I want to know the region where game development is quite popular and which can give us a good opportunity to outsource some of our game development skills.
Also what sorts of game people are really looking after. I want to know the latest trends in Game Development.
Your help will be highly appreciable.
Thanks.
1
How To Outsource Game Development Skills
Started by cool_jack, Oct 09 2009 11:38 AM
1 reply to this topic
#2
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DevMaster Staff
Posted 09 October 2009 - 12:28 PM
Wow. That's a tall order. You are asking for basically two essays in one? 
On Outsourcing:
First, outsourcing isn't the panacea some people make it out to be. You may already know this, but if you have no experience with it, you'll make a mess of the communication hurdles. It can really turn into a clusterf**k quick, especially if there are big cultural differences that you don't know to look for. I've been burned by the Indian "yes-not-yes" a couple of times. This is especially exacerbated in game development, which tends to be cultural-heavy and fraught with slang and idioms that just don't translate. Depending on your scale, I highly recommend you either hire someone to manage it, or at least get some independent help. At a very minimum, bone up a lot on how to manage outsourced deliverables.
Secondly, it depends what you want to outsource. Code or content? Both? Also, how do you want to outsource? Do you want a sister studio in China, such that you can have 24/7 dev going on? Or, do you want to outsource specific and/or isolated chunks of work?
Third, focusing on a region is possibly dangerous by scoping. For example, India is a huge sink for all types of outsourcing, but the amount of IT sweatshops being created and the growth pace is such that if you don't go to some specific shop in India based on a strong, experienced recommendation from someone you trust in the industry, you are very likely to get burned. Vetting any potential team is very important.
Fourth, just because you can get work done as much as 1/4th of what you'd pay in the US doesn't mean you should from the POV that real talent costs real money anywhere you go. IOW, if you focus on cutting costs drastically, you get what you pay for. Some companies in the US understand that it's sometimes worth paying twice the US average to get a really strong worker who delivers 3x the value.
Then, there are a slew of minor issues, like:
- Can I afford the bandwidth costs of continuously moving digital assets across sites?
- Do I have an established structure for communicating approvals, performance and value delivery from disparate locations working in different timezones? How can I identify "HR-type problems"?
- Do you have any middleware with licensing restrictions that makes working with external parties impossible?
- etc, etc, etc
As you can see, it's a scary world and lots of people get burned in that field every day. Can it work? Yes. Is it worth it? Debatable.
On "sorts of game people are really looking after":
Dude, if I knew that, I'd be sitting pretty and sippin on gin'n'juice... (Cultural reference likely lost on non-US outsourced developers.)
I also wouldn't tell you. :sneaky:
On Outsourcing:
First, outsourcing isn't the panacea some people make it out to be. You may already know this, but if you have no experience with it, you'll make a mess of the communication hurdles. It can really turn into a clusterf**k quick, especially if there are big cultural differences that you don't know to look for. I've been burned by the Indian "yes-not-yes" a couple of times. This is especially exacerbated in game development, which tends to be cultural-heavy and fraught with slang and idioms that just don't translate. Depending on your scale, I highly recommend you either hire someone to manage it, or at least get some independent help. At a very minimum, bone up a lot on how to manage outsourced deliverables.
Secondly, it depends what you want to outsource. Code or content? Both? Also, how do you want to outsource? Do you want a sister studio in China, such that you can have 24/7 dev going on? Or, do you want to outsource specific and/or isolated chunks of work?
Third, focusing on a region is possibly dangerous by scoping. For example, India is a huge sink for all types of outsourcing, but the amount of IT sweatshops being created and the growth pace is such that if you don't go to some specific shop in India based on a strong, experienced recommendation from someone you trust in the industry, you are very likely to get burned. Vetting any potential team is very important.
Fourth, just because you can get work done as much as 1/4th of what you'd pay in the US doesn't mean you should from the POV that real talent costs real money anywhere you go. IOW, if you focus on cutting costs drastically, you get what you pay for. Some companies in the US understand that it's sometimes worth paying twice the US average to get a really strong worker who delivers 3x the value.
Then, there are a slew of minor issues, like:
- Can I afford the bandwidth costs of continuously moving digital assets across sites?
- Do I have an established structure for communicating approvals, performance and value delivery from disparate locations working in different timezones? How can I identify "HR-type problems"?
- Do you have any middleware with licensing restrictions that makes working with external parties impossible?
- etc, etc, etc
As you can see, it's a scary world and lots of people get burned in that field every day. Can it work? Yes. Is it worth it? Debatable.
On "sorts of game people are really looking after":
Dude, if I knew that, I'd be sitting pretty and sippin on gin'n'juice... (Cultural reference likely lost on non-US outsourced developers.)
I also wouldn't tell you. :sneaky:
Hyperbole is, like, the absolute best, most wonderful thing ever! However, you'd be an idiot to not think dogmatism is always bad.
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