About - Well Told

Things studios ask.

What do you specialize in?▼

Our founding team is a mix of specialists and generalists with CG pipeline experience spanning indie to AAA standards, and we're fluent from Unity to Unreal. We're comfortable in all environments, but specifically found our niche supporting development teams sized between 10 to 40. Work at that scale takes a particular blend of the multi-hat versatility paired with the deep specialization to execute each task at a high bar. In practice it means we plug in to: expand a department's capacity, reinforce its leadership, or scale production up in any discipline.

Do you do programming or engine work?▼

We do plenty of work in-engine, including implementation and setup of visual content, technical art, and game design experience for things like level art and design. What we're not is engineers. We don't write gameplay code, network code, or engine systems. Think of us as the creative arm that fills in and supports your non-engineering departments.

How do you structure a co-development engagement?▼

Two ways, and they aren't mutually exclusive. We're capable at owning an entire pipeline end to end, the full character pipeline or animation pipeline. Just as often, we structure ourselves to fill only the gaps you actually have. Take a look at our services to get a sense of where we can slot into your team and your production; from there we shape the support services around what roles your team is missing.

How do you structure your teams?▼

Our leads are all senior-level, and how we organize comes down to your preference. At one end, we fold all of our contributors directly into your department: you have access to speak with each as an independent contractor, while we handle their onboarding, task management, and the logistics of cycling people in and out. At the other end, for larger or more complex efforts, we operate as our own self-contained department, so you deal with us as a unit with our lead as the primary point of contact. Then we'll manage additional headcount and pulling in any needed specialists who can best deliver on your project.

How do you integrate and communicate with our team?▼

However your studio communicates, we meet you there. We'll join your Slack or Discord, or wherever you communicate. The bigger difference is what we don't require. Most outsourcing vendors need you to staff an outsource manager or art lead to translate, direct, and facilitate the relationship externally. However, we integrate directly, work like part of your team, and manage scaling up and down as production demands, so that coordination weight stays off your plate.

What's the scope or size of commitment?▼

Whatever the work actually needs. We've staffed everything from a single artist for a short stretch to a team that grows from two animators one month to five the next. Scaling with your production schedule is the point. When you commit headcount on a monthly retainer, we offer bulk pricing.

What are your co-development rates & terms? Do you white-label?▼

Our rates vary based on the deal. We offer standard pricing for our standard support services. Then we also offer indie-friendly rates and discounts for co-developer terms like front-facing developer credit, or back-end revenue share. (Optional)

For white-label engagements, we just appreciate an approval to share a bit of our process on our work pages here on the website. And to be listed in the game's credits on the backside, along with other contributors.

How is the work order structured?▼

We're flexible here and defer to how you'd prefer to structure the agreement. Generally, once an MSA is in place, we prepare a bid with an estimated headcount that goes into a SOW or work-order agreement. From there, we've worked a couple of ways: drafting a fresh work-order estimate at each key milestone throughout the project, or setting a fixed baseline retainer for your primary staffing and invoicing day rates for additional headcount or specialists at the end of the month. Whichever fits your production better.

Do you offer a trial period?▼

For a first-time collaboration, we understand the hesitation before committing to a longer-term project. Sometimes both sides want to test things out first, especially when we're being evaluated as a partner for an entire game production that spans a year or more. Depending on the scope and opportunity of the full project, we offer a discounted trial period for the first 1-3 month period, so we can see how our teams work together before stepping into the longer commitment.

Do you use AI?▼

There is no generative AI in our creative work or the assets we produce. Full stop.

Where are you NOT the right fit?▼

We're a senior, leadership-focused team. If you mainly need a high volume of bulk execution at the lowest rate, an outsource house is the better fit. Where we're worth it is complex, undefined and the high-trust work that's risky to hand off. We are a premium offering and we believe in working with high quality collaborators.

On style, we're strongest in stylized work and stylized realism. For animation we can work with mocap, but we believe keyframed, exaggerated animation and careful cleanup is what makes gameplay animation read clearly and land emotionally, and we favor hand-built models over photogrammetry and scans. If you're after full photorealism, we are not the art production partner for your game.

And one boundary we hold on the work itself: we do not work on games that lean on generative AI for its art assets. We keep generative AI out of our own creative work, and we'd rather contribute to games made the same way.

Do you take on experimental or prototype projects?▼

Sometimes. More developers are building games than ever, and it's increasingly common for a solo dev or group to assemble a game from store assets and launch on Steam, or raise funding off the back of it. We usually work with projects that are already greenlit and funded, but we keep a limited number of slots open through the year for earlier-stage work. If you're building something with original IP and characters that could use the Well Told touch, we can reduce upfront fees for a co-developer revenue-share deal. This is newer territory for us, so we'd love to hear what you're working on.

Where are you located?▼

We work remotely across Southern California, so LA, Irvine, and San Diego. Happy to connect with locals and meet your teams in person.

Well told stories make better games.

The leads.

Our extended team.

Our values.

Things studios ask.

Could we be
the right fit?

Well told stories make better games.

The leads.

Our extended team.

Our values.

Things studios ask.

Could we bethe right fit?

Could we be
the right fit?