In the game development industry, art outsourcing has traditionally been seen as a tool for solving specific tasks: covering a narrow production stage, reinforcing an internal team during peak load, or handling ongoing asset production. Over the years, we have worked in all of these formats — from one-off tasks to long-term, continuous pipelines. This experience has allowed us to clearly see not only the strengths of classic outsourcing, but also its systemic limitations.

By the end of 2025, we came to a clear conclusion: in 2026, our focus is a shift from the “contractor” model to full participation in our clients’ projects as a development partner.

✰ ✰ ✰ THE ROOT OF THE PROBLEM WITH CLASSIC OUTSOURCING

When an outsourcing team is responsible only for a narrow segment of production, the process almost always relies on multi-stage reviews and approvals. On the surface, this seems reasonable, but in practice it creates a number of persistent issues.

In most cases, step-by-step control exists for two reasons:

✅ The outsourcing team does not fully understand what the final result should look like in the context of the entire project. The task may be executed correctly within its own stage, but without a full understanding of critical details: engine specifics, game style, pipeline requirements, and how the asset will ultimately be used.

✅ Reviews are used as a form of risk protection. In order not to pay for low-quality work and subsequent rework, the client is forced to introduce additional approval stages.

However, the core issue is obvious and lies on the surface. The outsourcing studio is not an autonomous production unit capable of independently delivering a final result that is fully acceptable for the project.

As a result, assets — especially large and complex ones — are sent back and forth multiple times. Revisions stretch over long periods, reviews are difficult to synchronize without delays, and overall production slows down.

This also requires significant resources on the client’s side. Some of our clients apply multiple levels of QA, which means more people involved, more time spent, and ultimately higher production costs.

✰ ✰ ✰ TOUR APPROACH: MOVING THE SOLUTION INSIDE THE STUDIO

We strongly believe that these challenges can and should be solved on the outsourcing studio’s side, rather than being compensated for by additional checks on the client’s side.

The key solution is simple: to study the project deeply enough to clearly see the correct final result on our own.

This means a full understanding of project requirements, a well-structured internal pipeline, an in-house quality control system, and the ability to deliver assets that reach the final state on the first pass — or are extremely close to it.

In practice, it is far easier and more efficient to bring processes to this level within a single studio than to continuously synchronize the work of two independent teams — the client’s internal team and the external outsourcing team.

✰ ✰ ✰ WHAT IT TAKES TO BECOME A TRUE PARTNER
1. Owning a Production Direction End-to-End

It is important to aim not to be a narrowly focused executor, but to take full ownership of an entire production branch. Only in this case do real gaps in knowledge, experience, and processes become visible. When working on isolated stages, these weaknesses often remain hidden.

2. Filling All Gaps That Prevent Autonomy

This includes technical standards, engine requirements, optimization, internal project rules, and the expectations of QA and art direction. A studio must be able not just to complete tasks, but to take full responsibility for the final result.

3. Regular retrospectives with the client

We believe it is critically important to regularly discuss with the client what still prevents them from handing over a direction fully under a turnkey model, where points of uncertainty remain, and what risks are still being felt.

4. Mastering the process better than the internal team

The goal is not simply to match the level of the client’s internal team, but to exceed it. Through full focus on our production domain, deep expertise, and refined processes, we strive to deliver results that do not merely meet expectations, but genuinely — in a positive sense — surprise our partners.

✰ ✰ ✰ OUR FOCUS FOR 2026

In 2026, we intend to consistently develop our relationships with clients in this direction. We genuinely care about what we do and the projects we work on.

Our focus is to integrate more deeply into our clients’ projects, bring our internal processes to a максимально autonomous and predictable level, reduce and accelerate production through optimization and in-house control, and elevate both the quality of results and the quality of collaboration.

We believe this approach benefits everyone involved: the client gains a reliable partner rather than an additional source of overhead, while the studio gains the opportunity to grow, take on real responsibility, and deliver truly valuable results.