To develop a mobile game you need a good idea and a very good team of professional game developers. Once you’ve created a clear vision of the game project you want to build, the next step will always be to find a game dev team to bring it to life.
Finding the best game developers, who are truly passionate about video games and game design, is not an easy task, that is why in this article we’ll focus on the different approaches to finding dedicated game developers for creating your next masterpiece.
- How Much Does it Cost to Hire a Game Developer?
- How do I Hire a Game Developer?
- How Much Does a Freelance Game Developer Make?
- How Much Does Game Devs Get Paid?
- Where Can I Find Game Developers?
- How Long is Game Development?
- Do You Need to Code to be a Game Developer?
- 3D Game Making Software
- Hire Unity Game Developer
- Freelance Game Developers Salary
- Hire Game Development Studio
- Top 11 Best Mobile Game Developer
How Much Does it Cost to Hire a Game Developer?
In the gaming industry, the cost is determined as per the industry standards. However, it also depends on individual skillset. For example, if you are a fresher in the industry, you will get the standard salary as per company policy. Once you get some experience, you can get a tremendous leap in your career.
Read Also: Android App Development for Business
If you are still wondering how much does it cost to hire a game developer? Usually, IOS Game Developer’s standard cost is higher than Android game developers. Well, typically hourly cost to hire a game app developer is $20 to $30.00 depending on the project specifications. It may vary as per employment policies.
How do I Hire a Game Developer?
Once you decide to tailor your business plan for game development, one of your first steps should be finding developers to close the deal.
Game developers are a general niche. And you might first need to narrow down what game engine would be most beneficial to you. Then you can find developers who specifically work with that engine.
You’ll find the most luck looking for Unreal developers and/or Unity developers. Game developers flock to these engines because of their high functionality. BioShock and LaraCroft, respectively, are examples of their famous titles.
A good way to vet game developers is by requesting to see a portfolio of previous games they have worked on and/or contributed to. You can measure the games based on performance and creativity.
How Much Does a Freelance Game Developer Make?
The average game developer, based on ZipRecruiter data, earns $101,644 annually, and salaries reach as high as $167,000. On the other hand, game developers can make as low as $35,000.
Inflation in South America has a grand impact on the strength of local currencies in the region. In effect, offshoring game developers to South America will be noticeably less expensive than hiring developers in the United States. Developers in South America make around $100,000 and a mid-level developer will only make $76,000.
Political and economic duress in Eastern Europe leaves the region in similar circumstances. A senior game developer in Eastern Europe would cost $100,000 per year on average.
How Much Does Game Devs Get Paid?
The average hourly pay for a Game Developer in the United States is $48.87 an hour.
While ZipRecruiter is seeing hourly wages as high as $80.29 and as low as $16.83, the majority of Game Developer wages currently range between $36.06 (25th percentile) to $62.02 (75th percentile) across the United States.
The average pay range for a Game Developer varies greatly (by as much as $25.96), which suggests there may be many opportunities for advancement and increased pay based on skill level, location and years of experience.
Where Can I Find Game Developers?
Finding a dedicated game dev team can be a challenge. There are, however, multiple ways of finding and hiring talented game developers:
- Game development communities — TIGSource, IndieDB, Develteam can be a starting point where to look for game developers;
- Online freelance networks like Upwork;
- Online hiring platforms such as us, YouTeam, provide more advanced sourcing options for offshore developers. We can help you source and hire game developers in 48 hours or less, all ready to start next week.
Online game development communities like TIGSource, IndieDB give you the ability to post your job and provide access to the profiles of their community members. The profiles are not verified and overall appear to provide sketchy data, but nevertheless, contain information on the skills and projects of their members.
Develteam is a free online platform for creating projects and recruiting team members. Job offers are posted along with the description of the project and you can communicate with developers through the comments section.
Although from my review, only 3 of the 15 projects posted managed to find professionals for their projects. Overall it seems that these communities and platforms are more of an option to hire a dev for independent games with small budgets or even no budget whatsoever.
UpWork and TopTal provide visitors access to the profiles of hundreds of freelancers with game development expertise and years of experience. UpWork is the market-leading provider of freelance talent, whereas TopTal positions itself as an exclusive freelancers’ network with only top developers.
Profiles of the developers give a more complete picture of their expertise and relevance to your project. Both platforms are perfect for work with single freelancers and not so suitable when you need to hire a game development team.
How Long is Game Development?
So you’ve decided to bite the bullet and are ready to make that video game. Excellent. You do a little bit of planning and you’ve got your game scheduled for release in three weeks time. Let’s get this done.
Week 1, got the basic gameplay loop done. This game is fun! Yes! Gameplay is a little wonky, but the fundamentals are there. Excellent, let’s continue past this prototyping stage.
Week 2, trying to get that gameplay right is proving to be harder than we thought. Why does our avatar slide that extra few pixels when the player releases the button, but only every second time? Man, what part of my code is doing that?
Week 3, finally figured out that weird control problem. Figuring that out revealed a few subsequent bugs that need to be ironed out. I’ll have to push the release back.
Week 4, alright. Almost there. Now I just need to add some menu’s, options, and a bit of polish. This shouldn’t take long.
Week 5, more polish. Almost there.
Week 6, game is release to the world.
You get the drift. No matter what you predict, your game will take longer. This is a well-known phenomenon in the general development industry, those of us with a little bit of tenure tend to triple our estimates before we even verbalize them. That way someone else will triple it before it’s committed to on paper.
Do You Need to Code to be a Game Developer?
Without programmers to write the code, the game doesn’t come to life.
Not every programmer performs the same task; some build the game engine while others focus only on the artificial intelligence of enemies. There are also audio programmers, special effects programmers, graphics programmers, and more.
As the technical and creative brains behind the game, you’ll work closely with the game designer to create the code based on their concepts. A game remains nothing more than ideas in the designer’s head without a programmer.
3D Game Making Software
These days, anyone can make a video game with the right software and a bit of know-how.
Of course, that doesn’t mean game development is easy. Even a simple game like Flappy Bird requires effort if you want it to look and feel good. But thanks to free game makers, game creation has become fairly streamlined.
Here’s a list of the best free game making software you can use to start making your dream game today.
1. Construct 3
No programming needed. Construct 3 is the best game development software if you’ve never written a line of code in your life. This game development tool is completely GUI-driven, meaning everything is drag-and-drop. Game logic and variables are implemented using the design features provided by the app itself.
The beauty of Construct 3 is that it can export to dozens of different platforms and formats, and you don’t have to change a single thing in your game to accommodate these various options. Once your game is done, you can export to HTML5, Android, iOS, Windows, Mac, Linux, Xbox One, Microsoft Store, and more.
Construct 3 has some of the best and most comprehensive documentation I’ve ever seen for a game development tool. In addition, there are hundreds of tutorials that will help you understand concepts from basic to advanced, and the forum community is extremely active if you ever need assistance.
Asset Store. Most programmers have no skills in art, music, or animation. But that’s fine with Construct 3 because you can always browse and purchase ready-made assets from the Scirra Store. Most asset packs are just a few dollars, but the professional-grade stuff can price at $30 or beyond. You can also buy sample games with source, which can be helpful for studying and learning new tips and tricks.
The free version has all of the core features but is limited to 25 events, two object layers, two simultaneous special effects, one web font, no multiplayer functionality, can only export to HTML5, and no permission to sell your games. The Personal license is $99/year and lifts all of these restrictions.
2. GameMaker Studio 2
Drag-and-drop OR code. Like Construct 3, GameMaker Studio 2 allows you to create entire games using nothing more than its drag-and-drop interface for variables and game logic. But unlike Construct 3, GameMaker Studio 2 grants more power through its Game Maker Language, which is a C-like scripting language with a lot of flexibility.
Once your game is done, you can export to any number of platforms and formats without having to adjust your code: Windows, Mac, Linux, HTML5, Android, iOS, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and more. The free version unfortunately doesn’t allow exporting to any platforms.
GameMaker Studio 2 is a rewritten-from-scratch version of Game Maker: Studio, which started way back in 1999. Today, it’s one of the most popular and active free game development engines currently available. New versions with feature updates are released at regular intervals.
Built-in advanced features. GameMaker Studio 2 is great because it supports a lot of interesting quality-of-life features right out of the box, such as the ability to add in-app purchases to your game, real-time analytics on how users play your game, source control, multiplayer networking, and extensibility through third-party extensions. It also has built-in editors for images, animations, and shaders.
The free version can be used indefinitely but has limitations on how complex your games can be. The Creator plan costs $39/year and allows exporting to Windows and Mac. Or you can unlock individual exports each with a one-time permanent purchase: Desktop for $99, HTML5 for $149, Amazon Fire for $149, and Android/iOS for $399. Exports for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One are available for $799/year each.
3. Unity
Unity started off as a 3D engine in 2005 and eventually added official 2D support in 2013. Although it’s perfectly capable of creating 2D games, you may run into the occasional bug or glitch because Unity’s 2D system is actually tacked onto its core 3D system. This also means that Unity adds a lot of unnecessary bloat to 2D games which can affect performance.
Component-based design. Unity didn’t come up with component-entity design, but it had a huge hand in popularizing it. In short, everything in the game is an object and you can attach various components to each object, where each component controls some aspect of the object’s behavior and logic.
To make the most of Unity, you’ll need to use C#. The good news is that Unity is so widely used—among hobbyist and veteran game developers alike—that you’ll find thousands of great Unity tutorials all across the web to help get you started. Unity itself also has numerous in-depth video series for newbies, and the provided documentation is excellent.
Unity has the widest export support of any game engine: Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS, HTML5, Facebook, all kinds of VR systems like Oculus Rift and Steam VR, as well as several gaming consoles like PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Wii U, and Nintendo Switch.
Asset Store. Want a minimap system in your game? Or how about a commercial-grade networking solution? Maybe you need 3D models, HUD graphics, and environmental textures? Or even a dialog system for your action-adventure RPG? You can acquire all of this and more on the Unity Asset Store, many of which are available for free.
The Personal plan is completely free and doesn’t restrict any engine features, as long as you earn less than $100,000 in annual revenue from your games. The Plus plan is necessary up to $200,000 in annual revenue, and also unlocks the coveted “dark theme” for the editor. After that, you’ll need the Pro plan, which allows for unlimited revenue.
4. Godot Engine
Like Unity, Godot supports the creation of both 2D and 3D games. Unlike Unity, however, Godot’s support is far better. The 2D aspect of this free game development software was carefully designed from the start, which means better performance, fewer bugs, and a cleaner overall workflow.
Scene-based design. Godot’s approach to game architecture is unique in that everything is divided into scenes—but not the kind of “scene” you’re thinking of. In Godot, a scene is a collection of elements like sprites, sounds, and/or scripts. You can then combine multiple scenes into a bigger scene, and then those scenes into even bigger scenes. This hierarchical design approach makes it very easy to stay organized and modify individual elements whenever you want.
Custom scripting language. Godot uses a drag-and-drop system for maintaining scene elements, but each of those elements can be extended through the built-in scripting system, which uses a custom Python-like language called GDScript. It’s easy to learn and fun to use, so you should give it a try even if you have no coding experience.
Godot can deploy to multiple platforms right out of the box, including Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS, and HTML5. No extra purchases or licenses necessary, though some restrictions may apply (like needing to be on a Mac system to deploy a Mac binary).
Built-in advanced features. Godot iterates surprisingly quickly for a game engine. There is at least one major release every year, which explains how it has so many great features already: physics, post-processing, networking, all kinds of built-in editors, live debugging and hot reload, source control, and more.
Godot is the only tool on this list that’s actually free through and through. Because it’s licensed under the MIT License, you can use it however you want and sell the games you make without any restrictions. You can even download the engine’s source code and modify it! (The engine is coded in C++.)
5. Unreal Engine 4 (and Unreal Engine 5)
Of all the tools on this list, Unreal Engine 4 (UE4) is the most professional. It was created from scratch by the geniuses behind the Unreal franchise—people who know what’s needed in a top-shelf engine and what it takes to deliver next-generation features. They know exactly what they’re doing.
Cutting-edge engine features. One of UE4’s driving principles is allowing you to iterate and develop as quickly as you can, so you get features like live debugging, hot reloading, a streamlined asset pipeline, instant game previews, plus hundreds of included assets and systems like artificial intelligence, cinematic tools, post-processing effects, and more.
No code necessary. The unique selling point of UE4 is its Blueprint system, which lets you create game logic without touching any code. It’s advanced enough that you can create entire games, even complex ones, without ever opening a source editor. But if you want to code your own Blueprints, you can do that too.
The best tutorials on the planet. The UE4 YouTube channel has over 800 videos that take you through every inch of the engine, and most of those videos are between 20 and 60 minutes long. That’s more content than you’d get from a semester-long course at university. If you need step-by-step guidance, UE4 has you covered.
Starting to see a pattern here? All of the best engines allow seamless exporting to multiple platforms, and UE4 is no exception: Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS, HTML5, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Oculus VR, and more.
As a free user, you get access to the entire engine (including source code). You only need to pay a 5 percent royalty on all revenues after the first $3,000 earned every quarter per game. In other words, you only start paying when your game succeeds.
Hire Unity Game Developer
1. Toptal
Toptal accepts only the top 3 percent of developers who apply as only a few pass their strict vetting process. Those freelancers you find on this site are some of the best available, most of them with outstanding software development skills and years of experience.
Many Toptal Unity experts are proficient in mobile design, so if you’re making a mobile game, you’ll definitely find a hire here. With a no-risk trial, pricing significantly lower than you’ll find on similar sites, and a quality guarantee through a reliable platform, Toptal is one of the best places from which to hire Unity 3D developers.
You can also hire app developers and software developers through Toptal to round out your development team and to help with all of your projects.
2. Unity Connect
In the past, Unity only consisted of a forum board where you could post your jobs, but over time they decided to expand this approach into an entire network. Unity Connect resembles a social media platform for Unity game developers where employers can post jobs, search for talent, and talk about your latest game project.
We believe there’s nowhere better to find Unity 3D developers for Android and iOS than right out of the company’s website. You won’t have to deal with freelancing sites that may not have people skilled in Unity 3D.
3. Hired
Whether you need remote, local, or contract Unity developers, Hired can connect you to a platform with Unity experts of all levels. Applicants become familiar with the development process and carefully vetted to ensure qualification with a demanding job. You can find freelancers yourself or wait to get matched to an ideal fit.
Whether you require a team or an individual, Hired can help you find developers for your game or mobile app. Plus, flexible pricing means you won’t pay more than you can afford.
4. PeoplePerHour
PeoplePerHour is a freelance contracting site designed initially for short, quick projects. Game developers on the site run the gamut from those with ten years of experience to new freelancers just breaking into the Unity 3d games. Post a job for free, or contact an app developer who catches your eye, and you’ll be ready to start the development process.
5. CodementorX
CodementorX brings you senior Unity 3D developers with years of experience. Hire developers within days, and only pay the developers’ fee; stop worrying about costly deposits or extra charges. You can get short-term contracts or even contract-to-hire and bring someone onto your team full-time. Local developers can be found, as well. CodementorX is flexible and will help you connect with the Unity expert you need for game programming.
6. Freelancer
This is one of the largest freelancing job platforms online, so you’re likely to hire Unity 3D developers that meet your criteria. Freelancer is all about getting the job done quickly. You can get bids on job posts for game design in seconds, and find talented and qualified freelancers by browsing past work samples or live chatting with them.
Small or large jobs, fixed or hourly prices, you’re in control of your project and can outline your exact needs. A mobile app ties it all together, making communication and project management a simple task.
7. Unity 3D Work
Unity 3D Work was created as a way for game developers and development services to get in contact with each other and with other companies. It’s straightforward and gets right to the point, no more wading through freelancers from outside the Unity profession. Posting a job is usually free, and posts go through a short approval process. You’ll need a company domain email; other than that, Unity 3D Work is open to all kinds of jobs.
8. Guru
With millions of registered members, Guru is certainly a reliable site for freelance developers. Besides optional features, it’s free to use and has a solid payment system with four different options. Pay by the hour, milestones, tasks, or recurring for those long-term game projects.
SafePay keeps both the employer and employee safe, so freelancers know their work will be compensated, and you can release the funds when you’re happy with the work. This system is simple but effective, so try Guru if you want access to a diverse pool of Unity freelancers.
9. Upwork
Upwork is a freelancing network where people of all skill levels congregate to search for new opportunities. Brand new Unity developers and seasoned veterans can be found together on Upwork.
Enter your specifics and instantly receive a shortlist of potential candidates, or you can also wait for freelancers to contact you or find them on your own. Upwork Pro gets you access to talent search assistance, premium freelancers, and other helpful features.
10. XPlace
XPlace is a free service designed to connect you with some of the top talents across the world. It simplifies your process; just post a job, review your bids, and pick the most qualified person. Along with freelancers, there are also small studios and teams to choose from, if you want a more cohesive group of people. If you need an NDA or want to promote your project with hot or urgent tags, the option is available for a low price.
11. LinkedIn
LinkedIn is a job network and social media website, making it an efficient place for professionals to connect and collaborate. With LinkedIn jobs, you can make a post and the company will email and display advertisements to those who meet the requirements.
It runs on a pay-per-view system, so you only need to pay when someone actually shows interest in your listing. You also get 50 shortlisted candidates and analytics so you can see who’s viewing and applying.
12. Hubstaff Talent
Hubstaff serves as a free resource to connect job seekers and employers. You choose the team you like, negotiate your terms, and start working on your platform of choice. There are both freelancing individuals and agencies available for hire, so you can find the workforce you need.
Hubstaff itself is a time tracking software, so if you wish, you can use it to help keep your project organized — but it’s not required if you use Hubstaff Talent. You can use whatever platform you choose.
13. Stack Overflow
Stack Overflow Talent connects you with a community of go-getters who are ready to join your project remotely. While the site is known for assisting with web-based programming languages, there’s a place for game developers and plenty of freelancers looking for work.
The talent search will both help you reach and understand the developers on your team. They’ll even assist you with optimizing and streaming your talent search, so you get the whole package.
14. Daxx
Are you looking to build an offshore team of Unity specialists? Ukraine-based Daxx takes care of the costs and problems related to remote hiring and lets you focus on development. You can interview the people they select, go over their resumes, and choose the one you feel best fits. You have management over your team and can use whatever tools you want.
Putting the team together can sometimes take up to a month and a half, and you can scale your team size at any time. In addition, there’s no risk; you don’t have to pay unless you choose to go through with recruitment.
15. Truelancer
Truelancer is great for finding remote talent, especially from Asia. Posting a project is typically free, and you can easily check past work and feedback of the people you hire. Once the work is done to your satisfaction, you’ll release the funds, and the work will be done! There’s also a tagging system that will let you hide your project from search engines and people who aren’t logged in, feature your post, get freelancers hand-picked, or sign an NDA.
16. Triplebytes
Triplebytes is modeled around a community of highly skilled engineers leading innovation Unity and game development roles. At the core of the system is an algorithm that matches your specifications with only the best few. This cuts short the time to interview while saving you the headache of mismatches.
Engineers in their database undergo tough preselection bouts. Then Triplebytes ranks them on both experience and performance. It places the very best engineers upfront for you to pick out before the rest. They do not disclose the total cost of hiring Unity developers off Triplebytes upfront. However, given that some developers get to fly into their last interviews, and the calibre of companies that trust them, they are somewhere in the top tier. Both on cost and results.
Getting started with the hiring process on Triplebytes requires that you either post a Unity development project. That, or take the plunge into the talent marketplace in search of your best fit.
17. GitHub
With over 8,000 active Unity developers and over 65 Million code samples spread across GitHub, it’s one of the most underrated places to hire from. The beauty of GitHub as a platform is in the exposed code you get to review before believing a resume crafted from some templates.
The jobs section of GitHub also offers to place your project details to Unity developers actively using the version control system. However, there is a lot more you can achieve when you approach the developers yourself.
To get started, you can search for the type of unity project you’ve set out to do. This results in a handful of developers who have posted the same genre of projects as you’re planning. Then there is the list of repositories closely related to your Unity job. This narrows down your search to only the developers who won’t find your tasks challenging.
18. Gigster
This San Francisco based talent network is an excellent source of high performing Unity developers. As a company seeking talent, they promise short hiring times while connecting you with remote Unity developers from all over the globe.
Each project you send in through their “Get started” form is like a new instance for them to source Unity developers on your behalf. It’s unclear how much they will charge as that’s not listed upfront. However, a quick search on the internet and you’ll discover how the cost varies depending on the scope of your project and your talent requirement details.
That said, if you’re looking to extend your current team’s depth, they have a service level just for that. Understanding how adding just one experienced Unity developer to your team can impact a project, it’s worth sending out your details on Gigster for a quotation and a few interviews.
19. Lemon.io
Equipped with a stringent pre-selection process (including fluent English-speaking skills), Lemon.io is a reputable source for Unity developers. Before you get to see their profiles on the platform, each developer will have presented a satisfactory CV. Then they undergo a series of technical coding tests to make sure you’re only dealing with the best talent.
Lemon.io makes developers sign intellectual property documents making sure you own each project they help you staff outright. They base the cost of your project on the projected time each developer assumes before it begins. They pride themselves on having no extra fees to the hourly rate set with your consent. That said, expect to part with $30 to $55 per hour on your planned Unity projects.
The platform uses a custom payment system to protect you from underperforming developers. It essentially holds the funds required for a milestone (40-hr weekly payments for full-time projects) and only releases these when you’re satisfied with the work done.
20. Monster
Monster has 23 localized websites operating in just as many countries. This gets you the reach you need in your search for Unity developers. Pair this with a good looking mobile app for both Android and iOS devices, and you have a good chance of finding that one developer that’s not looking, but has the Unity skills you’re hunting for.
To get started, simply post your Unity project up for developers to send in proposals. To do this, you need a paying account. Monster’s lowest tier is pegged at £130 per month and affords one job post along with a search and view quota of just 100 resumes.
The next two tiers allow 500 and 1000 resume views, while asking for £320 and £650, respectively. The number of jobs one can post goes up by two with each step in tiers. Perhaps more important is how each Unity developer on the platform gets a notification when you post your project.
Freelance Game Developers Salary
Did you know that the average game developer makes $78,499 per year? That’s valued at $37.74 per hour! The range surrounding that average can vary between $59,000 and $103,000, meaning game developers have the opportunity to earn more once they move past entry-level roles.
Most game developers find a job with technology and education companies, while others work for media, hospitality, and health care companies to make more money. Those aren’t the only places you can earn a higher paycheck. California, Washington and Oregon are the top states in the U.S. to pay game developers the highest salaries.
Hire Game Development Studio
The list of quality video game companies continues to grow as the gaming industry explodes in popularity. While countless new game design studios come to market, we’d like to highlight the very best of the best.
The game dev companies listed below are consistently voted to be the best in the world and hold a reputation to match.
1. Nintendo
Headquarters: Kyoto, Japan
This company is credited with the conception of handheld video games in 1979. Nintendo was founded by Fusajiro Yamauchi in September 1889. It is headquartered in Kyoto, Japan but has subsidiaries and offices in several other parts of the world.
Nintendo is the world’s largest video game company by revenue, with a net value of over USD85 Billion.
Some of the notable video game by this company are:
- Mario
- Pokémon
- The legend of Zelda
2. Valve Corporation
Headquarters: Bellevue, WA
It’s headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and has a subsidiary in Luxembourg. It was started in 1996 by former Microsoft employees Gabe Newell and Mike Harrington. It has total equity of over USD2.5 Billion. Some of the work produced by Valve Corporation includes:
- Counter-strike series
- Dota 2
- Day of defeat series
- Half-life series
3. Rockstar Games
Headquarters: New York City, NY
This company has its headquarters in New York, USA and is owned by Take-Two Interactive. It was founded more than 20 years ago in 1998 by Sam House, Dan Houser, Terry Donovan, Jamie King, and Gary Foreman.
Rockstar’s notable video games, amongst many others, are:
- Grand Theft Auto
- Red dead
- Midnight club
- Bully
- Max Payne
4. Electronic Arts
Headquarters: Redwood City
It’s also referred to as EA Games. It was started in May 1982 by Trip Hawkins.
The company’s revenue is over USD4.5 Billion. Several video games have been produced by this company, for example:
- Army of Two series
- Battlefield series
- FIFA series
- The Simpsons series
- Star wars series
5. Activision Blizzard
Headquarters: Santa Monica, California
The company had revenue of over USD4.6 Billion in 2015 and is a listed company whose shares trade on NASDAQ. Company president and CEO is Robert Kotick, while the Chairman of the BOD is Brian Kelly.
Many video games have been produced by the company, among them:
- Call of duty series
- Crash Bandicoot series
- Spyro the dragon series
- Tony Hawks series
6. Sony Computer Entertainment
Headquarters: Minato, Tokyo, Japan
The company is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the large Sony Corporation. It was established in Tokyo, in November 1993. It has several subsidiaries in Asia, Europe, and North America. Some of the game consoles from Sony C.E include:
- PlayStation
- PlayStation 2
- PlayStation 3
- PlayStation 4
- PlayStation Vita
7. Ubisoft
Headquarters: Montreuil, France
The company, originally Ubisoft Entertainments S.A was founded in France, March 1986 by five siblings of the Guillemot family. It has subsidiaries in 26 countries throughout the world. It trades on Euronex as UBI and had a revenue of 1.4 Billion Euros in 2014.
Game series from Ubisoft include:
- Assassin’s creed series
- Far cry series
- Just dance series
- Tom Clancy series
8. Sega Games Co. Ltd
Headquarters: Tokyo, Japan
The company was founded in 1940, in Honolulu Hawaii. It is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the larger group, Sega Holdings and has several offices around the world. Some of the notable and best selling game consoles from this company are:
- Sonic the hedgehog
- Virtua Fighter
- Phantasy Star
- Yakuza
- Total War
9. BioWare
Headquarters: Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
It’s wholly owned by Electronic Arts. The company was founded by Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk, who are medical doctors by profession.
Some of the products from BioWare are:
- Mass Effect series
- Dragon Age series
- Star Wars: Knights of the Olds
- Baldur’s Gate series
- Republic series
10. Naughty Dog Inc
Headquarters: Santa Monica, California
The company was founded in 1984 by Andy Gavin and Jason Rubin. It is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sony Computer Entertainment after a successful acquisition in 2001.
Products from Naughty Dog Inc include:
- Crash Bandicoot
- Jak and Daxter
- The Last of Us
- Unchartered
Top 11 Best Mobile Game Developer
1. Spike Chunsoft
Spike Chunsoft Co., Ltd. is a Japanese video game development and localization company specializing in role-playing video games, visual novels and adventure games. The company was founded in 1984 as Chunsoft Co., Ltd. and merged with Spike in 2012. It is owned by Dwango.
They created games such as the first five Dragon Quest installments and the Mystery Dungeon franchise as Chunsoft, and the Conception series as Spike Chunsoft. They also developed titles such as The Portopia Serial Murder Case, the Sound Novel series (consisting of Otogirisō, Kamaitachi no Yoru, Machi and 428: Shibuya Scramble) and the Zero Escape series as Chunsoft, and the Danganronpa franchise as Spike Chunsoft.
Chunsoft was founded by Koichi Nakamura, a video game designer, and programmer who had worked with Enix. The “Chun” in the company name is from the first kanji Naka of the company founder name; Naka is read as “Chun” in Japanese Mahjong. In 2005, it was bought by Dwango and became a subsidiary of the company.
Before the project, Sega was helping Chunsoft in developing and releasing their games for the Dreamcast. From 2006 to 2008, Sega has made a collaboration with Chunsoft titled “SEGA x Chunsoft Project”. Their goal was to provide support and sales for development funds and help port their games who were only purchasable in Japan at the time, such as the Nintendo DS remake of Shiren the Wanderer or 428: Shibuya Scramble.
2. Square
Headquarters: Shinjuku, Toyo, Japan
The company was founded by Yasuhiro Fukushima in September 1975. The company is public with shares listed on the Tokyo stock market. It had revenues of 155 Million Japanese Yen in 2015. Notable products from Enix are among others:
- Space Invaders
- Bubble Bobble
3. PlayFirst
PlayFirst, Inc. is a Delaware based publisher of casual games founded in 2004 by industry veterans. PlayFirst produced the Diner Dash series, which won the 2008 Annual Casual Game Awards. and has seen over 550 million downloads.
The popularity of Diner Dash series prompted spin-off series like Wedding Dash and Cooking Dash. The company’s game portfolio also includes the retro-style strategy-based Chocolatier series,[2] and the adventure/hidden object-mixing Dream Chronicles series.
From 2005 to mid-2011, PlayFirst has released 72 casual games for PC and Mac, counting an extra 7 Collector’s Editions and Strategy Guides, thus they have 79 games in total in their game categories.
4. Ultimate Play The Game
Ashby Computers and Graphics Limited, trading as Ultimate Play the Game, was a British video game developer and publisher, founded in 1982, by ex-arcade game developers Tim and Chris Stamper.
Ultimate released a series of successful games for the ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, BBC Micro, MSX, and Commodore 64 computers from 1983 until its closure in 1988. Ultimate is perhaps best remembered for the big-selling titles Jetpac and Sabre Wulf, each of which sold over 300,000 copies in 1983 and 1984 respectively, and their groundbreaking series of isometric arcade adventures using a technique termed Filmation.
Knight Lore, the first of the Filmation games, has been retrospectively described in the press as “seminal … revolutionary” (GamesTM), “one of the most successful and influential games of all time” (X360), and “probably … the greatest single advance in the history of computer games” (Edge).
5. Lavastorm Analytics
Lavastorm is a global analytics software company based in Massachusetts. The company’s products are most often used by business analysts looking to take on more responsibility for data preparation and to build advanced analytics, or by IT groups who are looking for more agile ways to provision governed data to business analysts.
In February 2006, Lavastorm merged with Visual Wireless, a Sweden-based revenue assurance, and fraud detection software company. The combined customer list includes BellSouth, Comcast, TeliaSonera, Telstra, and Vodafone. Drew Rockwell, Lavastorm CEO, continued as head of the merged company. Lavastorm kept its name but also became the Martin Dawes Systems revenue assurance and fraud management division.
On December 22, 2011, Lavastorm was de-merged from Martin Dawes Systems and re-launched as a data analytic company.
In March 2018, Lavastorm was acquired by Infogix, Inc. The product offering has been rebranded as ‘Data3Sixty’
6. Capcom
Headquarters: Chuo-Ku Osaka Japan
It is a public listed company that develops and publishes video games. It was started in May 1979. It is one of the largest game companies in terms of revenue, with reports in 2014 citing them at 25.9 Billion Japanese Yen.
Their video games include the following best sellers:
- Monster Hunter
- Resident Evil
- Street Fighter
- Mega Man
7. Milestone
Milestone S.r.l. is an Italian video game developer based in Milan that focuses on racing games. It was founded by Antonio Farina in 1994, originally under the name Graffiti, before becoming Milestone in 1996. Milestone was part of Leader Group between 2002 and 2011, and in August 2019, the studio was acquired by Koch Media.
On 14 August 2019 media company Koch Media entered into an agreement to fully acquire Milestone and all of its intellectual property for €44.9 million paid in cash. The acquisition was completed later that day.
Prior to this point, Milestone had been wholly owned by its chief executive officer, Luisa Bixio, who continued heading the company following the acquisition. It became a studio for Koch Media’s Deep Silver label. At the time, Milestone employed 200 people.
8. Acclaim Studios Manchester
Acclaim Studios Manchester (formerly Software Creations) was a British video game developer based in Manchester, England. The company was established in 1985 by Richard Kay.
They were primarily known for their video games based on movie and comic licences like Marvel Comics, Cutthroat Island, Disney’s Beauty and the Beast and the original titles Plok, Solstice, and its sequel Equinox.
9. Vicarious Visions
Vicarious Visions, Inc. is an American video game developer, based in Albany, New York. The studio was acquired by and became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Activision in January 2005.
After releasing its last game as part of Activision Publishing, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2, Vicarious Visions was moved from that division within Activision Blizzard into Blizzard Entertainment on January 22, 2021. As part of that transition, Simon Ebejer became studio head.
Read Also: How Can Business Get Competitive Edge with the Help of Mobile Apps?
On January 22, 2021, Vicarious Visions was moved by Activision Blizzard from a subsidiary of Activision to a subsidiary of Blizzard Entertainment. Going forward, the more than 200 employees of Vicarious Visions will be employees of Blizzard.
Vicarious had been working with Blizzard for about two years prior to this announcement, and specifically on the planned remaster of Diablo II, Diablo II: Resurrected, and Blizzard felt the move would be best as to have Vicarious’ group provide continued support not only on the remaster but also on other Diablo properties including Diablo IV.
10. Sega
Headquarters: Tokyo, Japan
The company was founded in 1940, in Honolulu Hawaii. It is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the larger group, Sega Holdings and has several offices around the world. Some of the notable and best selling game consoles from this company are:
- Sonic the hedgehog
- Virtua Fighter
- Phantasy Star
- Yakuza
- Total War
11. Nintendo Entertainment Analysis & Development
Headquarters: Kyoto, Japan
This company is credited with the conception of handheld video games in 1979. Nintendo was founded by Fusajiro Yamauchi in September 1889. It is headquartered in Kyoto, Japan but has subsidiaries and offices in several other parts of the world.
Nintendo is the world’s largest video game company by revenue, with a net value of over USD85 Billion.
Some of the notable video game by this company are:
- Mario
- Pokémon
- The legend of Zelda
Final Words
Finding and hiring a professional and quality game developer is more challenging than hiring other developers with more basic skills.
However, if you keep the information above in mind, it will be easier for you to find the best game developers for any upcoming project. Remember, take the time to review your options and do not just focus on the skill level of the developer. It would help if you also considered how well they could meet and match your needs.