Thanks for the always useful reminder. The plan is indeed to work outside the game industry itself, with an eye in part to reducing the chance of this being an issue. Also so my hourly rate can be a solid double what it would be in AAA, ha

I will also add that I am always delighted to violate contract terms that impinge on my personal creative and commercial agency to the extent I can get away with. I am not about to let myself feel bound by something I had to sign in order to eat, except insofar as is prudent and serves my interests

That said, I do also think these noncompete/IP clauses can be reasonable sometimes. I wouldn't work on a commercial indie match 2 game while employed by a AAA match 3 developer