Unsurprisingly, the game development outsourcing market has grown immensely along with the video game industry. Although outsourcing for any content was once seen as borderline heretical, it’s now considered quite advantageous.

Across all the areas of outsourcing, game development has been experiencing a major increase in demand. In the current generation of video games, the environments are vibrant; textures are denser and more complex; lighting effects require layering to capture realistic dynamic lighting and how it acts on different surfaces.

As technology continues to rapidly evolve, graphics will have to become much more advanced. Nonetheless, by analysing the pros and cons, it is likely that you’ll see it is more effective to hire an outsourcing studio to help with your co-developmental needs. However, it is vital you ensure the outsourcing studio has all the technology, resources, and expertise needed to be a successful match.

Outsourcing? Co-development? What are they?

When it comes to video game development, specialized knowledge is a requirement across various fields. Video game design is a full-cycle development project, which entails a team full of expert professionals who specialize in their areas. These experts will cover every element of the design process like planning and detailing new elements, the settings, rules, story flow, props, vehicles, character interface, modes of play, and more. This form of collaboration has several advantages, making video game co-development and delegated tasks much more common within the industry.

Outsourcing means delegating development

The concept of outsourcing involves longer-term collaboration with an outside contractor to perform certain organizational functions. This is extremely beneficial as the employing company can then focus on its core business. Although it’s common to outsource full-cycle development, it is possible that outsourcing involves only certain parts, such as creating art and animation or just the QA testing process.

Co-development is sharing tasks

Game co-development means collaborating with an external partner to build game modes, features, or a complete game segment. The client and the professional team will work together to develop the game, following the creative vision, designs, and general direction provided by the employing company.

There are several types of co-development studios. Some offer only a part of the development services, such as creating art or animation; others offer personalized service such as sound design or programming.

At Magic Media, our co-development service allows you to extend your current team with senior members, ensuring you get experts to help pitch into your final product.

What are the advantages of game co-development?

1. Economic savings

Co-development often allows for a reduction in costs as it enables the employer to use the services of the hired team only when he needed and for specific tasks. This is beneficial as you no longer need to take on the costs of a monthly salary, social insurance, holidays, training, or additional taxes. When outsourcing these teams will provide their own software and hardware, which saves you having to provide these assets. For art alone, the software licenses could land between five and ten thousand US dollars per artist.

2. Focus on other areas of the company

Now, some might think that by working with an outsourcing game studio the project might become harder to handle and less productive. However, the reality is that you will save valuable time which you can then use in other areas of the company. The extra time can be used to develop your business, ultimately increasing your efficiency and profitability. At Magic Media, minimum involvement is required from your side, we will prioritise your vision to make sure we are on the same page. This is great news as your internal team can stay focused on their core tasks.

3. Quality service

In the 2021 insights report by XDS, the essential factor taken into consideration when choosing to work with an outsourcing studio is the quality of services. One of the major advantages of co-development studios is that these companies already have expert teams in all areas of game development, meaning only the highest quality will be delivered.

At Magic Media, we know how many challenges can be involved in the project development process, however by collaborating with our team professionals they can solve any problems that may arise. Co-development also allows publishers to fill in the gaps and use new skills that may not be available in their company.

4. Professional tools and technology

To maintain competitiveness within the industry, it is vital to keep up with the continuous improvements happening within games. This means keeping up with the latest technological trends and tools that allow you to create masterpiece video games. Unsurprisingly, this could lead to huge costs, however, collaborating with game studios gives you access to the best game development software which can help your games to the next level.

Unity and Unreal have supplanted proprietary game engines as the preferred tools for supporting external development by service providers and developers/publishers. Unity-based games, particularly independent games, are more frequent among outsourced firms, whereas Unreal is favoured by huge AAA developers. This is not a rule, but rather a preference that has developed over time.

5. Greater creativity and innovation

Communication between departments produces the best ideas, by hiring a complete team you can combine strengths which will, in turn, create strong partnerships and engaging games. Hiring a full team is always an excellent solution as it will meet the requirements of creativity and innovation.

If you want to develop a video game without tiring the creative muscle of your in-house team, we’re happy to provide the skills and talent you need to create and deliver your dream project.

6. Faster project development

The quality and team’s work capacity is essential; however, the number of team members is also a vital consideration. Of course, fifteen people will build a house faster than two. By hiring many specialists, the task could be completed much quicker and the deadline met with ease!

7. Expansion and scope of the project

Sometimes, when developing a game in-house, it can limit your idea. It’s difficult to complete these chores without going overboard, no matter how hard you try or how carefully you prepare. If you don’t have a long-term perspective, it’s easy to overlook this benefit of co-development. However, if you want to make a game that is truly world-class, you’ll need a whole team of professionals to help you grow your work.

Why outsource co-development with Magic Media?

Magic Media offers full-scale co-development, allowing you to extend your current team with senior members, ensuring you get experts to help pitch into your final product. Whether you need senior programmers, expert artists, or seasoned designers, by collaborating with us, you will have instant access to a team of specialists who don’t need additional training.

With our team on hand to provide a staffing solution, you can be safe in knowing expertise is available without any training or induction. We promise extensive experience in all things gaming, a high level of expertise and efficiency in our fields, and a guarantee of excellence and quality. Our staff work hard to stay at the top of trends and methodologies.

With studios across the world, we’ll have someone on hand to help you to deliver the game you want. If you’d like to learn more about what we can do for you, please don’t hesitate to get in contact.