Creating a game is a team effort. It would be impossible to obtain all the stages, including concept development, production, testing, and post-release support, with a single or just a couple of specialists. At the same time, hiring dozens of experts in different niches is an expensive pleasure and not always wise when you develop projects with various complexity time after time. Then how to make games most efficient, building a solid corporate reputation and not losing clients? Game development Outsourcing services have long been a reliable assistant in solving such kinds of challenges. So let’s talk about this business practice and its benefits for entrepreneurs.
Reasons for Game Development Outsourcing
Both small and big companies apply for third-party help with game production when they want to complete the project on time, save costs, and get excellent results. For those with no experience in game creation but who want to start gaining profit in this sphere, game development outsourcing is the only possible way to launch a business and make it valuable.
Suppose you have a small team of skillful programmers but still require expert assistance in some stages of game production. Then you may delegate only a part of the work, like art designing, without hiring more employees on a permanent basis. There are multiple reasons to outsource the game development process.
Accelerating Cash Flow
A dedicated team of specialists needs less time to create a product due to their extensive experience and practice. And, in business, time is money. The faster you represent a new game to the market, the sooner it will bring profit, part of which you can repetitively invest in modernization.
Saving Budget
Delegating production is less money-consuming than in-house development. In the second variant, you have to pay a monthly salary to all the registered workers, regardless of the scope of work they’ve done. Instead, with on-demand outsourcing, you pay for the project only and don’t use the service when there is no need for it.
Continuous Support
You can seek third-party help having a feeling that you’d miss project deadlines. So you may rest assured that experienced specialists will deliver everything on time having a lot of practice with similar technical tasks and tight time limits.
More Flexibility
With a project-based relationship, you will be better prepared for rapidly changing market requirements. You may collaborate with niche experts depending on current trends in the online games industry.
Quick Access to Specialized Expertise
When you are responsible for corporate training, you have to spend a lot of effort on employees’ motivation and knowledge improvement. Things become simpler when you acquire certified professionals who constantly upgrade their skills to keep them up-to-date with technological progress and meet market demands.
Game Development Outsourcing: Evaluating Outsourcing Companies
When searching for external help, you should first pay attention to a list of successfully fulfilled projects of the potential partner. Usually, the most significant results are placed on the company’s official website in chapters like Case Studies, Projects, or Portfolio. Don’t stop by simply viewing eye-catching titles but dive deeper into the details of the work. It’s necessary to understand what problems their clients had and how the development team coped with them. Pay attention to the tech stack that was applied, the challenges, the time spent solving them, and the approaches used.
Outsourcing companies often provide detailed descriptions of their results, placing screenshots of the developed games or steps of creating 3D characters. The Stepico team is a great example of what a promising portfolio may look like.
Next, you should get acquainted with the scope of services a firm provides. Suppose you need only to design a 2D game, and experts can take on this task. But if you like the result, you may want to continue cooperation and order full-circle development or UI/UX design for the new game. If the organization does not lend such assistance, you’ll have to search for another team and build relationships from scratch.
When contacting the possible partner, pay attention to how long you need to wait before receiving feedback. Do managers give a comprehensive answer to the requests? Communication skills may say a lot about the convenience and productivity of further interactions.
Game Development Outsourcing: Determining Models That Will Better Suit Your Needs
Depending on the number of your in-house specialists, their skills, and the additional coding muscle you require to finish the project, there are several outsourcing services for game production:
- Specialized expertise. Sometimes, you may need only a few more hands for specific tasks, like 3D character artists or Unity programmers. A partner will give you as many developers as required. So you’ll be able to add creativity and value to the product, doing the main scope of work with your permanent staff.
- Co-development. You’ll work shoulder to shoulder with third-party developers, create a joint roadmap and workflow plan, and establish constant communication and document sharing.
- Art outsourcing. When you have no specialists to create an outstanding, technically demanding design for your game, suppliers can become a part of your project team and help to develop stunning art using advanced approaches and following customers’ expectations.
- Full-cycle development. You can hire a whole development team to create any kind of game from end to end. You can come up with the general idea of the future game only and receive complex multiplayer just in a few months.
- Virtual reality. Do you want to add a new type of digital entertainment to the brand assortment? Then the whole outsourcing VR team can do their best to develop an interactive game with your scenario. Although VR production is growing in demand, qualified developers will find the best solutions to make your game stand out.
