Thanks Tom, yeah secrets of game business and the game producer's handbook has been very useful.

Quote: Original post by FlashChump
Thanks Tom, yeah secrets of game business and the game producer's handbook has been very useful.

Then if you have those two, and there's nothing in there about evaluating developers, get the other one I mentioned - I know I wrote about that in that one.

You will find that publishers maintain a 'roster', a list of contract developers it has worked with in the past and which could be recontacted for future work. Producers on those past projects can also give you insights, capabilities of those contract developers, etc. and as Dan mentionned, there is certainly a company process for doing a due dilligence. You might also want to look at past contracts and get a sense of how your company works, what it expects from developers, etc. Just remember that contracts are the results of negotiations, not necessarily the terms your company is looking for.

Maintaining that roster is an important task, especially if you contract many titles out. You will find that some studios can do one genre very well, other specialize only in consoles, others in multiplayer cross-porting, etc. Having them do a studio pitch will get you more info as to what they tend to do best.

You will also want to find out what's "in the pipe" at frequent intervals at those studios. Contract development is a difficult business, schedule-wise. You want to keep your pipe full at all times, leaving just enough interval between projects to overcome the risk of overruns + some deserved vacation time, but not at the point where you run out of cash and are forced to fire entire teams. Bigger studios can afford to move teams around as they tackle multiple projects at the same time. It's a safer bet, but the price tag goes up along with it. Smaller studios with only one pipe tend to be cheapest; but you could end up with a hodge-podge team that has been fired/re-hired/re-fired a few times. It's always worthwhile asking about the history of the team that will be assigned to your project.

I also suggest you attend IGDA meetings in your area. You'll meet other developers and can more easily fish for information & rumours.

-cb

Awesome reply cb. Thanks again.