Development Revolution

Outsourcing work to specialist contractors is becoming more and more popular in the game development community, according to information released today by recruitment specialists Game Ops.

The company, which has pioneered the 'studio model', is celebrating its second birthday, and has today signed its three hundredth contractor. Game Ops is also announcing major expansion plans to increase capacity to cater for growing interest in its services.

"The development community is realising that the traditional development model, with all of the skills kept in-house, is simply not viable for many projects nowadays," says Steph Woods, the Operations Director of Game Ops. "Over the past two years, Game Ops has placed literally hundreds of contracted staff, including several teams, with some of the industry's leading development studios across much of Europe. Whether they've been involved in a project from the outset or been brought in to help a project get back on track, we've had a great deal of success placing contracted staff within studios."

In addition to the company's Glasgow office, run by Peter McDowall, Game Ops is opening a purpose built office in Dundee, Scotland to cope with an accelerating level of demand. Steph Woods will be based at Game Ops new Dundee HQ and the company will be recruiting more staff to ensure that Game Ops has the necessary infrastructure to continue supporting the development sector, as the value of outsourcing is discovered by a growing number of developers.

In addition, the company has recently started placing staff on a full-time basis with several studios. "In a number of situations, we have had studios ask specifically for the contractor to remain as a permanent member of staff," says Woods. "This is a wonderful endorsement of the work we do, and shows the value of our individual and expert approach to each contractor and each position we fill."

Several of the studios which have used Game Ops services have found their unique approach to outsourcing and recruitment to be very useful:

"We've found Gameops extremely trustworthy and effective in regards to securing the right resources in good and bad times. It feels great to have access to a service where they truly understand our requirements for a mutual match between the company and the individuals."
- John Kroknes, CEO, Amuze.

"We have only started using Game Ops this year, and already they are proving to be a best of breed agency with first class service and candidates,"
- Stephen Harrison-Mirfield, Director of Human Resources for Codemasters

"Helpful, flexible and most importantly, giving us the staff we needed in the timescales we want."
- Peter Dalton, Production Director, ZOO Digital Publishing Ltd

"Game-Ops differs from so many agencies by properly listening to your requirements and then carefully matching available skills. Juice Games were impressed by the quality of the candidates offered and by the whole process of monitoring the individuals during the hire period. Care goes a long way and that's certainly what you'll get from Game-Ops."
- Don Whiteford, Studio Manager, Juice Games Limited

Game Ops is always looking for talented and experienced individuals and teams. The company's website gives details of positions which are currently open and allows interested parties to sign up for more information. Visit www.gameops.co.uk