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Outsourcing / offshoring goes well when the specifications are within tight bounds and processes are well-defined. Doing a console port, or doing the multiplayer version can be tightly bound on most cases. But developing a "feel" for a new game and refining gameplay as you go along is something that is ill-defined and highly unstructured to begin with. That's when cultural and communication problems cause projects to wreck. So although that's not the subject of the thread (offshore), what you are outsourcing is part of the overall issue. -cb

Hmm good point. Obviously what you have to outsource is going to be a key element in the succes of the endevour. As you say, doing a console port should be more strait foward and less subject to interpretation, so i would say that this would be a good thing to outsource. Widen de potential market for your game while minimizing production cost without comprimising on the artistic and/or cultural aspect of your project. So in contrast outsourcing / offshoring your artistic aspect would be a gamble at best.

But lets say you dont have a choice in this matter. Either you are in a region devoid of the production resources needed or you dont have the money to hire the resources at the local rate. What would be the best way to outsource in your opinion? (This is a question for everyone not just CB, although i would still like to know what you think on this since you also are from Montreal)

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Original post by Mydriaz I was suprised when you wrote nationalism. It got me thinking about what i wrote in point 1. At fisrt i tought: What is he talking about, this has nothing to do about nationalism. Its more about encouraging the local video game market by creating jobs localy. Then i tought about it a bit more and i would have to agree with you, there is a bit of nationalism in there to. I guess its a cultural quirk, in Quebec we are a bit more nationalist then the rest of America. Or then again it might just be me

Oh, well, I have nothing against promoting the local job market, and I am glad we agree it sounded a bit nationalist, and that you cleared the confusion.

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Original post by Mydriaz I agree wholeheartedly. But i think even a tiny dev team sould have a project manager. We recently started implanting the SCRUM project management method and even though we are not a big team ( 8 to 12 at anygiven time) it has helped us greatly in structuring all our production and concentrating all our work in a common direction. SCRUM also does wonders for gradual quality control I recommend that all project managers take a look at it if they can.

Good [smile]

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Original post by Mydriaz This one nocked me over. Droping the cost of labor is not the only way to reduce the cost of production. I can agree that is the most obvious way but that way lead to the dark side of managing ( Profits are not what they sould be, lets cut in our biggest spending area. Hmm that would be Human ressources, lets lay off some workers) There are so many ways to get other aspects of your production costs down to a minimum. For most of them you have to use some real creative thinking and i wont go into them unless we sign an NDA ;) But in the end i would say that faced with the choice of not being able to produce because of production costs and outsourcing some of the work overseas... I would gladly outsource but only if all else fails. Finaly i would also say that it should always be analysed on a case by case basis

Well, first, I never said anything about laying off any workers, you can open a new branch to expand your business abroad and not a single local worker needs to be lay off, it is a reality that sometimes companies don't do as well and they have to downsize, but downsizing is not synonymous with offshore outsourcing.
I am sure there are many ways to bring down costs, for example using lower quality raw materials (by the way I was speaking in general not just about the software industry), or hiring on the side of inexperienced workforce to cut their teeth with your projects, but I think on those cases the quality of your product may suffer, which may reflect on how well it competes once in the market.

IANAE (I Am Not An Economist [lol])

Anyway I honestly wish you the best of luck with your project. [smile]

> What would be the best way to outsource in your opinion?

Again, you need to address the *what* part of outsourcing as well as the *how* part. Just solving the *how* part is not sufficient.

If you can find (a) component(s) of your game that an isolated group of guys can take on independently - say, the multiplayer lobby system, DCC plug-ins, - and those can be specified using tight bounds (ex: file formats, code interfaces, etc) then you are on a good start. Furthermore, you will ease communication and interpretation problems if you have strict business processes as well - for example, a well-defined RFM (request for modifications) process, objective acceptance criteria for the deliverables, precise platform performance specification (ex: which PC range you are targetting), etc. Those need to be clear in the contract. Then you need to put someone in charge who can bridge the teams, who has experience in those kinds of projects (and with a high degree of success), and hopefully can speak the language of your contractor(s).

Then you start to see why others have pointed out the increase in management overhead with outsourcing; you need a good lawyer to craft bullet-proof contracts, an experienced project manager who can blend in with the rest of the team while managing the contractors on a daily basis (good luck finding one!), and some extra budget to fly people across the globe if/when things go sour and on a regular basis for tracking progress.

The bummer in game development is that a big chunk of the budget goes towards the artistic side, so there is not a lot of opportunities in the creation pipeline that lends itself to outsourcing / offshoring. That's why I mentionned cross-platform porting and multiplayer add-on as potential candidates; the "look & feel" is already locked down and assets are pretty much frozen so the size of the 'sand box' a contractor can play with can be made very small.

-cb

A fair amount of companies outsource Art Content to Asia; usually by having Concept Lead / 3D leads in-house, and then outsourcing modeling/texturing/animation of pre-concepted artwork. So if someone's done the style-guide, the concept art, and the content specifics, then outsourcing the actual work. This is what's happening with Codemaster's Malaysian Office. I believe EA Burnaby also outsources car-models for NFS to Matahari in Indonesia.

If you have a totally stand-alone component (like FMV), that's relatively easy to outsource. GlassEgg studios in Vietnam, for example, has done a lot of this for big west-coast studios.

We outsource all our music/sfx creation (to Somaton Studios, in LA). For us it just doesn't make sense to keep that resource in-house, and as a result we get some of the best in the industry. I suspect this is an underestimated aspect of outsourcing, lost in the nationalistic fever; sometimes the outsourcing company has specialized skills because this is ALL they do. The same is true for concept-art shops Imaginary Friends and Massive Black.

Another aspect of outsourcing that often gets overlooked is the ramp up/ramp down effect. You actually need the bulk of those content creators only for the main development (first playable -> beta). A lot of companies that don't have multiple projects running end up carrying that additional cost between projects (or even worse, throw the entire 80 man team on the initial prototype, drowning it in content and designers). Outsourcing allows you to keep a core team (the guys you want building the initial prototype/first playable), and then outsourcing the grunt work in the middle.

You might want to read this article from Wideload Games/Bungie Studios Co-founder Alexander Seropian on outsourcing. For those that still like to keep their national flag tightly wrapped around themselves, you'll notice that a lot of the outsourcing was to companies in the same city.

Anyways; I'll stop ranting now :)

Allan