Outsourcing vs Time (more of a diary entry)

As you may have noticed, it's been a while since my last post. That's due to numerous things but in my defense, it does say sporadic over there on the right! You wont see excuses, so let's get straight into it.

A major challenge facing me at the moment is a lack of technical knowledge in game development. I don't know the first thing about making a game. So I've been faced with 2 routes:

1. Learn how to make the game
2. Pay someone to make the game

At the moment, I'm on number 2. There are a few reasons for this:

Time is losing or winning in this industry.

I use twitter as a news resource for the niche area of social gaming and MMO industry info. Every morning when I get into twitter I read stories about how a social games company has secured $X million, how Zynga have released XVille and have a trillion paying subscribers after only 3 seconds and so on.. This in part makes me very excited and spurs me on by proving that there's interest both from gamers and investors. It also petrifies me and makes me question "Am I already too late??".

My aim is to see my name or company name up there with the news that it's secured investment. But every second that the game isn't up there making news, the potential for it making a splash when it does get released gets smaller by the day. This is worrying.

So as time is not a luxury I can afford at this stage, I have to outsource. I have to get people in who know what I want and know how to get it for me. Sure I may have to sell a kidney to get there, but when the game picks up and its making a substantial profit I can buy 10 kidneys... I'm sure I can make room for them in me somewhere...

But that's the point when it comes to outsourcing. I can either sacrifice time or money, but given that the 2 are inseperable in the business world, I'd serve to lose far more by spending time trying to learn and potentially missing the boat. By outsourcing it gets done fast by people with far more experience than I.

Decision made...

Making the decision to outsource is pretty simple. If you have the skills, or don't but have the time to learn them, then you do it yourself. If you don't have time or the skills then you outsource. The next phase is finding the expertise. This has taken me such a long time that I wonder whether I could have learnt how to make this game in the time I've spent waiting for the bids to come in - and to be honest, they're not beating down my door to take my money. I've posted ad's on boards and tried to seek certain developers but it seems that most developers are scared to take on the larger projects.

In total, I've been looking for a developer for the past 3 months. 3 MONTHS! It kills me to type it let alone say it. Ergh! It's taken so long that I often question whether it's even a good idea. It's difficult to sit by and read lots of information about the bustling world of social game development and not see your idea being taken up in the whirlwind.

(Warning, film comparison. Skip this para if you don't like films)

Think about the classic film Twister when they're trying to get Dorothy to fly.

She just wont fly! She's at the base of the tornado and it just wont take her... but she's right there! It's a force of nature which just sucks things off the ground and propels them into the air. That's what I feel my idea is like at the moment. It's Dorothy and the social game industry is the tornado and I'm standing 50 meters away screaming "TAKE IT!!! TAKE IIIT!" (in my mind).

So will you save time by outsourcing? No one can say for definite. It depends who's looking at the website that day or how willing you are to peddle your idea to some companies. What is for sure is that there should be a plan B. What happens if, like me, 3 months down the line your throat is red raw from the "TAKE IT!" screaming? Well, I've not even worked that out yet... Perhaps I should get myself a book on making flash games whilst the Libraries still exist. I'd be happy to read some of your suggestions.

Really, from my experience, outsourcing is not "the answer" to the problem. Sure it's great if you can get someone instantly, but really I've found it easier to find willing investors than I have companies willing to take on the challenge! So be prepared to wait a lot longer than you initially expect, I wasn't!