Beta testing, NDAs, ..... and Visual novels

[Ryue]

As I'm currently nearing the stage where I want to release demos for my project (a visual novel / dungeon crawler hybrid) I've begun thinking about doing beta tests with ppl outside my staff (beta testing the parts of the program that aren't to become open source).

I've read articles here and there about beta tests where many companies have ppl who want to alpha/beta test products of theirs have to sign NDAs,.... .
While for other games nothing needs to be signed at all.


So my question here is: For Visual novels if you want to recruit beta/alpha testers outside of the original creation team what REALLY needs to be thought of and
what do I need to do to make sure no troubles can arise (or at least minimize possible problems and without me going down the path sign this and that and that and disregard the small letters about your soul and sign that one with your blood)?
(especially in terms of to make sure that the beta testers can't just say "hey I did that" as example. I know that that sounds a bit paranoid, BUT
in the past when I wrote desktop applications I had a case where a customer got his hands on a piece of sourcecode that was not encrypted and copied and used
it to create a rival application. In the case of my vn project I don't really care about the sourcecode but music / graphics are things that I pay for for example and I wouldn't like it for someone to use them in their own projects without me giving him/her explicite approval for that)

[Tyrantauranox]

NDA (Non-disclosure agreement) = "Don't talk about my game" In general, I won't sign one of these unless I REALLY want to play the beta, or I'm being paid with money, goods, or services.

You may want to look into copyrights for games, if you're very concerned about people stealing code, art, music, etc.

[Ryue]

NDA (Non-disclosure agreement) = "Don't talk about my game" In general, I won't sign one of these unless I REALLY want to play the beta, or I'm being paid with money, goods, or services.

You may want to look into copyrights for games, if you're very concerned about people stealing code, art, music, etc.

So I'm overthinking things there (like I said wanted to make sure what is normal for visual novels before I put up any post and say sign this and this and this and ppl just shake their head at that^^).

Hmm many of the links posted in that link are down sadly. (copyright for programs/source I know about .....the copyright for them is a joke to say the least...at least in my country even if its copyrighted you only need to change 1 line and it doesn't count as being the copyrighted code any more and you can sell it as your own thing :/.
Art, music would be interesting ruleswise there).

[Tyrantauranox]

Oh, if people really want to copy your thing, they can do so with minimal risk of trouble. Take a look at the app stores sometime (iOS, Google Play, etc). People have made an art out of ripping successful games off. They'll change it just enough to be safe, arguing that it's the only way they can make a living.

I think VNs would be a hassle, though, since you need to rewrite a ton of text, redo illustrations, change out all music, etc.

[firecat]

under the law when you publish a alpha/beta game you have full rights to your game's code, art, music and writing. however it will not stop copycats like Tyrantauranox said and there is no way to stop them. making people sign the NDA will not help you at all since many youtubers like to talk about beta games they played to many views or people like to share their game experience.