The last few years have seen an ever-growing demand within the games industry. Global games market reached $121.7 billion in 2017, and according to forecasts, this number will exceed $150 billion in 2019. On another hand, such demands outpace most of the game developers and publishers growth capacity, and many quickly hit a limit to further growth. Literally, some are facing a shortage of talents or lack of particular tech skill set in areas they operate, some want to shorten a starting cycle, in contrast to putting in place an in-house team, some want to focus on core strategies and services, handling the development work off to an external contractor, etc. The question behind these reasons is how to keep external development cost and time effective?

We at Room 8 Studio are creating a positive business culture of sharing insights on external development for the video game industry leaders. Today we are interviewing our partner from Playtika. Rony Wolfinzon, Product Team Lead and Operations Manager will share our interaction story and experience.

Describe your total experience of partnership with Room 8 Studio, please. What was the model: T&M, dedicated development team or fixed price? And why you decided to move forward with the chosen one?

We engaged the external development team for Caesars Slots – one of Playtika’s the most popular casino games, placed in Facebook Games Hall of Fame with over 5M followers. I would like to add that we consider Room 8 Studio more as the integrated partner with competent project management and trusted operating processes than mercenary cut outsourcers who do their work-for-hire on man/month payment model. First of all, because I’m personally not the fan of those terms and because the team was highly professional and engaged. I believe it is a cause of the studio’s culture and values that Room 8 Studio has within the company. By far, this is the best project I was engaged with.

How much time does it require to build a highly professional external team including onboarding?

I would say, co-development team. The mindset that deeply affects how Playtika defines their relationship with external companies in order not to create problems for both parties. Our experience shows that this approach works best to support the complex, collaborative nature of modern game development. We escaped from all hiring and retention stress, and it took minor efforts from our end to set up a team – Room 8 Studio just minimized all the risks, provided transparent communication for the secured and stabilized product launch. The core team of three people started the project immediately after the short estimation process and grew up to 30 in a month delivering cyclical workload with strict deadlines. It showed us that the company has well established hiring pipeline and can recruit all staff for successful and on-time product release. Actually, we reached the target production speed in three months and soft-launched in eight months, moving to live ops.

What kind of difficulties have you faced during the process? How did you address them?

Given the strategic nature of the process, hiring external development team for games isn’t something that you wander into; it’s something that needs to be planned, implemented and executed at the highest levels of management. The external team must feel a part of what they are doing else they won’t have the required commitment. In addition to the fact that integration with Playtika brand is a challenge for any company. Room 8 Studio fellows showed robust leadership approach resolving this issue. The team took responsibility for all the creative tasks and co-develop independently having all kinds of professionals involved, leaving us with guidance and key decision making. Of course, it took some time in the beginning, but the team made the transition smooth.

What are the key roles for dedicated development team cooperation model? How are these distributed between the vendor and the client?

It really depends on how the external team manages eventual risks, saving time and costs for the client. We take it for granted that we evolve with our external partner as well, so we investigate in developer’s reliability and stability first. We also look for a contractor that let us assemble a dream team with a strong Development Lead, highly proactive Project Management and Quality Assurance Lead on board. All in one is a crucial part of building successful interactions. If they can add the option to extend and scale the external team, to fit the changing project requirements – such partnership makes the whole difference increasing output while reducing costs and time-to-market.

How important is personal contact while managing external teams?

Tightening the communication loop with your developer is vital to receive the final product you wanted. We set up weekly calls to check in and make sure development is sticking to scope and schedule. We go over essential areas of the game specification to ensure the dev team doesn’t interpret them differently. It is also a great time to review art, prototypes, builds and discuss next steps in person. We always ask Development Leads to come and visit our offices, and vice versa we are heading to studio facilities for team building activities, cultural exchange, broader feedback and out-of-office fun.

Playtika cooperates with Room 8 Studio in external development team format on porting, art integration and QA. Do you consider trying dedicated teams for R&D, UA videos and playable ads on top?

Not at the moment. But Room 8 Studio has been around for years, serving clients worldwide for a reason. Their clients are getting good value, keep coming back and are always open to new ways of engagement.

Have a game in mind? Contact our business development team today to see how we can leverage our experience to create the game of your dreams!