Choosing the Appropriate Outsourcing Provider

There really are no sure-fire recipes for successful game development outsourcing, but there are several minimum guidelines that should help you when hiring an outsourcing company to develop your games.

The most basic issue is language. Both you and the development team should be able to write and speak the same language. (It is not necessary that they both share the same mother tongue, as most communication will be written.) Also make sure that the language used in documentation will also be used in the code and in the comments. The usual option is to adopt English.

As the outsourcing relationship is a long-termed one, it is very wise to find a team that matches your own culture. It must understand your business and goals, and it must share the same values and information [Jenkins01].

It is highly recommended that you hire a team with experience in both game development and outsourcing, with at least one contract project completed. Although hiring an inexperienced team might be tempting because of lower prices, it pays to choose a stable and trustworthy partner [Paul01].

Timing

Some Asian companies depict as positive the 12-hour time shift between the client and them, because they can work on the requirements and bugs found in the last 12 hours. If real-time communication is a crucial factor in your case, you should hire an offshore team that shares time zones with your home country. This makes nations such as Argentina and Brazil excellent candidates for clients in the United States and Europe; their recently devaluated economies can lead to savings of up to 50% in development costs.

Case Study 4.4.2: The Client's Side

We asked Tenzing Kernan, game designer and producer at Cardoza Entertainment (www.cardozaent.com), for his comments about the outsourcing economy.

"It is not difficult to find a good developer (and lots of not so good ones) by searching on the Internet. However, working with a foreign development team does pose some additional problems, mainly the language barrier, time zone differences, and communications delays. If the language barrier is too great, you must find a new developer. Daily exchange of ideas and feedback is essential. To make sure that the hurdles can be cleared, you should exchange a few practice e-mails with the key people on the project, before committing to the developer.

"You will almost certainly communicate with the developer (especially an overseas one) mostly via the Internet, using both e-mail and chat. Feedback can be slow with e-mail, and even slower if the time zones are incompatible. You should set a time period during the day when an online chat session can happen. While chatting, many issues can be talked about and resolved in a short period of time. When sending e-mails, include lots of details, and spell everything out clearly—or a simple 10-minute fix might take two days.

"Finally, while it is tempting to go with the developer with the lowest price, it is absolutely essential to choose a developer who will complete the job. Many things can derail a project before completion. The experience of the team's members is more important than their formal education. The key members of the team must have completed a project of a similar size and complexity, or you are taking a big risk."