Hi Guys,

I've been working in the (US) game industry as a remote (read offshore) contract engineer for a good 4-5 years. But with the recent closing of the studio i used to work with, ImaginEngine, it's been a bit hard for me looking for another studio who would be interested in hiring a remote contract engineer for their game projects... Well partly because i haven't really done any serious self marketing or reaching out to other studios... yet.

I'm currently working on starting an outsourcing studio here in the Philippines with a complete engineering, art, and production team service to offer. Me being aware of the production practices, the competitive skills required, and the culture, think that i would be at an advantage offering my services to a prospective client. Just trying to finish up our website to have some online presence up then i will try to reaching out to some game studios.

But... I'm in a constant state of fear thinking that no studio would be interested in my business, wasting all of my efforts, all of my team's effort, all of my money and other investments into nothing! I have started a business before and it failed... I did learn a lot but the pain and sacrifices, and all my financial investments that i've lost!, i endured just makes me a bit more scared about pursuing this. Lol. sorry guys this is actually not what i wanted to ask. I guess this is just normal. I'd be a crazy person not feel this way. The important thing is i'm taking risks and giving it all i've got to make this work.

Anyway, i guess what i wanted to ask is to the industry professionals in the United States, Canada, Europe, or any other first-world countries with a booming or stable gaming industry, what is the current state, your views, and or chances of your studio contracting some or some part of your projects to a 3rd party developer particularly offshore?

I know i've heard a lot of horror stories about companies outsourcing some of their engineering or art tasks and getting very terrible results and pledging not to ever follow that development path for the sake of "saving" some money or trying to budget the development again and i think that's where my fear stems but what would it take for me to prove that i can be more than capable than these other outsourcing studios just wanting to take your money and giving none and crappy at best results/products?

Well, for starters, your english level is quite above what I'm used to from Philippines.

If you are able to channel engineering of capable individuals in your area, then I bet you can make it work.

The biggest barrier I've seen between the developers I've worked for and opening to the Philippines was communication.

Me being aware of the production practices, the competitive skills required, and the culture, think that i would be at an advantage offering my services to a prospective client.

If this is accurate, it should work out great.

Some of the companies I've worked for in the last few years have been seriously interested in opening up this sort of contractual work. Given the risks to actual purchase workforce and offices offshore, its always good to start with no strings attached.

Contractual work is one way, but perhaps I'd recommend going for partnership, accepting to jointly risk capital with your potential "employer".

A portion of the company I currently work for has acquired and partnered-up with offshore dedicated developers over the last two years.

In other words, provided you can demonstrate you have "a clean house" that is able to work efficiently, I would see no way why it can't work. You might just need to position your business and align it with potential partners to maximize your chances of success. I'm pretty sure you wouldn't be disappointed if you end up selling our in a few years to an offshore business that is interested in a permanent foothold in the Phillipines.

My previous work with Philippines-based businesses was unsatisfactory, but only because we dealt with businesses that lacked the credibility that you could potentially build-up. Your experience with external businesses should proove quite helpful.

Good luck!

Well, for starters, your english level is quite above what I'm used to from Philippines.

Thanks! Living in the states for a few years definitely helped. I still stutter a bit and find it hard sometimes to find the right words describing things on what i have in mind. But my english speaking skills, if i have to rate it, would probably have to be somewhere between intermediate and advanced and i have no problem communicating in other forms of non-vocal communications such as emails.

The biggest barrier I've seen between the developers I've worked for and opening to the Philippines was communication.

Unfortunately, that is also what I am concerned about with my team. I think this has something to do with our culture mentality (from many years of oppression?) that Filipinos, in general, would rather not talk about or discuss difficult, serious, or argumentative/debatable problems. And as a result, some would tend to gossip or back-bite instead of facing the problem front on; Happens a lot in family circles especially with the in-laws... :\

Having experienced and realized that problem, me being the one whose not effectively communicating to my producers and bosses in the early days, i am now always keeping myself in check and making sure i don't tend to fall-back to that character behavior. And for the business, when this gets official, i want to take one small steps at a time. Will probably just take one project first and personally managing it and providing constant feedback from and to the client; which i believe is the most important part to have; besides the competent skills of course!

Thank you for your response and input, Orymus3. I really appreciate it. It was definitely an enlightening and encouraging read.

If anyone else in this community who'd like to share their views, inputs, or noticeable trends on these topics, i'd be glad to hear from the rest of gamedev.net. :)

what would it take for me to prove that i can be more than capable than these other outsourcing studios just wanting to take your money and giving none and crappy at best results/products?

Time. Just keep producing results, and keep collecting satisfied clients. There's no magic answer beyond that.

I rather consider “Strategy” is the main magic behind this fact.

Would you care to expound a bit more on the strategies that you use to run your business?

I rather consider “Strategy” is the main magic behind this fact.

Would you care to expound a bit more on the strategies that you use to run your business?

"Her" strategy is to spam forums and write groundless comments, with a spam link appended beneath. "She" has been banned and "her" two posts deleted. Sorry for the inconvenience.

huh... lol. alright and thanks for your comment too!