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By Tom Sperry

October 30, 2008

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Outsourcing is Not a Dirty Word

 

5) Quality: Understand your budget and the tradeoff between quality vs. price. Sure, price is important, but there’s a trade-off. Quality work, on-time with limited or no re-work, comes at a premium price. Set a clear, realistic budget that matches the quality you want. If you’re not sure where to start, talk to several different companies and they’ll be more than happy to give you a quote while clearly laying out the deliverables.

 

6) Culture: Lastly, perform due diligence on the country where the company will perform the bulk of its work. Take advantage of the opportunity to learn about your counterpart’s history – even their holidays – and understand the local business nuances. Establish friendly dialogue with your counterpart so that there is an equal understanding about your work culture and methods. This will allow you to communicate more effectively with each other in an honest and mutual way, ensuring that no misunderstandings occur that might be detrimental to the project’s goals. You’ll find the working relationship much more enjoyable as a mutually beneficial two-way exchange of successful work communication.

 

There are, of course, many factors that contribute to a successful working relationship with a third-party partner. It cannot just be about cost savings because if you chose the wrong partner you will not save anything as a result of fixes and a lower quality product. It’s about building a great game with the right partners.  

 

If managed correctly, hiring a third-party company to help with components of the development process can be a cost-effective solution, while allowing you to scale your team to meet project demands and accomplish your sales goals on a tighter timeline and budget.


Tom Sperry is the CEO for Vyk Games.

 

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JoonasLaakso's picture
On November 4th JoonasLaakso said:

Working in a small country, it's not even about cutting costs, but rather getting the talent we need and just cannot find locally. Of course it's a nice bonus if it comes in cheaper than with permanently employed internal staff, but I can also see benefits in having the bulk of the art asset production done by a company which specializes in it, whether we have the manpower or not.

I would assume that an experienced outsourcing studio's processes are already geared towards delivering highly uniform work at a steady pace, compared to an internal staff which is often more interested in solving problems, doing fun projects and being creative in other ways than "straight" asset creation.

The communication can be a problem, though. It can even be difficult to find people who are fluent enough in English to feel reliable to work with and also comfortable with letting us communicate with their staff. I really wouldn't want to be forced to always go through a producer, especially with matters of art, although as a former advertising agency producer, I can fully appreciate the need for a go-between between the client and the artists.