The mobile game industry offers various opportunities to enhance its products. But developers have the choice between opting for in-house game art design or hiring a game art outsourcing company. Explore the depths of this article to understand which option is the most suitable for you.
Game Art In-House production refers to recruiting full-time game art designers. They will work as part of the internal operations of your organization to meet your game art requirements. Since they will be working on your projects solely, meeting deadlines might not be an issue.
But building a Game Art In-House production team might be a headache. You will have to look for professionals with the right knowledge and expertise to develop Game Art In-House. Moreover, you will also have to pay a salary to the team when they work full-time with you.
Developing an entertaining and visually-pleasing video game can take up several years. Game development goes beyond working on a concept, scripting, animation, character design, programming, testing, and more. Outsourcing game art enables developers to cut short the development timeline.
Hiring a game art outsourcing studio will also help reduce costs. Several companies are focusing on outsourcing their game art to reliable studios. Outsourcing is also rising in terms of complete budgetary allocation.
Some noteworthy benefits of game art outsourcing are as follows:
Hiring in-house game art designers can be time-consuming. The process involves interviewing, filtering, and training the candidates. But outsourcing your game art technology ensures that you don’t have to undergo the complicated hiring process.
You don’t have to pay salary to the indoor experts while they are waiting for the next development project. It will ensure that you are able to save on the cost of training and adaptation. Outsourcing ensures that you pay the game art designers as per the duration and needs of the project.
Outsourcing is also beneficial because it removes overhead costs. You won’t have to bear any additional expenses for office space, computers, licensed software, and other equipment. Your outsourcing partner will focus on managing the labor pool and save you from unnecessary spending.
Game development companies have a huge demand for game art designers at times. Outsourcing enables you to add temporary resources when the demand is high. When the demand has settled down, you can let go of the resources without any hassle.
It also allows you to shift repetitive and mundane tasks to the external team. Therefore, the internal team won’t be overburdened with unnecessary tasks. The internal team also gets the opportunity to concentrate on more crucial tasks related to game development.
Game art outsourcing is rising rapidly with no intention of slowing down. But choosing the right game art outsourcing studio becomes essential to finding success. Some tips for choosing an appropriate game art outsourcing company as per your needs are as follows:
Before video game art outsourcing, you must offer detailed specifications. Remember that competency and detailed information about your needs will highly influence the final outcome. Providing vague specifications to the outsourcing studio won’t help you.
Without a detailed explanation, it will create multiple misunderstandings. Providing concrete examples regarding what you expect will be beneficial. Eliminate ambiguity in your instructions to convey the right details.
You must determine the authenticity of the game art outsourcing studio before hiring them. You can look for freelancers, but you won’t have any particular agency to vouch for their credibility. But partnering up with a studio seems more prudent.
The studio will have an existing set of professionals who will exhibit a professional approach to your project. Working with a studio will also save you time because you no longer have to understand the capabilities of the art designers.
The studio will analyze the competency of the game art designers before making them a part of their organization.
You must choose a trustworthy video game art designer. Studios have a solid reputation for not disclosing the personal information of clients. If you want to further protect the privacy of your project, you can make them sign a non-disclosure agreement.
An ideal game art outsourcing studio will ask you several questions. Remember that answering the questions is necessary to get the best outcome. Be prepared to answer the questions to impact how your final product will be delivered.
The game art outsourcing studio must ask the right questions before starting to work on your project. It will ensure that there’s no room for confusion or misunderstanding during the project. You should also ask relevant questions to the outsourcing agency to analyze their working style and more.
Remember that most game art outsourcing agencies are situated outside. Therefore, it’s necessary for you to figure out a way to communicate your requirements effectively. The game art outsourcing agency must get in touch with you before making any change or modification.
Meeting tough deadlines is necessary for any game development company to impress its consumers. Even though you won’t be directly supervising the game art designers, you should get constant updates about the project. Choose a game art outsourcing agency that succeeds at fulfilling your requirements on time.
Choosing between in-house game art or an outsourcing studio should be solely your decision. Considering your specific requirements is necessary before determining which one would be the most appropriate for you.
Outsourcing game art design has become extremely popular in the current context. However, it doesn’t mean you can’t any longer build an in-house game art designer team.
1. What’s the importance of art in game design?
Developers find concept art invaluable as it determines the visuals and mood of games. As the visual development team will focus on developing other parts of the game, you won’t go wrong while starting out with some concept art.
2. How to find a reliable game art outsourcing partner?
If you are looking for a reliable game art outsourcing partner, you must understand your requirements. Convey your requirements in detail to find out whether the specialists can fulfill them.
3. Is there any difference between game art and game design?
Game design refers to the system and mechanics of the game. But game art refers to the artistic and design element of games.
4. What are some popular 2D art styles for games?
Some popular art styles for games include pixel art and vector art. Monochromatic art is also quite common in games.
5. What’s the importance of protected art for games?
Game art designers should keep all assets and information related to the project confidential. If you are outsourcing a game art designer, you must include the non-disclosure agreement in your contract.