This article is part of ExDev Week, a deep dive into the evolving relationship between lead developers and their external partners.
In the high-stakes world of modern game development, the line between "internal" and "external" has become increasingly blurred. As budgets balloon and the technical requirements for AAA titles reach unprecedented levels of complexity, the industry has shifted from a model of simple outsourcing to one of deep, strategic co-development.
GamesIndustry.biz recently spoke with a cadre of industry leaders—including representatives from Airship, CodeDev, Code Wizards, Huey Games, Lab42, Pingle Studio, Pipeworks, Redcatpig, Sumo Digital, Tanglewood Games, Third Kind Games, and Virtuos—to distill the hard-won wisdom of the external development (exdev) sector. The consensus is clear: while technical prowess is the baseline, external development is fundamentally a "people business" where trust, adaptability, and cultural alignment dictate success.
The Foundation: Trust Over Talent
The most recurring sentiment across all interviews is that technical talent is a commodity, but trust is the currency of the industry.
"External development lives or dies on trust, not talent," says Joe Harford, CEO of art provider Airship, which has contributed to massive projects like Ghost of Yotei. "There is no shortage of studios that can turn out beautiful hero assets. What’s rare is a partner you can hand a messy, time-sensitive brief to and know they’ll ask the right questions, protect your art direction, and deliver on the date they promised."
This sentiment is echoed by Stuart Muckley, CEO of the Code Wizards Group. He emphasizes that games are organic, living things that evolve throughout production. "Trust is what allows things to change and lets service providers offer constructive feedback," Muckley explains. "It enables us to be honest when things aren’t working and helps us find solutions before a minor hurdle becomes a development disaster."
Transparency as a Survival Mechanism
For Terry Goodwin, studio co-director at the Sumo Digital-owned Lab42, the philosophy is simple: honesty is a prerequisite for longevity. "Curating a culture of transparency with your partners is so critical that you’ll be doomed in the long term if you get into the habit of hiding things or lying by omission," Goodwin notes. "Problems are inevitable in game dev, but how you respond to them is within your control."
This requires a proactive approach. Rav Tharanee, Chief Strategy Officer of Third Kind Games, argues that trust is not a starting point; it is an earned outcome. Reflecting on his firm’s successful delivery of a 60hz performance mode for Forza Horizon 4 under a brutal six-month deadline, he notes: "Beyond the delivery, it’s the relationships that matter. Being genuinely invested in a client’s vision is how trust compounds."
Aligning Visions: The Art of Integration
When an external team enters a studio’s ecosystem, the risk of friction is high. James Oates, Vice President of Sumo Digital, points to "vision alignment" as the most significant hurdle. Whether a project is internal or external, teams must be anchored by shared pillars and a unified understanding of the player experience.
"Being more visible at every stage, validating progress against agreed user stories, maintaining regular feedback loops, and playing the game together all help keep teams moving in unison," Oates says. This becomes even more complex when handling established IP. "We aren’t just building a product; we are custodians of the future of that brand. We must understand the creative vision and respect what players love while helping shape the next chapter."
The Challenge of Cultural Diversity
Pipeworks CEO Lindsay Gupton highlights that every client brings a unique culture, pipeline, and set of tools. While this can be challenging, it is also a catalyst for institutional growth. "Being exposed to that variety has made Pipeworks more adaptable and disciplined," Gupton says. "We’ve refined our best practices over 27 years by learning how different studios think about the creative process."
Adaptability: The Core Competency
If "trust" is the foundation, "adaptability" is the structure. Bryan Freitas, Tech Director at the Azores-based co-dev studio Redcatpig, believes that the hallmark of a successful exdev partner is the ability to surrender one’s own workflow for the client’s benefit.
"The biggest thing external development teaches you is how little ‘your way’ matters if the client disagrees with it," Freitas says. "You have to stay malleable to their tools and their communication style. That flexibility is the job."
Chris Wood, CEO of Tanglewood Games, takes this further by categorizing exdev as a service business first and an engineering business second. "You quickly learn you cannot turn up with one fixed way of doing things and expect it to fit," Wood notes. "There is almost no standardization in this industry. The skill—and it is a skill—is in managing the engagement itself. It’s about dropping into an unfamiliar setup and getting on with the work without creating friction."
Adding Value: Beyond the Task List
The most successful exdev partners do not merely execute; they anticipate. Dmytro Kovtun, CEO of Pingle Studio, believes that if a partner is just "doing the spec," they are failing. "If you never ask if a task actually helps the player, projects suffer," he says. "We are ready to take on the technical debt and the hard problems. The clearest sign of success is when the client stops calling you ‘the outsourcing team’ and starts treating you as part of their core roadmap."
Rob Hewson of Huey Games agrees, noting that his team often offers complimentary engineering consultations early in a project. "If we talk to developers early, we help them avoid common pitfalls and save them money later," Hewson explains. "Maybe they don’t hire us for that specific task, but they appreciate the insight. That builds the long-term reputation that sustains our business."
Specialization and Scaling: The Path to Maturity
As the industry matures, the "jack of all trades" model is becoming less viable. Myke Parrott of CodeDev warns against the temptation to be everything to everyone. "If you have a world-class team of Unreal professionals, lean into that," he advises. "Saying ‘no’ to projects outside your core competency is often the best thing for all parties involved."
This specialization allows for marginal gains that compound over time. By focusing on porting, optimization, and networked games, Huey Games has developed a unique vantage point. "We work across multiple projects concurrently," says Hewson. "This gives us the advantage of spotting common issues across the industry and delivering those insights as efficiencies for our customers."
The Geography of Talent
Scaling, however, brings its own risks. Mike Sherak of Virtuos notes that the modern era has solved the geographic problem. "There are great developers everywhere," he says. "We have moved beyond the need to be physically present in one hub, allowing us to leverage global talent while remaining close to our partners."
For Redcatpig, scaling from three founders to over 40 employees was a lesson in humility. CEO Marco Bettencourt believes their growth was only possible because they built their own internal IP—the combat game Keo—before asking clients to trust them. "We lived through the same problems our clients face," he explains. "Growth doesn’t come from one big swing. It comes from compounding experience until the team stops guessing and starts knowing."
Implications: The Future of the Industry
The insights provided by these studios paint a picture of an industry in transition. As the "arms race" for graphical fidelity and technical complexity continues, lead studios will lean more heavily on external partners than ever before.
The companies that thrive in this environment will be those that view their relationships not as transactions, but as strategic alliances. They will be the studios that:
- Prioritize Culture: Building internal cultures that value honesty and transparency.
- Embrace Fluidity: Investing in the ability to pivot workflows and tools to match client needs.
- Own the Outcome: Moving from "task-takers" to "co-creators" who take responsibility for the final player experience.
- Scale Methodically: Avoiding rapid, unearned growth in favor of deep, specialized expertise.
Ultimately, the lesson of ExDev Week is that while the tools of the trade—Unreal, Unity, proprietary engines, and advanced art pipelines—are essential, they are secondary to the human element. In the world of external development, the code may be the product, but the relationship is the project.
