OUTSOURCING | BETA Inside Outsourcing
Sending work to external studios has become a prominent practice in the games industry. Craig Chapple talks to those in the business about why this is, and considers the delicate issue of shifting asset creation off-site
HANDING ELEMENTS of development to another company has been a controversial subject in the past. Taking away work from a studio’s talent and also out of the local area, off to perhaps cheaper devs to get the job done quickly, was almost unthinkable for many. Fast-forward to 2012, and outsourcing
parts of development is common practice. With triple-A games now requiring as many staff as a blockbuster movie, using another firm’s services can be a necessity for finishing a title on time and on budget. Games that have famously used
outsourcing, albeit with varying degrees of success, include Square Enix’s Deus Ex: Human Revolution, which used G.R.I.P. to develop the game’s notorious boss fights, whilst Deep Silver hired Scottish animation outfit Axis Animation to create the infamous Dead Island trailer. Work on such high profile titles shows that the sector has come a long way during the last decade.
The process is now widely regarded as having more benefits than drawbacks, assuming you partner with the
right company. Dave Cullinane, RealtimeUK
“On the creative side, five years ago
outsourcing was still regarded as a threat and viewed with suspicion by some developers. But nowI think it’s much more widely regarded as having more benefits than drawbacks, assuming you partner with the right company,” says Dave Cullinane of animation and cinematics provider RealtimeUK. “As such, I think it has become regarded as a mainstay of art production and is likely to grow in line with the amount of content that the new generations of consoles will demand.”
AN EXTERNAL SOLUTION The practice is now believed by many to be a prominent, and in some cases, key part of the development process, and has moved on from the days when outsourced talent was harder to come by and less fully realised. “When we first started using outsourced talent as the main part of our development team it was an unusual thing to do,” says Carl Dalton, founder of independent software developer and motorsport specialist firm Brain in a Jar. “Now it is a normal part of the
development process at one level or another for most studios, so I would have to say it has become very prominent.”
Tony Buckley, senior producer of
Liverpool-based Catalyst, which works on all areas of production, says that using external workers has become more popular over the last five years, mainly due to the increased production costs associated with current generation console games. “The need to provide higher resolution
assets for their shiny new games meant that developers had to find alternative solutions to fulfil their art requirements; or face the prospect of significantly increasing their internal art team or succumb to a longer production schedule, neither of which are desirable,” he explains. Buckley adds that time has also enabled
outsourcing companies to grow, with many now featuring strong back catalogues that
demonstrate their successful track records. This allows developers and publishers to make an informed decision on what an external service provider can bring to the table, alleviating the old problems of the unknown. As well as saving time and money, specialist outsourcers can also offer expertise in particular fields that a developer may lack, whilst also bringing in an outside view of a project and its direction. Atomhawk’s managing director Cumron
Ashtiani says that hiring a single specialist to help with a particular part of development can be a tricky task for a studio, with long- term prospects not in the offing for the developer. As an outsourcer, he says it is able to keep full time employees and attach them to short-term projects.
MARCH 2012 | 35
Realtime UK was hired to create a series of 3D renders to help promote Codemasters’ FPS title Operation Flashpoint: Red River
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84