How to Find and Hire a Perfect Game Dev Team

Video games are a billion-dollar industry that attracts investors from all over the world. 

Consider statistics: 

• The video game market size exceeded USD 195 billion in 2021 and is projected to grow at a CAGR of 12.9% by the end of 2030. 
• The mobile gaming market size has reached USD 119 billion in 2021. 
• CD Project sold 13.7 million copies of the game ‘Cyberpunk 2077 in 2020 and earned over USD 500 million. 
• There are over 227 million video game players in the U.S. 

Video games have become a source of entertainment for many people. As new technology appears, games evolve. Virtual reality, top-notch 3D graphics, IoT, and other modern technology allows game creators to make immersive virtual reality and push games to the next level. 

In this article, you’ll find all the information about game development and how to find game developers for your project. 

Everything You Should Know Before Hiring the Full-Time Team

Game development is a process of planning, creating, and marketing video or mobile games. Besides the tech side, game development involves creative work such as developing plots, conflict, characters, scenes, rewards, levels, player interactions, other game elements, and game aesthetics. Let’s see what are the main game development stages. 

Game Development Stages 

The game development life cycle (GDLC) differs from the software development life cycle due to its specific focus on entertaining the user. GDLC includes 7 main steps:

Initiation

The first stage of GDLC is where the idea of a future game is planted. At this step, you should decide what type of game you want to create, what must-have features, and what graphics and game engine you’ll use. Moreover, it’s important to allocate your budget so you can estimate the required team size and time to market. 

You should also align the game specifics, including plot, main characters, theme, etc, during the initiation stage. 

Pre-production

Pre-production is a hot kitchen where designers, developers, artists, and writers work together on creating the game’s story in every detail. Developers choose the game engine at this stage. 

As a result, the team presents a prototype based on a full storyboard that includes gameplay mechanics and game design. Then, documentation for the production stage is made.

Production

The production stage is the hardest one.

It takes most of the time in the whole GDLC. During this stage, the team brings to life the prototype created in pre-productions. Each team member is responsible for making the game realistic and functional:

• developers write the code for each piece of in-game content,
• designers create dynamic and immersive levels, 
• audio designers and voice actors work on each sound and character’s line,
• project managers monitor productivity and ensure the team adheres to deadlines. 

Testing

Testing is an internal check of the game’s features and mechanics. 

At this stage, quality assurance specialists may find and highlight the bugs to fix, user experience inconsistencies, typos, dialogues perception, overall rendering, features that crush or exploit the game, etc. 

Beta launch

Beta-launch is a presentation of an almost complete version of the game to the audience to get feedback and fix the bugs that didn’t pop up during testing. Open betas encourage customers to play a game and share their honest opinion about it, report bugs and discuss the game with the community. 

Launch

The launch is a final release of the fully-completed game. Usually, the game dev team polishes the game before the launch meaning reducing the last bugs and adding finishing touches to the design.  

Post-production

After the successful release, the work continues. Post-launch support implies watching minor emerging bugs, monitoring feedback, and implementing improvements. 

Now that you know all the stages of GDLC, you can estimate the time and effort for developing a game and hire proper game developers to bring your ideas to life. 

Here’s an article that might interest you: The 10 Best Text Animation Apps For Mobile Phones

Game Developer Roles and Responsibilities

Game developers are core specialists in any game development team as they create the codebase that provides game logic, user interaction, and control game flow. Before hiring a game developer, take a look at the key roles and responsibilities of game devs: 

• learning design documentation to recreate game ideas in code,
• turning the prototype into a playable game,
• programming the game locations, 
• implementing APIs,
• working on game engine structure,
• animating game characters, 
• developing tasks and milestones,
• fixing bugs,
• implementing improvements and updates.

Other Game Development Roles

Besides developers, creating games requires plenty of specialists to ensure quality results. Here are roles to consider for your project:

• Designer. Game designers create game structures. They are responsible for all graphics required for the game, IU, sounds, characters, etc. 
• Artist. Artists provide the game with 2D or 3D scenes, views, and locations. 
• Level designer. The level designer makes the game challenging and engaging by developing levels with different complexity. 
• Sound engineer. The sound engineer takes care of game sounds and effects, making sure all voices and sounds are merged properly. 
• Tester. Quality assurance specialists test games on bugs and other inconsistencies to help the team improve the game before release. 

What Are the Main Tech Skills of a Game Developer?

Game developers use multiple tools to build video games. Proficient game dev should have an experience with the following concepts and tools:

• programming languages such as Java, JavaScript, C#, C++, Python, etc. 
• game engines like Unity or Unreal,
• 2D and 3D design,
• animation.

Depending on the game type and complexity, augmented reality and artificial intelligence skills can also be in demand. 

The Best Way to Hire Game Developers

Finding a skilled game developer that’ll meet your project’s needs can be a daunting task. However, there are a few ways to make the hiring process less painful. You can either find a developer by yourself or delegate this task to professionals:

Hiring game devs by yourself. Although finding programmers by yourself seems hard and time-consuming, you have a chance to sort professionals exactly as you wish, paying attention to every detail. Apart from job boards and freelance platforms, try to haunt the best devs on dev communities for better results. 

Delegate hiring to an IT recruitment agency. Recruitment agencies search and filter candidates for you. You only need to outline your expectations about the specialist, and the agency will provide you with candidates that match your requirements. 

If you’re not sure what agency to choose, consider Talentica, the IT recruitment agency that works by an outstaffing model. The agency has access to a vetted talent pool, so you’ll receive the best-suited candidate’s CV quickly. Talentica can help you hire game developers, iOS developers, or other engineers whose skills the agency checks by themselves. 

How Much Does It Cost to Hire a Game Developer?

Building quality games isn’t cheap, as are game developer services. According to Glassdoor, the average annual salary of a game developer in the U.S. is approximately USD 115,000.  The salary may range, depending on the programmer’s experience. Thus, junior game devs in the U.S. earn USD 75,000 per year, while senior experts’ salaries can reach USD 126,000. 

Developers from different countries earn differently. For example, game developers from Latin America can make from USD 20,000 to USD 36,000 per year.  Developers from Eastern European countries such as Ukraine earn approximately USD 25,000 annually. 

Conclusion 

Game development is a profitable business because people like to be entertained and amused. So, if you have an idea of creating an outstanding game, you should give it a try. Now, as you know what the game development process looks like, you can work on creating a team to fire your idea. If you need help with hiring the best game devs, drop us a line, and we’ll gladly select candidates for you. 

Faq

• What is game development?

  Game development is a process of planning, developing, and testing video or mobile games that involve specialists from designers to artists, developers, and testers to make the best gaming experience.

• What are the 7 stages of game development?

  The game development life cycle consists of the following stages: Initiation; Pre-production; Production; Testing; Beta launch; Launch; Post-production.

• How are AAA games made?

  Triple-A or AAA games are games classified as highly interacting, complex games with top-notch video, music, and graphics. AAA game development is usually governed by a publisher such as CD Projekt and involves huge budgets.

• How long does it take to develop a game?

  Depending on the level of complexity and the budget, developing a video game can take from 18 to 36 months.

• How much do game developers make?

  The average annual salary of a game developer in the U.S. is approximately USD 115,000.