You are about to show your game to someone outside your studio.
Maybe it is a publisher who wants to see a build before they talk terms. Maybe it is a contractor you are about to hand your source code. Maybe it is another studio you are feeling out for a co-development deal. In every one of those situations, you are handing over something valuable before any real contract exists.
The non-disclosure agreement is the contract that covers that gap. It says the person you are talking to can look at your confidential information but cannot share it or use it for anything other than the conversation you are having. Below, I walk through when a game studio actually needs one, the mistakes that make an NDA worthless, and what an NDA lawyer charges to draft one.
What an NDA does, and what it does not
An NDA is a confidentiality contract. One party (or both) agrees that certain information will stay confidential, will only be used for a defined purpose, and will be returned or destroyed when the relationship ends.
Here is the part developers get wrong: an NDA protects the specific information you disclose, not the idea behind it. If you tell a publisher about your roguelike deckbuilder under an NDA, they cannot turn around and share your design documents or your build. The agreement does not give you a monopoly on roguelike deckbuilders, and it does not stop someone from independently arriving at a similar concept. For that kind of protection you are looking at copyright and trademark, not confidentiality.
So the NDA has a narrow job, and it does that job well: it keeps the concrete things you share, like code, art, design docs, financials, and unreleased builds, from leaking or being used against you.
When a game studio actually needs one
You do not need an NDA for every conversation. You need one when you are about to disclose something confidential before a full contract is in place. For game studios, that usually means one of these moments:
- Pitching to a publisher. Before a publishing deal is signed, you are showing builds, roadmaps, and sometimes financials to a company that talks to dozens of other studios. Get the NDA in place before the pitch, not after.
- Hiring a contractor or porting house. You are about to hand over source code and assets. The NDA covers the window before the contractor agreement is signed, and the contractor agreement then carries the confidentiality terms forward.
- Exploring a co-development or publishing partnership. Two studios comparing tech, pipelines, and unreleased projects both have something to lose. This is the classic case for a mutual NDA.
- Investor or acquisition talks. Anyone doing due diligence will see numbers and internal materials you would never post publicly.
If nobody outside your studio is going to see anything confidential, you can skip it. The moment they are, the NDA is cheap insurance.
One-way or mutual?
There are two flavors, and picking the wrong one is a common mistake.
A one-way (unilateral) NDA protects information moving in a single direction. It fits when only you are disclosing, like when you hand an early build to a freelance artist who is not sharing anything sensitive back.
A mutual NDA protects both sides. Use it whenever both parties will share confidential material, which is most partnership conversations between studios.
Watch for this: publishers and larger studios often lead with a one-way NDA that protects only them. If you are also going to reveal your build, your roadmap, or your numbers in that conversation, a one-way agreement leaves you exposed. Asking to make it mutual is normal and reasonable, and a decent counterparty will not blink.
The mistakes that make an NDA useless
Most bad NDAs are not bad because someone acted in bad faith. They are bad because the document was pulled off a template site and never fit the situation. The usual failures:
- A definition of “confidential information” that is too broad or too vague. If everything is confidential, a court may decide nothing is. The definition should actually describe what you are protecting.
- No time limit, or a limit that makes no sense. A perpetual obligation on ordinary business information is often unenforceable. A defined term, tied to how long the information stays sensitive, holds up better.
- Missing carve-outs. A workable NDA excludes information that is already public, that the other side already knew, or that they develop independently. Leave those out and the agreement looks unreasonable, which makes a judge less likely to enforce any of it.
- No teeth for a breach. What actually happens if they leak? The agreement should address remedies, including the ability to go to court for an injunction quickly.
- The wrong direction. Signing a one-way NDA when the deal is really two-way, as covered above.
Any one of these can turn the agreement into decoration. That is the difference between a template and a document written for your deal.
Do you need a lawyer to draft an NDA?
Legally, no. You can write your own or use a template, and for a truly low-stakes situation that might be fine.
The catch is that an NDA only matters at one moment: when something has gone wrong and you need it to hold up. That is the worst possible time to discover that your definition of confidential information was too vague or your template was written for a different kind of business. An NDA lawyer earns the fee by writing an agreement that survives that moment, after someone has leaked and you need to act fast.
For a studio that shares builds and code with outside parties on a regular basis, having a solid NDA on hand is one of the cheapest pieces of legal protection you can put in place.
What an NDA costs
Lawyers who bill hourly generally charge somewhere between $200 and $500 an hour, and a straightforward NDA takes a couple of hours of work. That is the range you will see quoted around the industry.
We do it differently. An NDA is a flat fee of $400, scoped to your situation, with the price set before any work starts. Indie developers get a reduced rate. You are not watching a meter, and you are not guessing at the final bill.
If you want the NDA as part of a broader setup, our startup packages bundle the core contracts a new studio needs for less than buying each one separately.
The bottom line
An NDA is a small contract that does a specific job: it keeps the confidential things you share, before a full deal exists, from leaking or being used against you. Game studios need one before pitching to publishers, hiring contractors, or talking partnership. Use a mutual version when both sides are sharing, watch the definition and the carve-outs, and do not rely on a template for a document you will only ever need on your worst day.
If you have a conversation coming up and want an NDA that actually holds, get in touch for a flat-fee quote.