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The rising use and necessity of game development outsourcing has many forms, today let’s touch on full-cycle game development outsourcing and if it’s right for you.The modern technological world and the modern gaming space is fast-paced and relentless. When it comes to delivering a game, the scale and speed of delivery required can sometimes be beyond the scope of the team available. It’s a topic we’ve touched on regarding the importance of effective co-development in game development.
Game development outsourcing takes a few forms, art outsourcing, co-development, full-cycle development. Magic Media has experience in each of them, such as our fantastic ongoing co-development work with Generation Zero or our exciting full-cycle development with the blockchain gaming project, Pixelmon.
We’re focusing on full-cycle game development outsourcing which involves hiring an outsourcing team or company to take your game idea to completion. This would mean you could direct and indicate an art style, gameplay type, and narrative. The team would then be responsible for the tech stack, the art, the coding, the QA, and any agreed upon post-launch support. As a client, your involvement is entirely up to you. We’ve had hands-off clients who checked in on a weekly or bi-weekly basis, sometimes even monthly. And we’ve also had clients who loved being a part of the process daily!
So, which is right for you? What are the pros and cons of each type of game development?
As you can imagine with in-house development, the main strength is the full and direct control you have over your project. While you don’t lack control in an outsourcing scenario, in-house means you have absolute control of every moment of development.
That level of control leads to a level of quality control that you can rely on. If you are engaged and involved throughout, you can guarantee the quality control of the project first-hand.
Finally, communication is typically easier as your team should be around you or directly accessible. There aren’t many boundaries for communication in outsourcing, but an in-house team will always have an easier time.
For game development outsourcing, this is particularly important full-cycle game development outsourcing – is the access to flexible talent. With an outsourcing company, you effectively have a smorgasbord of talent on offer. You can pick and choose the talent you need for your project.
This extends to a cheaper project on average as you are not having to pay for new employees. No licenses to pay, benefits to consider, and salaries to budget for. You can simply agree on the project and let the full-cycle development or co-development team loose on the project.
Finally, one of the biggest pros for game development outsourcing is the scalability and delivery times. Any project, any size, all competitively timed and budgeted.
The negatives are very much a mirroring of one another’s positives.
For in-house game development, the struggles are found in extending your team and scaling upwards. This, for any studio or company, is a huge expense and needs to be managed. There can be no quick scaling. You have to source your own talent and if they leave, that’s just something you have to deal with.
And for outsourcing, the negatives all come with that separation of control. You have to accept that the team will produce work that might not be what you had in mind. The team will be full of creativity and talent, but sometimes things don’t gel. Incompatibility is something to look out for when choosing your outsourcing partner. And finally, outsourcing often requires a lot of trust with typically protected information.
Any issues with outsourcing are often found with incompatibility – the way you prefer to work or have things done might not meld with the way they like to work.
And they might just not be right for you! Like any service, they have a style and a method. This often limiting state is why we prefer to maintain a flexible and varied portfolio and working style, we believe it’s why we’ve been successful.
Look into multiple partners, look at their work, their size and scale, look at who they’ve worked with. Look at their style. When you’ve narrowed down your potential partners, you can begin to get in contact and start analyzing project times and budgets.
Magic Media is delighted to offer dozens of services for the entertainment, gaming, and tech industries. From full-cycle game development to cutting-edge real-time VFX and stunning pc/console art and cinematics, our goal is to help your projects reach their full potential. We’re proud to offer a one-stop solution for all your projects, so get in contact today and let’s create magic!
