In the past, game companies developed their games with in-house teams, which were often small in size. Take Super Mario. If you see the game’s credits, you’ll see that only 32 people worked on the game, from start to finish.
Contrast this with any of the latest AAA games. Unlike with Super Mario, thousands of people from different game development disciplines like design, development, art, and testing, work on them. The end credits of these games are usually several minutes long as a result.
Many among these thousands, however, are not in-house team members. They belong to outsourcing companies. Because top game companies outsource the work on certain domains within their games, to outside game development companies, to get quality output and cut costs.
Over the past few years, this practice of outsourcing has become popular (it has even spread to the realm of mobile game development.) Usually, it goes like this: the game development company has certain requirements, which they think would be better if taken care of by an outside team of experts. So, they find some top companies and outsource the work to them. Sometimes, they even outsource the work to multiple teams at the same time.
Other times though, they choose a single partner for the entire project’s development. The chosen team works on the project from start to finish. They take care of all the departments, be it design, development, art, or testing.
The practice where you rely on a single game development partner from start to finish has increased over the past few years. Because there are certain benefits you receive when you rely on this approach.
When you outsource your game’s development to multiple teams at the same time, you may find it difficult to keep track of everything that is going on and can result in a lot of problems. Work may not get completed on time. Or work completed might be different from what was expected.
When you choose to develop with an end-to-end game development partner, you have an easier time. You can easily keep track of your game’s development process, and make sure the project milestones are met to your satisfaction, on time. You can also routinely compare the progress with the project roadmap and game design document to affirm that everything is going as planned.
Video game development is a collaborative process. And communication is a fundamental aspect of it.
Outsourcing your game’s development to multiple companies at the same time can create a lot of problems in communication. You will be forced to communicate with multiple project managers about your requirements, which increases the chances of miscommunications. The work that results may be of a lower quality than required and riddled with mistakes.
You will not face these problems if you rely on an end-to-end game development partner. Since all the team members are under the same company, the collaboration will be natural. You also will only have to deal with a single project manager, who will facilitate communication between you and the company, as well as different departments within the company, who are working on your game project. All this makes the process easier to manage.
If you have multiple teams working on your game, you are at a higher risk of information leakage. Because a large number of people will have access to information on your game.
And these leaks can create a host of problems. It can lead to negative evaluations of your unfinished game, which can derail your marketing efforts. It can also lead to copycats and imitations of your game. The combination of all these can affect your team’s morale as well.
The risk of leaks is drastically reduced when you opt for working with an end-to-end game development partner. Top game development companies will sign NDAs that will help protect your game. These NDAs will outline how the information about your game will be handled and who will have access to it. Because the fewer the number of people who have information about your game before it is released, the better it is for you.
All this will help prevent leaks and also keep your game development partner accountable.
Choosing an end-to-end game development partner to develop your game is a choice you may benefit from. It eliminates a lot of the issues that arise when you choose to go with multiple partners.
To get these benefits, however, you must choose the right game development partner. This can take a lot of time. It will require you to research potential partners, analyze them on various fronts, and then pick the one that fits your needs.
Juego Studio can be that team for you. Since 2011, our 170+ team has developed acclaimed games across different gaming platforms. Our team has top talents in all game development disciplines like development, art, and testing. With us, you can get your game developed from conceptualization to deployment, no matter what your needs are.
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