Outsourcing: Best Practices at Pandemic Studios [GDC 2008]

Slide 1: Outsourcing: Best Practices for Artists, Designers and Management

Slide 2: Pandemic Studios  W h o a m I?  Executive Art Director  Wh a t d o I d o ?  Oversee and maintain quality of art studio-wide  Manage production  Artist career management  R & D new technology  Relationship Management Plus Outsourcing!!

Slide 3: Pandemic Studios  O u t s o u r c in g a r t f o r 6 y e a r s .  S t a r W a r s : T h e C lo n e w a r s  Vehicles & characters  F u ll S p e c t r u m W a r r io r ( 1 & 2 )  Buildings  M e r c e n a r ie s 2 a n d S a b o t e u r  Vehicles, buildings and characters  Roughly 60% of art

Slide 4: Pandemic Studios  O u ts o u rc e C o m p a n y fo r Me rc s 2 & S a b o te u r  A M C S t u d io (Romania)  37 employees  AMC Studio worked with Timegate Studios, Atari studios, Perpetual Entertainment, Digimation, Big Huge Games, Pandemic Studios and other game developers.

Slide 5: Pandemic Studios

Slide 6: Pandemic Studios

Slide 7: Outsourcing is…

Slide 8: Outsourcing is…  N O T a W M P (W eapon of M ass P roduction) – It’s a tool.  Must be planned ahead of time in schedule  Should not be a last resort  A F r o n t - lo a d e d s o lu t io n .  Complete Asset List  Concept Art  Staff

Slide 9: Where has it failed before?  L a c k o f c o m p le t e a s s e t lis t  S lo w c o n c e p t s h e e t p r o d u c t io n  S lo w r e v is io n r e q u e s t s  A s s e t c o m p lic a t io n s

Slide 10: Planning for outsourcing

Slide 11: Planning for outsourcing  Pha s e s Planning Evaluating Production

Slide 12: Planning for outsourcing  M u lt i- d e p a r t m e n t a l P la n n in g  P r o d u c e r s , D e s ig n e r s and A r t is t s all play a role in an effective Outsource Plan.  E s s e n t ia l P e r s o n n e l  A P f o r O u t s o u r c in g :  Process management  Primary conduit between the OP and Pandemic  Ar t Le a d s :  In disciplines that are outsourcing

Slide 13: Planning for outsourcing P ro d u c e rs  Manage deliverables, schedule and milestones.  Get a Full Asset List done as early as possible!  Make sure your asset list fits your project timeframe..  Create staffing plan that makes sense.  If needed, starting outsource testing early  ~ 3 – 4 months to fully test 3 art houses.  You need concept art to test them!

Slide 14: Planning for outsourcing  D e s ig n e r s  Ge n e ra te yo u r Mis s io n S p e c ific As s e t Lis t a s s o o n a s yo u c a n !  All other assets can be defined by Art team  D oesn’t mean your assets have to be made first. We just need to know how many.  Th a t’ s it!

Slide 15: Planning for outsourcing  A r t is t s Define your pipeline Plan your Outsource strategy Define your complete asset list Plan your concept phase Manage the wave

Slide 16: Planning for outsourcing  P ip e lin e P la n n in g :  Define your pipeline with an “awareness” towards outsourcing.  W h a t a s s e t s c a n g o t o o u t s o u r c in g v s . w h a t a s s e ts s ta y h o m e ?  OP assets should be designed to have a clear pipeline solution.  OP asset pipelines should be resolved and tested as early as possible. Designing assets specifically for OP creation: Internal OP More complicated/ Clearest pipeline/ More iterations Less iterations

Slide 17: Planning for outsourcing  C h o o s in g w h a t t o o u ts o u rc e  What do you iterate on the most?  Everything else is fair game  O t h e r O u t s o u r c in g o p t io n s t o c o n s id e r :  Other Service Bureaus: Motion Capture  Asset Libraries should be considered as an Outsourcing resource (Dosch, Turbo Squid, Digimation, etc)  3rd Party Technology should also be considered (Speedtree)  A s s e t F lo w C h a r t ( n e x t

Slide 18: Asset Chart for outsourcing Internal Studio Creation More complicated Physics Main Characters/ structures Implementation Cloth Physics Terrain/ Animation Props Buildings Vehicles Characters front end, character and Foliage World Building particle Model Outsourcing Motion Speedtree Libraries Partner Capture (3 rd party tech) Outsourcing 3rd Party Internal Candidates Candidates Candidates

Slide 19: Planning for outsourcing  W h a t ’ s in a c o n c e p t ?  Focus on accuracy.  Minimize options.  Be as simple and clear as possible.  Sometimes the word “reference” is another word for “option.”

Slide 20: Planning for outsourcing  S a m p le C o n c e p t A r t ( g o o d )

Slide 21: Planning for outsourcing  M a n a g in g t h e b a n d w id t h  Rely on your AP to feed assets to your Lead team  P r o v id e c le a r a n d c o n s is t e n t fe e d b a c k  All revision requests should sound like they came from one person.  All language should be clear and uncomplicated.  Use consistent subject definitions for each request  Provide a definition sheet for their benefit.

Slide 22: Planning for outsourcing  S a m p le D e f in it io n s ( M e r c s 2 )  Administrative Change  Specular Map Change  Normal Map Change  Hierarchy Change  Modeling Change  General Change  Texture Change

Slide 23: Evaluating Outsource Partners

Slide 24: Evaluating Outsource Partners  W h a t a r e w e lo o k in g fo r?

Slide 26: Evaluating Outsource Partners  W h a t a r e w e re a lly lo o k in g f o r ?  S iz e  We are only looking at 30+ artist staffed OPs. Anything smaller is not worth our time.  Larger staff implies infrastructure and security  Larger OP staff to internal staff = savings  C o m m u n ic a t io n c a p a b ilit ie s  Network and ftp structure

Slide 27: Evaluating Outsource Partners  W h a t d o w e d o a f t e r w e f in d th e m ?  Send Outsourcing Questionnaire  Review their prior work  Free Initial Art Test  Benchmark test for ranking  N associated with an actual project ot  U the same test allows for comparative analysis sing  Once OP passes benchmark test, we pass them to a team for paid testing.

Slide 28: Evaluating Outsource Partners  T e s t in g p r o c e s s b re a k d o w n Step 1 Initial Ranking Test (free) Step 2 Project-based Evalutate Step 3 Single Asset Test (paid) Project-based Evalutate Volume Test (paid) Evalutate

Slide 29: Evaluating Outsource Partners  M e e t in g e x p e c t a t io n s  Key Metrics (How long should it take?) Vehicles Characters 15-20 man/days 15-20 man/days Buildings Animation 4-16 man/days 1-3 man/days We generally calculate costs based on 20 day man- months at “X” man-day rate

Slide 30: Evaluating Outsource Partners  K e y M e t r ic s ( a c t u a ls )  B a s e d o n AMC $ 18 6 m a n / d a y ra te Vz m35 Caracas firestation 16 man/days; $2976 7 man/days; $1302 Pirate boss 15 man/days; $2790

Slide 31: Production Phase

Slide 32: Production Phase  In it ia l P r o d u c t io n C o n t r a c t ~ 3 Ro und s .  Short enough to allow us to review and course correct  Long enough to make it worth their while  Wh y n o t 1 R o u n d ?  Because it makes them nervous.  They might be inclined to find additional work  M e a n in g : you might lose your OP staff to another company!

Slide 33: Production Phase Production Process Art Leads approve or resubmit with revisions via Asset Tracker Outsource PartnerAsset Round Producer Pandemic Completes revision requests Pulls submissions from ftp and Completed! and resubmits assets distributes to Art for review Outsource Partner Begins and submits work via FTP and Asset Tracker Contract Signing Approved Estimates Submitted to Finance Negotiation Phase Outsource Partner Submits Bid Pandemic Producer Submit contract proposal

Slide 34: Production Phase Q u ic k T im e lin e O v e r v ie w OP gives Round 1 Round 2 Round 3 Pandemic bid OP flies leads to Assets Assets Assets Testing Pandemic Delivered Delivered Delivered Complete Negotiation 1 Phase 2 3 4 5 6 Pandemic Pandemic flies Pandemic delivers approves bid.leads and Producer Pandemic Pandemic Pandemic initial package Work Begins to work onsite signs-off on signs-off on signs-off on Round 1, Round 2, Round 3, issue check issue check issue check

Slide 35: Production Phase  Sequence of Events leading up to Production D a y 1 .  4 m o n t h s f r o m s t a r t : Communicate with OP re:start date  1 m o n t h f r o m s t a r t : Submit asset list for first contract  2 w e e k s f r o m s t a r t : Submit concept package for Round 1  3 w e e k s in t o R o u n d 1 : Send Lead team to OP for management integration  2 w e e k s f r o m R o u n d 2 : Submit concept package for Round 2  Etc, etc.

Slide 36: Production Phase  P r o d u c t io n T e a m T r ip t o O P R eview management processes.  Asset creation problems.  “Good enough” policy

Slide 37: Production Phase  D o t im e z o n e s m a tte r?  Local Timezone (America, South America)  Non-local (everywhere else)  Pros and Cons

Slide 38: Communication

Slide 39: Communication  C o m m u n ic a t io n  Maintain communication well before project starting date.  When closer, define the scope of their involvement in months  Provide accurate and effective Documentation  T y p ic a l c o m m u n ic a t io n m e t h o d s  Email or instant messenger  Asset Tracker  Telephone  Face-to-face

Slide 40: Communication  Wha t’ s in a pa c ka g e ?  Instruction Sheet  Lists deliverables  Content Creation Guide (CCG)  Setup and method  Concept Sheet Dimensions and details

Slide 41: Communication  As s e t Tr a c k e r !  Web interface  Email Status Notification  Displays concept and in-game images  Organize and coordinate detailed information  Bug database

Slide 42: Communication  P r o je c t S ta tu s  M a s t e r L is t s  R e p o r t in g  Time remaining  Current Progress

Slide 43: Communication  A d d it io n a l B e s t P r a c t ic e s  Conference calls: At least once per week  Maintain up-to-date and accurate data in Asset Tracker  OP visit to Pandemic.

Slide 44: Do’s and don’ts  # 1 : Don’t assume they are mad if they sound mad.  # 2 : Do blame yourself first if they don’t do something right.  # 3 : Do, above all, be diplomatic.  # 4 : Do foresee the future.

Slide 45: Thank you for your time!