How to Outsource Game Development Like a Pro! Bring your Video Game idea to Life!

Video games have always been popular with the masses and with the rise of mobile usage in the past few years, their demand has increased drastically! Newzoo states, that the mobile gaming industry is expected to generate revenue of around $120 billion by 2023!

So with such strong growth prospects, it’s time for you to launch your mobile game in the market. Don’t know how? Just follow through and get to know how you can outsource game development with ease and perfection.

Why is Outsourcing Game Development a good idea?

Outsourcing video game development has become a popular practice in recent years. This allows the game to be developed by experts regardless of where they are located, which in turn ensures innovation, effectiveness and efficiency, sustainability, and profitability of the entire Mobile game development process. 

Whether big companies or entrepreneurs, all look forward to outsourcing game development as the practice allows them to enjoy numerous benefits. Some of these are as follows:

1. Game outsourcing allows to save time as other aspects of game development and launch can be worked on simultaneously. Moreover, it is easier to ensure deadlines are met on set time.
2. Outsourcing video games is more cost-effective than doing it yourself or hiring an in-house development team as it reduces overhead costs and other employment costs.  
3. Involving third-party game developers allows the utilization of specialized expertise, which makes the game have better quality, fewer chances of mistakes, and rounds of revision. Overall, the game is more on par and best fitting to stand alone in the saturated market. 
4. It allows employers to focus on other aspects of game development such as strategy and marketing
5. Video game outsourcing also helps in risk reduction. 

Regardless of the benefits outweighing the challenges o outsourcing game development, it is pivotal to know what they are to contour them with ease.

1. Lack of face-to-face interaction can create hindrances in the work process, delays can be made and miscommunication can occur. Also, immediate steps can not be taken to salvage a mishap.
2. The cost of game outsourcing could be relatively high than the in-house team, especially if the specialized team is taken on board or charged in foreign currency.

How to Outsource Game Development?

With basic information out of the way, let’s talk business now!

Here are some points that need to be addressed to outsource game development.

Elucidate Game idea 

For game outsourcing to be done properly it is very important to have a clear idea of what your game would be about. The concept, mechanics, storyline, design language, target market, and other aspects need to be well-thought-out and communicated properly to make the outsourcing game development process seamless. The more detailed information provided to the development team, the better for their understanding and ultimately better for implementation. Always keep the room open for discussion and questions with the development team, it will make the mission and vision of the game clearer and can help to make the foundation stronger and the end result great.

Right Outsource Game Development Agency

This is one of the pivotal steps when thinking to outsource video game developers or development agencies.

1. Portfolio: Overlooking their previous work will help you do determine if the agency or person is the right fit for your game development or have experience in your game concept niche. Things to look for in their portfolio are dynamic-ness, design language, mechanics, and user-friendliness.
2. Expertise: Every game has specific technical requirements, it’s important to see whether the outsource game development company you are thinking to hire has expertise and experience in that niche or not. 
3. Communication: This is a key factor to ponder upon, those agencies should be hired where the language barrier is not an issue and are known to have good communication skills as it helps the whole development process to go seamlessly.
4. Costing: Gaming outsourcing can be budget friendly if pricing is compared of different agencies and negotiation is done. Ideally, look for agencies that do not charge in a currency of higher value than yours. It is also important t establish whether pricing will be fixed or flexible (this is often dependent on the nature of the game and dynamics of its market niche)
5. Testimonials: The best way to determine if the outsourcing agency or developer will be the best fit is to go through their reviews.
6. Intellectual Property: Very important but the often-overlooked aspect is checking whether the policies of the agency co-align with yours especially in terms of claiming intellectual property.

Read more about: How to Outsource Mobile App Development in 2023

Communicate expectations and deadlines

Outsourcing game development can only go smoothly when things are planned properly. Setting clear milestones should be a key objective, this will include:

1. Requirements and expectations for the game
2. Project deadline, phase-wise (Prototyping, testing, final delivery)
3. Number of rounds of revision that will be entertained 
4. Communication style
5. Outsourcing structure

Outsourcing Game Development Structure

Outsourcing video games help in various ways as mentioned above and to make the whole development and outsourcing process easy, it is important to set which structure will be followed. Following are some common types of structures;

1. Full-cycle outsourcing: This often opts when a highly skilled agency is hired. All the brief and project details are handed over and a deadline is set. The agency handles everything and gives updates. There is no collaborative element in this type of structure.  
2. Outsourcing certain tasks: This is mostly done when there is an in-house team for game development and either a certain aspect of the game development is beyond their expertise or they are running out of time, then this structure is selected. It’s a very calculative approach to leverage the expertise of a skilled development team.

Testing and deploying game

Make sure the outsource game development agency you will hire not only tests the game for you, but deploys it and is on standby to correct bugs, glitches, user experience, and any tech-related shortcomings after launch and initial usage.

Concluding Outsourcing Game Development Guide

Here’s a short but very important guide to outsourcing game development agencies. If you want your process to go smoothly, want your game to be the most popular amongst the lot, engage with the audience, and captivate them for the long run, then make sure you follow through the tips and steps mentioned.

Remember before you start on the hunt for the best outsource game development agency or freelancer, have a clear idea about your game, its mission, and vision. Once the foundation is set, everything else will fall into its place easily and sustainably.

Hope that you find the best outsource game development partner!