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Hiring outsourcing teams/services in game dev is a perfect way to solve some development problems. You simply delegate tasks (or sometimes every single component of your game) to an external team and wait for the magic to happen. Sounds easy, right? Unfortunately, that’s not always the case. Conferences and talks quite often focus strictly on game dev matters, rather than on the behind-the-scenes magic that makes the important things, such as finding a partner and eventually signing a contract, even possible. And yet, almost all developers need external support — from small companies to industry giants. In smaller companies, the producer/business manager is often responsible for contact/establishing business cooperation. However, it is worth pointing out that they don’t really focus on what happens before signing the contract. For them, the most important factor is the result, which is a well-done job delivered on time.

This table topic will be dedicated to this part: what to do in order to increase the chances of a successful partnership, what to remember, what to watch out for and pay attention to (which goes for both parties, service providers and game creators alike). In general, I would like to provide some guidance on how to improve the way we buy external services — starting from whether there is an appropriate process and a dedicated person in the organization, moving on to verify purchasing needs and reducing their costs, and ending with focusing on assessing suppliers and verifying strategic partners.