It’s actually fairly legal (in the US[a]). With salaried employees, what constitutes “on the job” work and what doesn’t isn’t as clear. With an hourly employee, once they clock out, their thoughts are their own. Salaried employees are paid just for working there; especially if you’re “on call.” And when you’re talking about a game studio, a game made on your own time would be pretty easy for your employer claim from you.

NOTE: I do not agree with these clauses, and I wish they didn’t exist. But they are a thing and they are legal.

[a]: IANAL, and some states probably specifically prohibit these clauses

A contract that does not allow a person to practice their craft after their work hours does not seem to me to be legal.

You said it yourself: it’s a contract. And the employee agreed to it. We can argue all we want about the power the employer has in the negations, but the reality is that the courts don’t like to intervene in contracts if they can avoid it (at least from what I’ve seen). If we want it fixed, we need legislation.

Not the way the founder of Stack Overflow seemed to see things:

- https://web.archive.org/web/20110731170810/http://answers.on... - related HN discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2208056

Hmm, I thought my state's legal framework on this was the norm. I guess I'm lucky & spoiled rotten!

I've always wondered what would happen if two friends built a game together and then the employer of one of them tried to claim ownership: "sorry, I actually only own half the game". Hand over the bits of code you wrote in a completely broken state (since it is, after all, literally only half the code), quit, then help your friend fill in the pieces again.