An ever-increasing interest in online games still motivates many entrepreneurs to enter the market. And joining it proves beneficial. The Statista findings say that the online games market share will hit 59.79 billion U.S. dollars by 2020 (which is twice as much as the 2015 amount) and it seems realistic.
As new gaming businesses emerge, the biggest hurdle they often face is hiring experienced online game development teams. The easiest way out is to look for reliable technology partners instead. The next big question is – how to do it right.
Innovecs reached out to Antony Ellis, a Chief Technical Officer at Gameiom, to reveal the secret of successful development outsourcing to Ukraine.
At Gameiom, a UK-based games developer and powerful content aggregator, Antony manages the technical strategy for the company, platform development (a server-based solution delivering games to operators worldwide), integrations of third party operators and suppliers as well as cooperates with the Innovecs tech experts.
He has a huge engineering experience of over 15 years, so his thoughts on how to find a strategic partner in technology development is sure to point you in the right direction.
Let’s get straight to the interview and find out how Gameiom works and teams up with the dedicated programmers.
Innovecs: “Being part of the online gaming world requires having strong competitive advantages. What sets Gameiom apart from other market players?”
Antony: “The real Gameiom differentiator is speed to market. It is about getting supplier games from a concept to production as quickly as possible. That is what we pride ourselves on doing well. And the same is about operators. We can instantly integrate new operators into the market. So it is all about speed delivery and the very best game distribution platform, that is what separates us.”
Innovecs: “You have many online games published on your platform. What game genres turn to be most popular?”
Antony: “It is online slots games. The ones that we are pushing up at the moment are provided by Pragmatic Play and Ainsworth. These are high volatility games with very quick responses and high value payouts.”
Innovecs: “What development challenges is Gameiom facing and how it finds solutions?”
Antony: “At this point, we are looking to develop platform-level bonuses and platform-level jackpots we pay out across different online games with something that isn’t available in the market now.
We get some suppliers that have bounce systems and jackpots that go across their own content. But no one has developed anything that goes across multiple suppliers and that is what we are looking to do.
The challenge here is to find the way of doing it across multiple suppliers, because everybody works slightly differently.”
Innovecs: “How did you get to know Innovecs? Was it difficult for you to find a technology outsourcing company in Ukraine?”
Antony: “It was a huge decision to make. We were recommended three companies in Kyiv and we came to Innovecs on the last day. We knew we had to outsource, because it’s being a startup. We could not hire a technical team in the UK. It just wouldn’t be feasible.
The initial ones we could hire in India had big time and cultural differences. The way they work is completely different to the way we wanted to work. That is why we chose Innovecs in the end.
The Innovecs tech team shares the Gameiom culture and business goals. They are 100% dedicated – that is the key difference to me. Whereas some other development outsourcing companies may work job by job, so, you would give them projects and the developers might go to another project and then come back.”
Innovecs: “What exactly does the Innovecs team help you with?”
Antony: “At this point in time, they are developing and managing new supplier integrations onto the platform.
When we first partnered with Innovecs, we had them developing our own content. We got a virtual school of products and they were building and delivering that.
As time moved on, they have become more integrated into our processes and their responsibilities have become more aligned with our key business areas and now they are developing the actual platform and its mechanics.”
Innovecs: “How do you manage to sync up your efforts with the Innovecs team?”
Antony: “It is quite simple and straightforward. We started using Skype video calls with the whole team. And as the team has grown, it has become a bit impractical. So, I have a daily call with an Engineering Lead. We discuss progress, what is coming out, who is working on what, and so on.
These days we have tools like Jira and Slack, so it is quite easy to work with remote teams and still be kept informed of progress.”
Innovecs: “What advice would you give to any other company looking for reliable partners to outsource software development?”
Antony: “Get the first hire right. Make sure the first person you hire or the first person you bring on board is right. Because that is the person you are going to build your team around.
We were incredibly lucky with the first hire. He is a very strong developer and character.
And I think, if we had got that first hire wrong, it would not have had that kind of effect with the rest of the team.
Providing a strong team base, you can manage the rest of it. That would be my recommendation. And stay in contact, treat them as your team and part of your company.”
Also, here you will find more about the Innovecs Games expertise in game development.