design departments that were all merged into one.
Of course we did more hiring, interviews, etc.
This past year we have been building our teams and so far we have the following, in dev. depart.:
- Core Team that has extensive knowledge in several area: Web development, Game Dev., Mobile Development.
- Specialized iOS Team for native iOS applications.
- .Net team building a publishing platform [media, etc..]

I am leading the dev. department due to my experience in technically managing dev. teams across different behaviors.
I am afraid that when we start rolling out our products, we would have the same Atari/Activision.
This is not only a concern for the team, but also a personal concern.
So my suggestion was to actually credit people, until we do have a more "financial" crediting system available. As we are still new
the "financial" rewards are still being discovered.
The reply from management is that "crediting" individuals would lead to favoring "individuals" over favoring teams, so we should promote
team work instead.
what do you think?

The reply from management is that "crediting" individuals would lead to favoring "individuals" over favoring teams, so we should promote
team work instead.

That can be one of the hardest aspects to manage. If you "credit/reward" an individual for their work you risk creating a competitive mindset between individuals inside a team, and if you credit/reward only on a team basis you risk demoralising an individual for their work. One thing that concerns me about the above quote is that if the idea of "favouring teams" is utilised by the company you also run the risk of competitive mindsets betweens teams as well as individuals within specific teams who would look to problems within their own teams and lose a team-based focus.

Whatever your solution is, I do recommend the following - Involve your team, get their feedback and opinions in coming up with that solution. It is entirely possible that they may arrive at a compromise solution that serves to recognise individual efforts as well team efforts in such a way that all parties are satisfied. I wouldn't necessarily mention future plans/ideas such as financial crediting until you know for a fact that they will be implemented. It can be devastating to make a promise of reward then fail to deliver esp. in cases where the reward has value.

I wish you the best of luck in finding a solution that works to the benefit and satisfaction all involved.

Some of the models I bought have a condition of having the artist on the credits page. I think you should include anyone that had a role, always nice to be able to show something to a future employer where you can show your name on a project. Heck it could be a back page on your website it doesn't have to take up any part of the game.