How does that compare to the chaos of managing an in-house crew when deadlines hit hard?
I've been managing small art teams in-house for the last five years, mostly for mobile games, but lately, I’ve been questioning whether it's time to try outsourcing, especially for larger projects. I’ve heard names like Devoted Studios thrown around. Has anyone worked with them or similar companies? How does that compare to the chaos of managing an in-house crew when deadlines hit hard?
Discussion
We've got a small team and we're good on core tasks, but world-building and asset load keep growing. Outsourcing might actually be the only realistic option if we want to hit our roadmap without burnout. Appreciate the insight, especially around integration and flexibility—that's usually my biggest concern.
Yeah, I’ve actually worked with both—had a mid-sized in-house team at my last studio, and now I coordinate with external vendors, including devotedstudios.com on our current title. Here’s my honest take: in-house gives you control, consistency, and immediate communication, but only if you're willing to put in heavy lifting—hiring, managing, retention headaches, constant feedback loops. Devoted, though, has been surprisingly smooth. They helped us scale up fast when we were suddenly greenlit for more content. What stood out is how they adapt to your pipeline rather than forcing you into theirs, which is rare. We had a hiccup early on with style alignment, but their team fixed it fast and even suggested tweaks we hadn’t thought of internally. If you’re hitting production bottlenecks, they can seriously help you breathe again. I wouldn’t say they replace an in-house team entirely, but they sure make expansions or short-term spikes easier to handle.