Outsourcing

[Viper]

Hey everyone,

So i just heard about a nice company named Black Bow Software. They do alot of art and media for games. Has anyone used them before, or a similar company that can share on their experiences and how everything worked out with them?

Also whats the general price of these sort of companies?

Viper

[Jackolantern]

Send a PM to Xerves on the mmorpgmaker.com forums. He said he used that specific company. I am not sure of the actual costs for outsourced art assets, but it would surely require at least a decent indie-sized budget. I believe, from their website, that they charge by the "man day", since that is how their estimates are given on their website. I am not sure if they work on contract and require minimum amounts of work before they can do anything for you.

Best bet is to just email them and ask. Even people who worked with them before may only know about their specific deal, and not everything the company can offer.

EDIT: I can't find figures online, but everything I can find about international art asset outsourcing seems to be pointing to around a 50% savings to having it done in-house by hired employees. Of course, that will surely vary a lot depending on a lot of factors, such as the benefits package you would offer an employee, whether you would hire or contract, and (of course) the project you need done.

[Viper]

what he said to me was "Depends on what you want. I think each "instance" of the model we had done was about $350-$400. Once you add up a male/female model and about 5 "instances" because of meshes it starts to add up real quick".

Honestly i figured it would be cheaper :/ but im looking into other companies.

[Raven67854]

They are all about the same. Your best bet is to learn to do it yourself. Or find somebody skilled enough to do it for you for free if your lucky . Thankfully for me my artist is skilled enough.

[Jackolantern]

Yeah, these guys are definitely for at least medium-sized commercial projects and up. These types of companies are not for hobbyist projects, really.

However, it still may be worth it to check around. A Gamasutra interview I was reading about outsourced asset production mentioned that there is actually a wide range of quality and pricing. Black Bow really looks like the cream of the crop (I have not seen that kind of quality in anything outside of AAA games). Those guys do work for EA, Ubisoft and other major developer/publishers. Maybe just do some Googling and see what you can come up with. If you do find a cheaper provider, I am sure the community would be interested in hearing about it.

[Viper]

yeah, im looking into other companies now.

[Viper]

so i looked into another studio. www.cartixstudios.com

this is what they sent me.

"Our price varies vastly depending on the schedule/ time needed to complete the work requested by clients. In a nutshell, we charge 125 USD per man day.

In order for us to give you a better precise quote, it would help us if you could provide us with:

1. references of the MMO project that is currently being worked on.
2. Assets needed to be completed.
3. When it is needed by.

We generally give three revisions, afterwards all revisions would be considered if they are technical (collisions issues, mipmapping issues, etc.)

Our guys are fast, dependable and most importantly good. for instance, for a typical vehicle like the ones you see in a PS3 or XBOX 360 console (Call of Duty style/ Resident Evil style), we can get it delivered in 4 days (both highpoly, lowpoly, with all normal, specular and diffuse textures) as opposed to 1.5 weeks in general that it takes for others. This is because we have a consistent production workflow among artists which allows one assets to be worked on together in tandem."

thought that may help anyone out.

[hallsofvallhalla]

$500 for a vehicle huh, I think as a indie I would charge myself $30 an hour and have one done in 16 - 20 hours

[Jackolantern]

$500 for a vehicle huh, I think as a indie I would charge myself $30 an hour and have one done in 16 - 20 hours

Well, I am assuming the service is for developers who can't physically make all the models they need fast enough. Say, if you want 500 models done in a month or two