Recent Posts
VISIBILITY: Lessons in Visibility from the Arcade Generation
Posted by admin on May 14, 2012
Filed under Uncategorized with no comments
The most valuable lessons, I’ve realized, almost always come from epic failures and intense moments of shame. In my own life, the most profound example of this was the lesson of visibility. It was taught to me by a man I will refer to from here forth as The Dinosaur.
THE SECONDARY COSTS OF OUTSOURCING
Posted by Paul Culp on February 21, 2012
Filed under Game Art and Animation, Industry with no comments
I started my first game art outsourcing studio in 2000. We were one of the first large-scale art outsource companies in the United States. This was back when the term outsourcing was associated with other industries like vehicles and electronics, not video games. Developers didn’t outsource like they do now. They either brought in contract artists temporarily or leaned on other game developers to lend their art teams when they were in-between projects. Outsourcing was not the ubiquitous term it is today.
A Gentleman’s Guide to Outsourcing: The Studio
Posted by Paul Culp on February 19, 2012
Filed under Industry with no comments
My first blog post on the series A Gentleman’s Guide to Outsourcing dealt with the proposal stage of the Outsource Manager-Art Studio/Vendor relationship. I received a lot of questions from that post, mostly about cost, but I don’t want to get into that one quite just yet. Talking openly about Art Studio costs means wading through some swampy water teaming with overseas considerations, local development hotspots, rural areas, left and right coasts, leeches and the odd gator or two. I want to make sure I tread that water with a little more sensitivity than I’m used to. Instead I’d like to focus on a question I was asked recently by a new client that, well like most things, affects cost but doesn’t entirely dictate it.