Gamedev Outsourcing FAQ

Contracted game art is commonly billed at roughly $25 to $80 per artist-hour, and per-asset prices spread even wider: a stylized prop can cost a few hundred dollars, while a production-ready hero character can run into five figures. Asset complexity, art style, the level of detail and rigging required, the number of revision rounds, and the studio’s region and seniority mix are what move the number. The RFP board on RFP Gaming opens soon: post your asset list as an RFP now and it goes out to art studios at launch, so the bids you receive price your own assets.

Shortlist studios whose portfolio already contains your style, not just strong art in general. Then compare how they handle feedback rounds, whether their artists work directly in your engine or hand over files for your team to integrate, and how many artists they can dedicate at your peak. A paid test asset from two or three candidates makes the final decision concrete.

Put together a style guide or reference board, a list of assets with technical budgets such as polycount, texture size and bone count, the target engine and file formats, a delivery schedule, and a description of your review process. The clearer the asset list, the easier it is to compare quotes line by line.

Ownership is set by your contract, not by the platform. Most work-for-hire art agreements assign all rights and source files to the client on payment; confirm that in writing, including for any stock or third-party material the studio plans to use.

Functional testing is usually billed per tester-hour, often in a band of roughly $15 to $40, with compliance, performance and specialist testing priced higher. Some vendors quote a fixed fee per test cycle or a monthly rate for a dedicated team. The number of platforms and devices, the length of each cycle, how much test design you need rather than pure execution, and where the team is based move the figure most. Once the RFP board on RFP Gaming opens, an RFP describing your build is sent to test teams and their answers come back in one format; a request posted now is held until then.

Compare sample bug reports first, then coverage: the devices, consoles and operating systems the vendor can test on in-house. Ask how quickly they can ramp up a team for a release week, who your day-to-day lead will be, and what experience they have with the submission requirements of your target platforms.

Have a reliable way to share builds, a test plan or at least a feature list, the platforms and devices in scope, your bug tracker and severity definitions, and your milestone dates. Testers are most productive when they know which areas changed since the previous build.

Many QA vendors run pre-submission checks against platform requirements such as Sony’s TRC, Microsoft’s Xbox Requirements and Nintendo’s Lotcheck guidelines. They reduce the risk of a failed submission but cannot approve a build themselves; only the platform holder does that.

Translation is usually priced per source word, commonly somewhere around $0.08 to $0.25 depending on the language pair, while linguistic testing is billed per tester-hour and voice-over per recorded line or studio hour. Word count, the number of languages, how much context and tooling you provide, and whether voice recording is included drive the total. An RFP with your word count and language list can be written on RFP Gaming today and is released to localization vendors when the RFP board opens, so their bids line up against the same scope.

Look for native translators in every target language, earlier titles in a similar genre, and a clear process for routing translator questions to your writers. Ask for a short sample translation of your own text and have a native player review it before you commit to the full project.

Send a string export with an accurate word count, the list of target languages, any existing glossary or style guide, screenshots or a build for context, character limits for UI text, and the release date. Flag text that is still changing so the quote accounts for later updates.

Linguistic quality assurance means native speakers play the localized build and log problems translators cannot see in a spreadsheet: text overflow, wrong gender or plural forms, untranslated strings and broken fonts. For any language you plan to market seriously, it is worth budgeting for.

Ports are usually priced per project, and budgets run from a low five-figure sum for a small 2D title in a mainstream engine to several hundred thousand dollars for a large 3D game moving to weaker hardware. The engine and its version, how much optimization the target hardware demands, the number of platforms, online features and the state of the source code are the main drivers. Post the port on RFP Gaming now and it is held until the RFP board opens; at launch it goes to porting studios, whose estimates you can then weigh for the same build.

Prioritize shipped titles on the exact platform you are targeting and experience with your engine. Ask for a technical assessment of your build before a fixed quote; a studio that estimates without looking at the code is guessing.

Provide source code access or a detailed technical overview, the engine and version, target platforms and performance goals, the third-party middleware and plugins in use, and your release window. Whether you already hold platform developer accounts also changes the plan.

Many do, as part of the project or as an add-on. Confirm who submits the build, who fixes issues found during certification, and whether your publisher or the studio holds the platform agreements.

Sound effects are often priced per sound or per batch, commonly from tens to a few hundred dollars each, and original music is frequently quoted per finished minute, where rates from a few hundred to a couple of thousand dollars per minute are common. Implementation and voice production are usually billed by the hour or day. Scope, the number of variations, live musicians versus virtual instruments, and licensing terms move the price the most. Write the audio scope as a single RFP on RFP Gaming now; it is released to audio teams when the RFP board opens, and their bids can then be lined up against each other.

Match their previous work to your tone and genre, then check technical fit: experience with your audio middleware, your engine and your target platforms. Ask who will actually do the work, particularly on voice productions that involve casting and recording sessions.

Gather reference tracks, a list of required sounds or music cues with approximate lengths, gameplay videos or a build, the audio middleware you use, and your deadline. Decide early whether you need the music outright or under license, as that changes the quote.

That depends on the agreement. A buyout transfers full ownership, while many composers license the score for the game and keep the rights to soundtrack releases. State the model you want in the brief so every vendor quotes on the same terms.

Many agencies work on a monthly retainer, often from a few thousand dollars for a single channel to well over ten thousand for a multi-channel campaign, while others charge per campaign or per deliverable. Paid media and influencer fees are normally billed on top. The channels in scope, the length of the campaign, the markets targeted and the seniority of the team determine the figure. A launch brief posted as an RFP on RFP Gaming is saved now and reaches agencies when the RFP board opens, after which their proposals arrive in a common format that separates fee from spend.

Look for launches similar to yours and ask the agency which of those results they drove directly. Check that the people you meet in the pitch are the people who will run your account, and agree on the metrics that define success before the work starts.

Prepare a playable build or at least a trailer and key art, your release window and platforms, your target audience, a budget split between fees and spend, and your existing channels with their numbers. Agencies plan far more precisely when they know your wishlist or follower baseline.

Outsourced game development is usually billed by the hour or as a monthly team rate, with hourly rates commonly between about $25 and $100 per developer, while fixed-price quotes are more common for well-defined prototypes. A small prototype might cost tens of thousands of dollars and a full production far more. Team size, seniority, platform count, online features and location drive the total. You can post the project on RFP Gaming today; when the RFP board opens it is sent to development studios, which answer with budget, timeline and team size you can compare directly.

Check shipped titles in your genre and engine, then talk to the leads who would run your project. A small paid discovery phase, in which the studio reviews your design and returns a plan and estimate, is a low-risk way to see how they think before you sign for full production.

Write a short design document or feature list, name your engine and target platforms, set a budget range and a deadline, and decide whether you need a full team or specific roles. If code already exists, describe its state honestly; inherited code changes estimates more than anything else.

Publishers are paid through a revenue share rather than fees. Splits vary widely, from deals where the developer keeps most of the revenue to deals where the publisher takes half or more in exchange for funding, and many deals let the publisher recoup its investment before the split applies. The size of the funding, the marketing commitment, the territories and platforms covered and the length of the term shape those numbers. Describing your project on RFP Gaming now saves it until the RFP board opens, when several publishers can respond to the same pitch and their terms become easier to compare.

Look for a publisher whose recent releases resemble your game, whose marketing reached the audience you want, and whose developers speak well of them. Weigh the support that is not money as well: QA, localization, porting and platform contacts often matter as much as the advance.

Prepare a playable demo or vertical slice, a short pitch deck covering the game, its audience, comparable titles and the team, a development budget and schedule, and the rights you are and are not willing to share. Publishers decide quickly, so the first minutes of the demo matter most.

Typical requests cover distribution on certain platforms and territories for a set term, and sometimes options on sequels or merchandise. Everything is negotiable; get legal advice before signing and keep ownership of your IP explicit in the contract.

Co-development is usually billed as a monthly rate per team member or for a dedicated squad, and a full-time developer month commonly costs anywhere from several thousand to over fifteen thousand dollars depending on region and seniority. Team size, the disciplines mixed into the squad, the length of the engagement, and the tools and hardware required all move the figure. A co-development RFP written on RFP Gaming now is held for the opening of the RFP board, after which co-dev teams reply with team size and timeline stated the same way.

Ask for credits on games where they owned a feature end to end, and speak to their former clients’ producers. Run a short initial milestone with clear acceptance criteria before scaling the team; it tests integration with your pipeline at low cost.

Define the scope the partner will own, the access they need to your repository, builds and tools, the working hours you expect to overlap, and the review process for their work. Onboarding documentation for your codebase shortens the ramp-up considerably.

Unity teams most often bill by the hour or month, with developer rates commonly falling between about $25 and $90 per hour depending on location and seniority. Prototypes may be quoted at a fixed price. Platform targets, multiplayer and backend needs, art pipeline work and the state of any existing project change estimates the most. Post the job on RFP Gaming as an RFP now and it is released to Unity studios once the RFP board opens, so their estimates reach you in one format.

Play games they built in Unity on your target platform. Check their familiarity with the specific systems you rely on, such as a render pipeline, networking library or ads SDK, and ask how they structure projects so your team can maintain the code after handover.

List the Unity version you use or plan to use, the target platforms and devices, third-party packages and SDKs, a feature list or design document, and your budget range and deadline. If you have an existing project, a short technical overview saves everyone a discovery call.

Unreal work is typically billed per developer-hour or per team-month, and hourly rates commonly range from about $30 to $110, with senior engine and rendering programmers at the upper end. Estimates depend on the platforms, visual targets, multiplayer requirements, the engine version and how much custom engine work is involved. An RFP posted on RFP Gaming today waits for the RFP board to open and then goes to Unreal studios, whose bids set out budget, timeline and team size the same way.

Ask to see shipped titles on your target platforms and talk to the programmers who would work on your project. For technically demanding work, a short paid assessment such as a profiling pass shows how the studio diagnoses problems before you commit to a larger contract.

Specify the engine version and whether you use a custom build, your target platforms and performance goals, your source control and build setup, any plugins or middleware, and the scope, budget range and deadline. Access to a current build helps studios estimate far more accurately.