Warning - I'm a bit fresh on the topic of running a game studio. I've been thinking a lot about how game indie studios work (never worked in one and there are none in my town. It would be nice to change that, but I'm not naive on the difficulty either). I suppose my traditional belief is the studio (whether it be one developer or a team) starts from idea conception to creation. But then I started thinking of board gaming and how the concept, game design and artwork is done and looking for a game development team to outsource the coding to. It seems that endeavor would cost them much more than any profits they made from the physical board game? And are there studios that take in mostly contract work, do most of the marketing and some coding/artwork but relying on subcontracting a chunk of the work out?

One studio I've admired is inkle and it seems they do indeed rely on other artists and coders and play more of a "director role." That's not to say they're not doing a majority of the code/artwork. http://www.inklestudios.com/about/

Moving this to Business.

are there studios that take in mostly contract work, do most of the marketing and some coding/artwork but relying on subcontracting a chunk of the work out?

Yes, there are studios that take in contract work.
Marketing is done by publishers, not developers (exception: developers who self-publish).
Some studios are full-service, meaning they don't subcontract work out.

Thank you Tom!

I guess another way to ask the question is, how unrealistic is it for me to think about opening a studio as a producer/director and outsource my development and graphics work? Maybe a contract to hire studio rather than our own titles... or balance it. Although I have coding skills, they're mostly of the full stack web development, bug tracking type and not specific to extreme object oriented programming and game engine experience. I could do some coding but I'd certainly need a lead tackling the heavy work and I could help offload with the tedious stuff. What I don't have is a lot of hours to put into development, as I'd like to keep my day job as I start this possible endeavor. Any resources or articles would greatly be appreciated.

Thank you Tom!

I guess another way to ask the question is, how unrealistic is it for me to think about opening a studio as a producer/director and outsource my development and graphics work? Maybe a contract to hire studio rather than our own titles... or balance it. Although I have coding skills, they're mostly of the full stack web development, bug tracking type and not specific to extreme object oriented programming and game engine experience. I could do some coding but I'd certainly need a lead tackling the heavy work and I could help offload with the tedious stuff. What I don't have is a lot of hours to put into development, as I'd like to keep my day job as I start this possible endeavor. Any resources or articles would greatly be appreciated.

How much money do you have laying around? Depending on what game you are trying to make it could be anywhere from $200k to $20m. If you are going to contract a studio that has any chance of completing the game then you are going to pay industry wages to get it done. They will want a large portion of that upfront and then payouts as milestones are completed. They aren't going to work for a percentage of the profits.

As for the original question, I work for a self funded indie studio doing social and mobile games. Since we have no outside investors telling us what to do we make whatever games we want to make.

Unfortunately I don't have $200k - $20m laying around. If the game designer is reaching out to the game studio to have their ideas constructed/developed into a game, would've they provide the funding? I suppose in indie development, that's not exactly how it works since funding is scarce.

Stumbled upon the Game Design Dojo podcast - this episode was pretty good and covers the topic of work-for-hire type studios.

http://gamedesigndojo.com/gdd-019/

how unrealistic is it for me to think about opening a studio as a producer/director and outsource my development and graphics work? Maybe a contract to hire studio

It's not unrealistic. Just get at least 2 years experience in the industry first. Read http://www.sloperama.com/advice/lesson29.htm

If the game designer is reaching out to the game studio to have their ideas constructed/developed into a game, would've they provide the funding?

Designers don't do that. Publishers do that.

how unrealistic is it for me to think about opening a studio as a producer/director and outsource my development and graphics work? Maybe a contract to hire studio

It's not unrealistic. Just get at least 2 years experience in the industry first. Read http://www.sloperama.com/advice/lesson29.htm

That'll be a tough one in my town, considering there are no game studios here. I don't think the industry hires remote workers. I have family here so no plans on moving. Only chance would be to partner up and work on something on the side. Great article.

That'll be a tough one in my town, considering there are no game studios here.

Industry experience doesn't necessarily mean working for a business.

If you create and release a game, you then have industry experience. Keep doing this and most importantly COMPLETE and release your projects, and before you know it you'll have years of industry experience as an indie game developer.

It's more about showing you have the ability to complete and run projects that matters to people rather than showing you were e.g. employed by valve or a big studio. Especially for indie games.

Good luck!

how unrealistic is it for me to think about opening a studio as a producer/director and outsource my development and graphics work? Maybe a contract to hire studio

It's not unrealistic. Just get at least 2 years experience in the industry first. Read http://www.sloperama.com/advice/lesson29.htm

That'll be a tough one in my town, considering there are no game studios here. ... I have family here so no plans on moving.

It's becoming less and less realistic, then.