作者：Paul Culp

外包经理为自己有着现今最新颖的工作而感到自豪，但是这份工作就像空中交通管制员和社会工作者那样可能让你的寿命缩短。我或许说的有点夸张，可能是因为这些年来该领域给我的重重压力。这是个可能让你愁白头发或罹患心脏病的工作。也就是说，这个工作可能带有一定的职业危险。

我多年来担任外包总监并领导过数个艺术工作室，经历过外包过程的各个阶段。我将在下文中从外包管理者的方向来阐述，解释为何这成为行业中相对较新颖的职业，而且对现代游戏开发工作室至关重要。这个职业没有很长的发展历史，而且工具仍在设计完善之中。各工作室的外包管理者也有所不同，但通常来说，外包经理身兼艺术总监、人事经理和制作人等多职。安排时间、评论艺术、猎头、检查文件、管理合同、审核提案、谈判和处理发票，这些只是外包经理的日常事务的些许内容。如此多的工作很容易让人感到不知所措，而且如果没有一整套合适的工具，你会觉得头昏脑胀。

与外包经理相对的是艺术工作室。从工作室的角度来说，外包经理是所有项目的关键所在。如果交流不善或者无法获得项目所需的信息、材料和工具，那么就有可能让项目进展不顺。工作室通常也需要通过多个项目来迎合多种类型的客户。如果外包经理和工作室间的关系紧张，那么便会加剧在这个压力重重的行业中制作游戏的压力。对于这种结果，双方都负有责任。通常这个行业中并没有恶人，都只是些兢兢业业的职业人士，只是这个行业的本质导致某些困难情况的产生。所有人都有着相同的目标。我们都想要尽可能地把游戏做到最好。没有任何一方希望自己因工作患上心脏病，或者凌晨3点在桌旁吃着冷嗖嗖的比萨。避免出现这种情况的最佳方法是培养你们之间的关系。

我们的工作就是处理好关系。作为外包总监，我的价值体现在有能力召集合适的人群来将工作完成。寻找我相信而且能够相信我的人。对我来说，我的工具就是在需要时可以调用的大量工作室和承包人。当艺术总监对你说需要在两周时间内拿到4个角色的模型，你可以拿起电话联系Sticky Monkey Mushroom Studios的Joe，你知道他可以快速地提供高质量的角色模型。能做到以上这种程度，你就是个英雄。通过这种方式，你体现了工作的价值。你之所以可以这么做，是因为与Sticky Monkey Mushroom Studios培养起的互信关系，而你从与该工作室来往的首封邮件起就开始培养这种关系。或许最早的这封邮件只是让工作室提些建议而已。

我想在下文中提出某些可供其他外包经理遵循的指导原则。无论你是这个过程中的哪一方，你或许会觉得这些提案很有用。编写这些指导原则的目标只是为了传达有关某个仍然新颖且正在发展中的过程的信息。因为这篇博文很可能被人当成小说来看，所以我把文章的重点放在外包过程的提案阶段。我之所以要着重阐述这个阶段，是因为客户和工作室的其他关系的产生都源于这个阶段，拥有好的开始总是个不错的想法。本篇文章的目标在于，为这个压力重重的过程增添某些新颖的想法。我希望这些建议能够帮助改善涉及该行业的人的工作。

outsourcing(from entellects.wordpress.com)

向我们提供所有的信息

我知道，这时候可能有人会为“向我提供你所有的信息”这种想法感到很惊恐，我也不例外，这确实有充足的理由感到担心。但我们不会不负责任地对外提供信息，我们相信你也不会这样做。我们即将要踏入的是业务关系这个领域，所以所有的意图都必须非常清楚，需要建立起信任并且信息必须能够自由流动。如果我们能够预先在这个阶段中投入时间和精力，那么就会节省随后需要的时间和精力，而这些节省下来的资源可能有更大的作用，比如对整个项目进行润色。我们调用所有的资源，针对你的项目提供最好的服务。我们不是麦当劳。我们没有制定适合所有项目的提案。我们知道单个解决方案不可能适合每个项目。我曾经对多数艺术工作室说过这些话。我们想要尽可能地将工作做好。我们想帮助你做成市场上视觉效果最好的游戏。我们想要让你的客户感到高兴。我们希望能够发挥自己的长处来提供帮助。

提案文件

当你要求多个工作室递交提案时，机会就来了。处理多个工作室意味着你必须不断地重复自己的想法。制作提案文件几乎可以帮助你避免上述麻烦，这这份文件中包含所有你能想到的工作室或承包人在项目投标中所需要的信息。如果你有艺术背景，那么你就很容易知道文件中需要包含哪些信息。如果你没有艺术背景，那么就要同团队中的艺术总监、艺术师和程序员交谈。尽你所能获得尽可能多的信息。最好将精力放在现在而不是以后，回复每个工作室发来的有关项目投标的邮件。如果你运气好的话，你的艺术总监或许已经编写完成了艺术标准，你可以从中获得许多信息。如果没有的话，你就要自己完成这项工作。编写这种包含所有信息的文件对你的团队和工作室都有益处。你的文件应当包含如下信息：

技术信息

你使用何种软件？使用哪个引擎？内部使用还是商务运作？动画总共有多少分钟？没有这些信息，我们根本无从开展工作。尽量搜集更多的信息。询问艺术总监他们在执行项目时需要哪些信息。让程序员说说他们觉得每个项目美工需要哪些信息。询问美工他们拥有哪些信息。如此循环下去。通常你有可能找到你不知道的信息。有时你甚至会找到内部团队成员之前没有的信息。如果是这样的话，你就可以编写出非常有价值的文件。

创意信息

我们是艺术师，所以我们要有创意。艺术参考、同类游戏、艺术总监的影响力、样本资产、角色、动画，以上这些都对带宽以及招募哪些人进入团队的决定非常有帮助。甚至我们还可能在这个阶段发掘我们是否适合开展这个项目。一旦我们接受了项目，就必须开始工作，我们不要接受那些完成不了的项目。如果我们没有足够的资质或者工具来完成项目，过去我们的做法是将客户推荐给其他工作室。在这里我不列举出这些工作室的名称，但是多数工作室都很看重作品的质量，我们不接受我们没有能力完成的项目。

样品资产

我知道前面我已经提到过这一点，但这里我想再强调一下。如果团队已经为项目创造了资产，那么就将其提交。范例资产确实很有用。概念艺术通常也是个很棒的东西。游戏动作中的视频捕捉更好。如果你有动画，不要为播放的方式感到担心，发送文件就可以了。我们会进行梳理。我们此刻很可能会签署保密协议，以保证所有事情的公平公正。你只需将其打包压缩，然后发送过来。它能够发挥比你想象到的更大的作用。

时间安排

项目耗时多长时间？何时开始，何时结束？这与我之前列举的那些内容同样重要。因为这会影响到项目预算。由单个人完成并且耗时6个月的项目所需的成本，与由6个美工完成且耗时1个月的项目所需的成本大为不同。这也会帮助我们弄清楚是否能在合适的时间找到合适的人。有可能我们这边正好登记有另一个项目，时间正好可以安排在空档期内。我已经不止一次遇到这种事情了。必须记住的是，我们的整个工作室是需要依靠客户的工作的运行，所以提供时间日程安排表可以帮助我们知道何时是间歇期。

预算

交谈预算总是会让人感到不舒适，客户和工作室的感觉都是如此。我觉得现在我们可以不必再有这种感觉。让我们在商谈金钱的时候放轻松点。这只是交易的普通层面而已，与美工、像素和时间安排等相同。如果你已经思考过预算，那么就说出来。我知道这样做听起来很不自然，但是这对双方都有好处。没有人会向客户提出不合理的预算要求，我们也不认为客户会向工作室支付很廉价的劳务费。在这种经济中，我们乐于为某个合理的价格提供合理的服务。如果我们都能够诚实道德地做生意，那么自然就不会有很多麻烦。

也就是说，将你的预算告诉我们，我们尝试实现你所提供的预算。如果我们无法实现，我们也会告知你。我们知道完成某些工作所需的成本，而且我们掌握许多信息，我们也会将这个成本告诉你。或许在这个阶段我们需要来回联系，但是如果我们一开始便保持诚实的心态，达成交易就不用花费过多的时间和精力。

列出你最看重的事项

作为开发商，你拥有一个团队，对项目有自己的愿景。你知道哪些东西对你的团队来说最为重要。如果你是个新客户，我们就不知道对你或你的团队最重要的东西是什么。我们认为质量总是最重要的东西，但我们的想法或许会有偏差。我曾经接触过不是很强调质量的客户，他们看重的是速度。这些年来，我们接触过各种各样从未预想到的要求。让我们知道对你来说最重要的东西是什么，这样我们才能确保成立强调这些东西的团队。至少我们会尽全力来实现。否则，我们可能会将时间和精力花费在你完全不看重的东西上。如果质量最为重要，那么项目就需要更多的艺术方向和较少的艺术师。而且，还意味着项目需要耗费更长的时间。这些变量影响着最终的产品，甚至影响到项目的成败。对于客户来说，选择了错误的工作室可能给项目带来毁灭性的后果。

提案需要很长的时间来编撰，通常需要一整天的时间，如果项目很大的话就需要更多的时间。我们很看重提案，通常必须特定花时间来确保我们所提供数字的准确性。如果你像我这样认真的话，就不会提供你无法100%保证准确的提案。我相信多数工作室都认同这种说法。当潜在客户要求像我们这样的工作室提交提案时，我们就需要对时间和精力进行考量。如果能够预先确保所有的潜在工作室拥有所有客户所需的信息，你就会避免大量往来邮件、编撰文件、再次协商、改变命令和项目开始后受到损害之类的问题，更不用提关系可能受到的影响了。必须基础的是，你是在同一个或者多个对项目投标的工作室进行合作，你也希望能够从中获得最多的盈利。信任、相互尊敬以及积极的工作流程是最首要的东西。这是种生意场上的绅士风度。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

The Proposal: A Gentleman’s Guide to Outsourcing

Paul Culp

Outsourcing Managers are the proud owners of one of the newest, life-span-shortening jobs available today, joining the ranks of Air Traffic Controllers and Social Workers. I may be prone to exaggerating but that’s probably due to stress from so many years in the field. It’s the kind of job that makes you lose your hair, suffer early heart attacks and smoke cigarettes. Thankfully I still have a lush head of hair, the kind that feathers naturally and looks great in a convertible at 80 miles an hour, ladies, but I’m 36 and my heart often sounds like a VW Bug dragging a basketball through a dry riverbed. Occupational hazard.

As an Outsourcing Director for many years, as well as the head of a few art studios, I have experienced both sides of the outsourcing process. I would like to focus on the Outsourcing Managers side for now, seeing how it is a relatively new position in the industry, but absolutely vital to a modern game development studio. There isn’t a lot of history to turn to and the tools of the trade are still being designed. The position also varies, depending on the studio but in general the Outsourcing Manager is one part Art Director, one part HR Manager and one part Producer, which is a wide range of disciplines that comes with an even wider range of responsibilities. Scheduling, critiquing art, hunting talent, reviewing portfolios, managing contracts, juggling proposals, negotiating, and processing invoices are just some of the items on an Outsourcing Managers daily to-do list. It’s easy to become overwhelmed and without a proper set of tools, balls will be dropped and heads will roll.

On the other side of the coin are the art studios, or vendors as we are sometimes called – a term that brings to mind a plywood and duct taped hot dog stand surrounded by sweaty beachgoers on the Jersey Shore – who are the ones who deal with the stressed out, overworked Outsourcing Managers. From the vendor’s perspective, this person is the point person for all projects and it can be frustrating when communication becomes stilted and the information, materials and tools needed to get the job done are unavailable because the Outsourcing Manager is stretched too thin. The vendor is often in a similar situation juggling multiple clients on multiple projects and generally trying to keep the doors open at the studio. The relationship can become strained which only compounds the stress of making games in a stressful industry. This is through no, or equal fault on either side. There are generally no bad guys here, just hardworking professionals put in tough situations because of the nature of the beast. Everyone has the same goals. We all want to make the best game possible. Neither side wants to have a heart attack while chewing a cold slice of pizza at their desk at three in the morning. This best way to avoid this is cultivate your relationships.

Our jobs are all about relationships. As an Outsourcing Director, my value was in my ability to call on the right people to get the job done. People I trusted, who trusted me. My tool of the trade was a number of studios and contractors I could call on when the time came. When an Art Director comes to you in a pinch needing four character models in two weeks and you can pick up the phone and call Joe at Sticky Monkey Mushroom Studios, who you know can deliver quality characters quickly, you are the hero. You’ve performed the highly valuable function of your job with the speed and efficiency of Jean Reno in The Professional. You can do this because you developed a mutually beneficial, trusting relationship with Sticky Monkey Mushroom Studios, which was cultivated from the very first email ever exchanged. Most likely a request for a proposal.

I would like to propose a sort of loose set of guidelines for Outsourcing Managers to follow. You may find this useful, whatever side of the process you are on, or you may not. These guidelines were written simply in the interest of passing on information regarding a process that is still new and still getting its kinks worked out. Since this post could easily turn into a novel I’m going to focus strictly on the proposal stage of the outsourcing process. I’m starting here because this stage really sets the pace for the rest of the relationship between the client and the vendor and it’s always a good idea to start any professional relationship off on the right foot. The goal here is to add some new perspective on a stressful process that isn’t going away anytime soon. I’m all for anything that helps to make our lives in this industry smoother, for everyone involved. It’s too high strung for my taste and I say let’s all take it down a notch. Why not dim the lights, put on some Doobie Brothers and get comfortable? This could be the beginning of a very smooth relationship.

Give Us All Your Information

I know, when someone dims the lights, puts on Doobie Brothers, and says, “Give me all your information,” I would be alarmed too. But there is a good reason for this. We are not going to use any information irresponsibly and we don’t assume you would either. We’re about to enter a business relationship and all intentions must be made clear, trust must be established and information must flow freely. If we put the time and energy into this up front it will save much time and energy later, when it could be better spent on making the project the best it can be. There is no useless information at this stage. We use all of it to help cater a proposal specifically to your project. We are not MacDonalds. We don’t do one size fits all. We have been doing this too long to assume that one solution fits every project. I like to think I speak for most art studios when I say this. We want to do the best work possible. We want to help you make the best looking game on the market. We want to make our clients happy. We like being good at what we do.

The Proposal Document

Chances are you are asking more than one studio to submit a proposal. Having to deal with multiple studios means you have to repeat yourself constantly. This can be (mostly) avoided by creating a proposal document that contains all the information you can think of that a studio or contractor would need to accurately bid on a project. If you have an art background you have a pretty good idea what kind of information you need to put on your document. If you don’t have a background in art, talk to your team of Art Directors, Artists and Programmers. Gather as much information as you can. The energy is better spent now than later on, answering email after email from every studio bidding on the project. If you’re luck your Art Director has already written an art bible where you can get much of this information. If not, do the homework yourself. Having all that information is one document could be useful for your team as well as the vendors. Your document should contain the following information:

Technical Information

What software do you use? What engine? Proprietary or commercial? Polycounts? Normal maps? How many minutes total of animation? Without this information we have nothing to go off of. Gather as much of it as you can. Ask the Art Director what information they would want before contracting on a project. Ask a programmer what info they think every artist on the project should have. Ask an artist what information they DO have. Make the rounds. Often you find information you didn’t know was relevant. Sometimes you even find information that people on the internal team didn’t have before. In that case, you’ve written a pretty valuable document.

Creative Information

We are artists so we speak in creative tongue. Art reference, comparable titles, the Art Director’s influences, sample assets, characters, animations – This all super helpful in determining bandwidth, who we will put on the team, etc. We may even find out at this stage if we are even the right fit for the project. We have to actually work on the project once we get it and we won’t take on anything we can’t do. We have referred clients to other studio in the past when we didn’t think we had the right talent or tools for the job. I can’t speak for all studios out there, but most of us value our quality of life and don’t want to take on projects that we’re not equipped to handle.

Sample Assets

I know I listed this previously, but I’m listing it again for emphasis. If the team has already created assets for the project, give it up. I can’t emphasize enough how useful sample assets are. Concept art is always a great thing to have too. Video capture of the game in action is even better. If you have animation, don’t worry about rendering it out, just send the files. We’ll comb through it. We have most likely signed an NDA at this point so everything should be fair game. Put it together in a zip file and send it over. It will help more than you know.

Schedule

How long is the project? When does it start and when does it end? This is just as important as anything else I’ve listed. It will definitely affect the budget. A six month project with one person will have a much different cost than a one month project with six artists. This will also help us figure out if we have the right people at the right time. There is always the possibility that we have another project booked that would render the entire proposal void. This has happened to me more than once. Also keep in mind, our whole studio is run on client work so it helps to know if and when there will be lulls. We could be jumping on this project tomorrow or in four months. It would be nice to know which one.

Budget

Budget talk always seems to make people uncomfortable, both clients and vendors, especially for artist-types. I say let’s put an end to this right now. Let’s all relax when the issue of money comes up. It’s just another aspect of our trade, like artists, pixels, polygons, schedules, etc. If you have a budget in mind, give it up. I know it sounds counter-intuitive to put this on the table right at the get-go, but it’s a good thing, for both parties. Forget all that old school “business is like poker” BS that we were raised on. Forget the steely-eyed negotiating of Gordon Gecko. No one wants to rob their clients, and we don’t assume clients want to drive their vendors into the ground and make them work for a slave’s wage. In this economy, or any, really, we’re happy to provide a fair service in exchange for a fair price. If we can undo generations of shady business tactics and unsustainable profit margins and all of us here promise to do business honestly, ethically, and sustainably from now on, we might never have to be in this economic sinkhole again. The bubble can’t burst if there was never a bubble to begin with. What were we talking about again?

That said, please tell us what your budget is, and we’ll try to make it work within the number. If we can’t then we’ll let you know. We know what it costs to get something done, given we have good information, and we’ll tell you what that cost is. We may have to do a little back and forth from there, but if we start at an honest spot, we’ll get to the final number without too much time and energy spent.

What’s Important to You

As a developer, you have a team that has a vision for the project. You know what is most important to your team when it comes to that project. If you’re a new client, we have no idea what’s most important to you or your team. We could assume that quality is always most important, but we could be dead wrong. I have worked with clients that put very little emphasis on quality. They wanted fast instead. Or they wanted a team that could come on site for some of it, or at least a studio in the same time zone. Or they wanted a particular animator to lead the project. We’ve had lots of individual requests over the years that we never could have anticipated. Let us know what the most important things are to you and we’ll make sure the team is set up in a way that emphasizes those things. We’ll at least do our best to accommodate it. Otherwise we could spend valuable time and energy focusing on something you care absolutely nothing about. This is not about finding out what flavor of smoke to blow up your ass, it’s about numbers. If quality is most important it could mean dedicating more art direction and less artists on the project. It could also mean a longer schedule. If speed is the most important, it could mean more artists and more project management in a shorter time frame. These variables affect the end number and to us, could mean the difference between losing a project and getting a project. For the client, it could mean choosing the wrong vendor which could have disastrous consequences for the project.

Proposals take a long time to write, often a whole day, sometimes more if the project is big enough. We take proposals very seriously and often have to mock up a schedule to make sure our numbers are accurate. If you’re like me, you don’t want to send out any proposal you couldn’t back up 100%. I’m sure most vendors concur. As a potential client requesting a proposal from a studio like ours, help us make that time and energy count. If the time is put in up front to make sure all your potential vendors have absolutely every piece of information you they need, you will save vast amounts of time fielding emails, hunting files, renegotiating, getting change orders, and potentially jeopardizing the project after it’s started, not to mention the relationship. Remember that you’re starting a potential partnership with one or more of the vendors bidding on the project and you’ll want to do this in earnest. It’s is where you establish the trust, mutual respect, and positive workflow that sets the pace for everything to come. It’s the gentleman’s way of doing business, which as far as I’m concerned, is the only way. (Source: Gamasutra)