Sourcing Resources
It's dangerous to go alone take this ⚔️
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Introduction
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Most developers are a small studio, or even teams of one, and lack the resource in house to meet all the needs of running a business as a commercial game developer. This lack of complete in-house capacity is however not unique to the indie. AAA studios, even the largest currently in existence still make heavy use of contractors and outsourcing of key aspects to meet the huge demands of developing and operating a game.
Staffing up is not the only option and not always the best choice for your studio and project. Keeping your studio focused and agile means keeping your headcount down and avoiding the staff up and layoff cycle popular in prior generations. The moral question of staffing up for subsequent layoff is another area that doesn't sit well with many, not to mention the "Gold Crutch" that practice typically causes.
The Solution
For any business there are two options:
Staff up This should be self explanatory, you employee staff on a salary to do work as part of your organization.
Partners / Outsourcing This is the selection of another company that you contract to deliver on some body of work. The can be as small as a bit of consultation and guidance or as significant as full professional service outsourcing ... effectively contracting another company to be your Marketing department, Art department or whatever need you may have.
Technically 3 options Freelancer / Private Contract / Temporary Labour
In our opinion this is not viable at indie scale, professional level private contractors are private because they can demand a serious premium and effectively choose where and when they work ... e.g. out of the typical indie budget but used by some establish companies and studios for very specific needs. Budget options in private contracting are high risk, require significant management and generally are not suitable for smaller studios that really need the experienced source to uplift them, not a budget resource to gap-fill.
Staffing
The specifics of employment will very by region. Make sure you understand the legal aspects of entering into an employment contract as the employer or employee.
Understand that as much as pop-culture likes to joke about it, managing people is a hard skill to learn. Being a manager requires considerable investment, study and effort to be done well. Like any other skilled profession its simply not for everyone and it may be something you need to staff for. ... Yes, we are suggesting you consider hiring a manager to hire and manage your team and yourself.
Partners
Finding, selecting and managing partners can be a challenge in and of its self. Depending on your strategy and budget you may need to engage and orchestrate a number of partners to meet your goals. Heathen can be contracted to provide Managed Services. This means we can help you research, select and manage professional partnerships. As with any partner, engagement, discovery, and strategy are the first steps. Before you jump in though, look for a partner who is willing to work with you throughout your journey. This is very important. Shop around and don't be afraid to say "no thanks"
Considerations
When you decide to source some aspect of your company or project's tasks, you need to be clear as to what the scope of each "partner" will be. The following are some high level topics to keep in mind when defining your "ask". What do you mean by "ask"? This is just a term that defines what your "asking" the partner to do. Your scope, terms, conditions, budget, timelines and anything else that is important for the relationship to succeed.
Scope
This one should be obvious, but you need to define the bounds of what you need each partner to do. Are you looking to fully outsource all marketing efforts, maybe you have the manpower but lack the expertise so you only need the management or consultation, perhaps you're a marketing genius and are looking for manpower. You need to think about this for each relationship you plan to establish and define the scope in no uncertain terms, what will be in house, what do you need the partner to do and what will be the interface between you and them.
Goals
What objective are you looking for and expect this partner to help you obtain? A good partner will dig into this during "Discovery" but you should have a good understanding of your expectations going into that first contact. Not sure what your goals should be? good, you're honest, so your first goal is to understand what's possible. You can obtain that goal through self learning or consultation or a mix of the two. Knowledge bases like this one and communities like ours can help you get started with self research, and of course Heathen is a skilled and experienced consultancy 😉.
Budget
This topic needs its own article, for now simply understand what your budget is and be serious about it. If you want to create a commercially viable game, built by professionals, then you're going to have to pay professional fees.
What to expect
Understanding what you need from each partnership you engage in, is o