About - Well Told

Common Questions

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've found our niche in teams of roughly fifteen to forty people. Essentially the premium indie, III, and AA studios. Work at that scale takes a particular blend: the multi-hat versatility of indie development paired with the deep specialization to execute each task at a high bar. That's exactly where we're built to operate. In practice it means we plug in three ways: expanding a department's capacity, reinforcing its leadership, or scaling 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. Where the work crosses into code, we hand it off to your engineers cleanly and document it for them.

How do you structure a co-development engagement?▼

Two ways, and they aren't mutually exclusive. We're best at owning an entire pipeline end to end, the full character pipeline or animation pipeline, for instance, where our depth lets us move efficiently without giving up quality. 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 engagement 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. We scale the structure to fit how you want to work. At one end, we fold directly into your department: you have access to speak with every contributor we bring on and work with each as an independent contractor, while we handle the onboarding 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, and we pull in resources and staff the most specialized person for the task at hand. A complex creature rig, for instance, might mean bringing in a specialist for a week or two to own exactly that part of the pipeline. Either way, matching the right person to the right task is most of what we do.

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 help set one up. 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. We don't. 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 terms? Do you white-label?▼

Our rates vary by the kind of studio you are. Indie budgets and standard AA-and-up budgets look different, and we price for each. Beyond the base fee, certain co-development terms can bring your upfront cost down: front-facing brand visibility, a credit on your Steam store page, or a revenue share. None of that is expected, though. Most of our engagements are white-label, with an upfront fee and none of those strings.

For white-label engagements, co-developer credit and Well Told branding on your game are never a requirement. All we ask is to share some of the behind-the-scenes process on our work pages, and to be listed in the game's credits alongside everyone else who contributed.

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 any 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 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 AI in our creative game development. Full stop.

Where are you NOT the right fit?▼

We're a senior, leadership-focused team, and we're priced like one. If you mainly need a high volume of bulk execution at the lowest rate, an outsource house 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, not hyper-realism or military-shooter-style games. 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 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 put our name on a game made the same way.

Do you take on experimental or prototype projects?▼

Sometimes. More developers are building games than ever, and it's increasingly realistic for a solo dev or small team 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're open to structuring it around back-end revenue rather than a traditional upfront fee. 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 the team in person.

Well told stories make unforgettable games!

The leads.

Our extended team.

Our values.

Things studios ask.

Could we be
the right fit?

Well told stories make unforgettable games!

The leads.

Our extended team.

Our values.

Things studios ask.

Could we bethe right fit?

Could we be
the right fit?