Outsourcing has become an integral part of game development. From indie teams to AAA giants, studios of all sizes actively delegate asset creation, characters, environments, animations, and even full levels to external teams. This allows them to focus on game design, narrative, and production management while leaving execution to outside experts.
But for collaboration to run smoothly, it’s not enough to simply pick a studio — you also need to know which tasks to delegate, how to hand them over, what to negotiate upfront, and more. In this article, we at Coda Studio will share our own experience on how to structure outsourcing so you avoid unpleasant surprises — whether in timelines or in budget.


In-House or Outsourced: When It’s Time to Hand Tasks Over
Let’s start with the basics: how to know when your project would benefit from outsourcing.
The decision to pass some tasks to an external studio shouldn’t be based solely on saving money or speeding up production. First, evaluate your team’s current capacity. If you notice deadlines slipping, your staff overloaded, or people getting distracted by non-core tasks — that’s a red flag. Studios often try to handle everything in-house until the last moment, even when the work is outside their specialization.
For example, you might have strong game design and an internal 2D art team, but your project requires photorealistic 3D characters or complex VFX. Finding and onboarding specialists from scratch can be slow and costly — especially if the workload is temporary.

Outsourcing is often the optimal choice when:

• The project requires expertise you don’t have in-house (e.g., rigging, motion capture, technical art);
• You can’t meet deadlines with your current team;
• You need to handle peak workload without growing your permanent staff;
• Your in-house specialists lack experience in the genre, style, or type of assets you need;
• You have tasks that can be delegated so your team can focus on core features (e.g., UI, props, backgrounds).

Remember: outsourcing isn’t just about cutting costs. It’s a tool for scaling without risk. You can flexibly assemble teams for specific project phases without the burden of hiring and onboarding. This is especially important for indie developers or studios using agile methodologies, where team workload fluctuates from sprint to sprint.

Giants and Boutiques
Broadly speaking, outsourcing studios fall into two categories: large generalists and boutique specialists.
The first type — giants — have hundreds or even thousands of employees and can take on projects of any complexity or style. Examples include Virtuos, Liquid Development, and Chinese studios like Sparx or MoreVFX. They can produce hundreds of assets in parallel, deliver fast results, or even handle full ports and remasters — such as the recent Oblivion port to Unreal Engine.
The second type — boutiques — are small teams deeply specialized in a specific area: only characters, only hard-surface modeling, only stylized art. Studios like Keos Masons or Ryzin often have just a few dozen members but possess unique expertise. They’re chosen not for speed, but for signature style, attention to detail, and deep mastery of their niche.

Portfolio and Specialization: Find “Your” Match
A common mistake clients make is approaching studios without considering their specialization. If you’re making a sci-fi shooter, there’s little point in going to a studio known for cartoony stylization — and vice versa. Likewise, you wouldn’t order architecture from character art specialists.
When reviewing a potential partner’s portfolio, look at more than just the overall quality:

• Do they have similar work in style and quality? Even if the quality is generally high, switching from one visual language to another takes time, pipeline adjustments, and can lead to mismatched expectations and blown budgets — revisions are always costly, sometimes to the tune of thousands of dollars. The closer their portfolio references are to your art vision, the fewer iterations, revisions, and misunderstandings you’ll face. Pay attention to scenes and lighting: do they use similar palettes? Can they capture an atmosphere close to yours? Sometimes a technically capable studio may still miss the right “mood.”
• Have they delivered assets for similar platforms (mobile, PC, console)? Asset requirements vary greatly by platform. Mobile projects require strict optimization — low poly counts, simple shaders, compressed textures. Consoles and PCs allow for heavier assets, complex lighting, and highly detailed materials. A studio that has only worked on a mobile gacha game might struggle to produce ultra-realistic Unreal Engine assets for PS5 without adapting their pipeline. Ask if their portfolio includes work for your target platform, and request background details: what were the project constraints? How was optimization handled?
• Does their level of detail match your expectations? Even within the same style, detail levels can vary significantly. A “realistic soldier” might be built with 20K polygons and basic materials — or with 100K polygons, advanced shading, microdetail normals, and individually textured buttons. If their typical detail level is below your expectations, they may not deliver your target quality without significant training — which risks delays and extra costs.

A Clear Brief Saves Money, Time, and Nerves
The clearer you explain your needs, the faster a studio can start — and the fewer unnecessary iterations will be required. Even the best team can’t “guess” your expectations without a detailed technical brief. Ambiguity in your request leads to delays, misunderstandings, rework, and ultimately, budget overruns.
Keep in mind: for an outsourcing studio, you’re one of many clients. The clearer and more structured your request, the sooner it will be prioritized. If your brief is clear and easy to execute, it reads as “low risk, high clarity,” making it more attractive to take on quickly.

A good brief should include:

• General description: what the asset is, where and how it will be used;
• Target platform: affects technical constraints (e.g., fewer polys and smaller textures for mobile);
• Pipeline: your expected modeling, retopology, and texturing approach (high-to-low, mid-poly, game-ready, etc.);
• Technical constraints: tri count, UV sets, texture size, desired shading;
• Formats: expected deliverables (.FBX, .OBJ, .blend, .TGA, .PNG, etc.);
• References: 3–5 images matching desired style, quality, and detail level;
• Existing materials: texture libraries, finished assets, style guides;
• Deadlines and budget: the clearer you are, the faster a studio can assess feasibility and provide accurate estimates.

Example of a bad request:
❌ “Need a realistic sci-fi character for a shooter. How much will it cost?”
This raises more questions than it answers: what style? Polycount? Platform? Rigging? Texture requirements? Output format? Timeline? Existing materials?
Example of a good request:
✅ “Need a game-ready sci-fi character, style reference — Mass Effect. High-to-low pipeline, PBR texturing (Metal-Roughness) in Substance Painter. 80K tris limit, two UV sets (body, armor). Output: .FBX with rig-ready geometry, 4K textures in .TGA. Budget up to $10,000. Base concept art ready, deadline August 20.”

If you’re inexperienced in writing briefs, work with your producer or art lead from the start. Preparing a detailed brief saves 10x more time and money than it costs to make.

Pipelines, Deadlines, and Workload
The pipeline a studio uses directly impacts results. The same asset created via ZBrush → retopo → bake → Substance Painter will differ greatly from one produced via photogrammetry and refined in Blender — in quality, speed, and price.
It’s not enough to say “we need an asset.” Specify the production stages, tools, deliverables (.fbx, .maya, .glb, PBR specs, etc.), and whether you need rigging, animation, or LODs. These all affect cost and schedule.
If deadlines are tight, a studio can assign multiple artists to one asset — faster but more expensive. Alternatively, you can opt for staged delivery: e.g.,

10 assets per week instead of all at once. Always clarify:

• How does the studio handle deadlines?
• What processes do they use during peak loads?
• Can they deliver partial results in sprints?
• Will your project have a stable team or rotating members?
• Can they scale up manpower if needed, e.g., double the number of artists?

No Feedback, No Results
Working with an outsourcing studio isn’t a “give it and forget it” process. Even with a perfect brief, you can’t foresee every nuance of style, pipeline quirks, team preferences, and mid-project changes. Regular, constructive, structured feedback is the key to success.
Why is feedback so important? It allows the studio to course-correct before they go too far in the wrong direction. Without it, even experienced partners can spend dozens of hours on work that ultimately gets rejected. The earlier you catch a mismatch, the fewer revisions you’ll need — saving both time and money.

✅ Good feedback: “Armor is too smooth — let’s add fine scratches like in the second reference. Shape distortion on the chest — please make it symmetrical. Overall style — closer to Dead Space than Halo.”

❌ Bad feedback: “Not great,” “I don’t like it,” “Let’s try two more versions.”
Such vague comments don’t tell the studio what to change. The result: they either guess or put the task on hold until clarified. Remember: you’re not just a client — you’re a partner. Artists want to do great work too, but without your involvement, even the best will drift off course. The clearer and faster your responses, the sooner you’ll get what you want — saving everyone time, money, and stress.

Other Things to Keep in Mind

• Payment: If the asset scope is well-defined and you don’t need to micromanage, choose a fixed-price model. It reduces risk and keeps budgets predictable — but usually includes a limited number of revisions. Hourly rates work better for exploratory or experimental projects but require more trust and oversight: track hours, sprints, and team load, and know the average time needed for your type of task.
• Legal: Serious studios will start with an NDA and contract. Many have templates you can adapt. Be sure to discuss ownership of rights, number of included iterations, penalties for missed deadlines, payment terms (milestones, post-payment, with advance), and applicable jurisdiction. Ideally, have your own lawyer review and adjust the contract.
• Geography: Global outsourcing lets you tap into talent worldwide — from Brazil to the Philippines to Singapore. But keep in mind time zone differences (daily calls may require overlapping hours) and communication styles (in some cultures, questioning or pushing back isn’t common). English proficiency can also affect speed and clarity — if language may be a barrier, clarify who your main contact will be and their fluency.

Getting Started: Step-by-Step

1. Prepare your request — style, brief, deadlines, references;
2. Find relevant studios — via ArtStation, LinkedIn, recommendations;
3. Send the request and get estimates (ideally from 3–5 teams);
4. Run a test task if unsure;
5. Sign contract and NDA;
6. Set up communication and feedback processes;
7. Monitor progress — without micromanaging, but with clear checkpoints.

Choosing an outsourcing studio isn’t just “who to send the task to.” It’s a strategic decision that affects the look and stability of your project. There’s no one-size-fits-all answer — each studio has strengths and weaknesses. But if you know exactly what you want, finding the right partner becomes much easier.
Outsourcing isn’t just subcontracting — it’s expanding your team. With the right setup, it can be not only reliable but inspiring.