Top 100+ Game Development Companies in 2023
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Starloop Studios provides full-game development services leveraging the talent of highly creative professionals. We attract and retain the best talents from multiple locations across the world and is led by a seasoned leadership team, working at a state-of-the-art studio in Spain. Our mission is to be a revenue multiplier to our clients without creating huge overheads for their internal studios.
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GAME ART AND DEVELOPMENT STUDIO
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Room 8 Group is a group of companies providing art production and external game development services. Room 8 Group is the mother company of seven studios: Room 8 Studio, Dragons Lake, Massive Black, Solid Bash, PUGA Studios, Heroic, and highlight QA. The five video game development and art production brands can be leveraged individually or at a group level as they work together within a single ecosystem. Room 8 Group unites over 2000 team members, and operates in multiple locations worldwide, including the US, the UK, Brazil, Canada, Cyprus, Japan, Poland, Romania, Spain, and Ukraine.
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We offer high quality end-to-end game development and 2D/3D art creation services for all major platforms: iOS and Android, desktop devices and consoles. Also, our area of expertise covers creating Blockchain/NFT games and AR/VR gamified applications.
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We provide our help in any area of Game Development, UI/UX, 2D/3D art, Animation, Game Design and Game Level, VFX, so more information about us you can get from Overview
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We are an award-winning Australian game development studio creating Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, and Mobile Apps for brands such as Samsung, eBay, and the University of Sydney.
Our multi-disciplinary team of programmers, artists, designers, and managers is fully equipped to help with all stages of your project, collaborating with subject matter experts to create effective tools.
Our design approach is outcomes-oriented, focusing on market research, rapid prototyping, and iterative design to find the most pragmatic solution.
We are comfortable working within a larger team or as an independent entity, on-site or remote.
Following an agile development approach, so you have a new build to test every 2 weeks.
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Accelerate your development with a dedicated team of JS experts.
Build scalable web and mobile applications with Europe’s top TypeScript, Node.js, NestJS, React Native and ReactJS engineers.
Our people (experienced full stack developers, UI/UX designers, QAs and BAs) join your people and work together on your web or mobile application.
From day 1, we focus on delivering business value through high-quality software.
Our clients call it painless team augmentation. We call it digital acceleration. What’s important - it works.
It has worked well for 60+ tech businesses across different industries (gaming, fintech, edtech, martech, healthcare). There's a fair chance it will work well for you.
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Blaize: Bespoke Solutions with World-Class Performance for Blockchain Projects
Welcome to Blaize, your trusted partner established in 2016 for top-notch blockchain and Web 3.0 development solutions. As a team of tech enthusiasts, we leverage innovation and the latest trends to help businesses excel in the digital landscape.
Blaize today is:
65+ high-skilled blockchain developers
70+ successfully completed projects
400+ deployed smart contracts
5+ years in the blockchain industry
Embark on your Web 3.0 journey with Blaize as your trusted technology ally!
Contact us today to explore how we can help you achieve your web and mobile development goals.
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Award-Winning Mobile and AR Development Company
We help startups and SME grow business with amazing apps.
Exyte focused:
Mobile Development — Native iOS and Android apps, as well as cross-platform development with React Native;
Blockchain — distributed applications, custom DLTs, and smart contract development.
Augmented Reality — using ARKit on iOS and ARCore on Android;
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Software development for your business
We are a digital product development company with offices spanning UK, Estonia and Ukraine. We specialize on Startup/MVP (Web and Mobile) development, Blockchain development, Data Science, Business automation.
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Web Design Agency and WordPress Development - Ask the Egghead, Inc
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We are Designocracy, a customer-focused design & development agency. We bring strategy, design, and development together to create amazing experiences. We have combined experience of over 15 years in handling complex/high-end projects. We deliver quality results and are always ready to go the extra mile for our clients!
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VironIT develops custom software to help businesses reach new heights, improve the quality of the existing product, reduce time to market and development costs.
Having fulfilled over 500 software development projects, VironIT has gained extensive experience in financial services, travel, retail, eHealth, and game dev industries.
Seasoned developers, top-tier project managers, business analysts, and UX/UI designers provide high-quality and cost-effective software development services. VironIT provides services including the development of mobile applications, web-oriented applications, business software solutions, as well as software integration and updating, support, and maintenance of software applications.
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Arttteo is a software development company based in Georgia. We create high-tech custom software for local and international clients.
Arttteo consolidates more than 100 top tech talents from Georgia. Through designing and developing effective targeted software solutions, our partners and clients increase productivity and profits.
We enable companies, institutions, and organizations to effectively deploy high-performance software solutions to conduct their core activities.
We have developed digital products for more than Seven Georgian startups and 25+ International and Local Clients.
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For each idea you have, for any request you place we help you to discover & develop ideal combination of services and solutions
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Headquartered in Los Angeles, Digimark Developers is an international agency providing website and mobile application solutions for businesses worldwide.
From local businesses to international corporations, DigiMark Developers has worked with organizations of all sizes to create solutions to meet their business needs. Our agency is comprised of flexible teams that can be scaled up or down to meet the demands of any business for any project at any time.
Specialties
Robust Application Development, Mobile App Development, Cloud Applications, SaaS, web app development, software quality assurance, Game Development, Blockchain Animations, Big Data, Bl custom software development, and Dedicated team.
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Banuba is a computer vision lab specialising in Face AR development. We create augmented reality SDKs which bring the most immersive face filters, 3D masks, facial animation and AR beauty features to any app or website.
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PurpleFire is a development company with HQ in Denmark but with a team spread out across Europe and offices across the globe such as London, Vancouver & New York.
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Oril is a full-spectrum software development organization specializing in web & mobile apps, digital transformation, product strategy consulting, and IoT. We are a diverse team of talented experts with strong commitment and a manner to solve problems with great proficiency.
We aspire to deliver value to our global community and drive technological advancement to each of our customers in various industries including PropTech, FinTech, Marketplaces, Health & Fitness.
One thing that gets us most excited is helping our clients build impactful products that become the core of their business. Contact us at [email protected]
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Zazz is Mobile App Development company, offering app development services in iOS, Android, React & Unity. Ranked #1 in Forbes List of Top App Development Companies San Francisco.
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Delivering mobile apps and digital services that goes beyond just building stuff and focuses on turning your idea into a huge success.
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APPSTIRR is an award-winning mobile application & development company operating in the USA. We are carrying the legacy of designing and developing applications for our valued clients that stands out in the competitive market. To date, we have created several android and iOS applications for all sorts of businesses across various industries.
Application designers and developers at APPSTIRR are the talk of the town because of their amazing skills. The development and designing team ensures to work hand in hand with the clients by customizing applications according to their required criteria. Being a top app development company, we also ensure using the best available technology to equip the app with hence making it scalable.
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Vention is a top-tier, one-stop custom software development company that provides access to 3,000+ experienced engineers.
We've helped VC-backed startups and fast-growing tech companies build successful, scalable products that users love. Our forte is agile dedicated teams of brilliant minds who rock in web, mobile, Big Data, QA, and DevOps.
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Quokka Labs is one of the best Mobile and Web App Development Companies that are specialized in Customized Mobile app Development including Many aspects of App Development. We
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Buyer's guide
Creating a game is often a very long and challenging journey that can sometimes take even years from start to finish. Games are currently the only medium that allows us to watch, interact, influence, and exist in their worlds.
It might have crossed your mind to take on game development yourself. But, you will soon realize that making even the most straightforward game is a colossal task for one person. Completing a game that will sell requires a large integrated, synchronized team of individuals specializing in coding, UI, design, graphics, sound, and marketing. People do this daily and have planned strategies even before the project begins.
Because of the abovementioned issues, we have studios offering game development services. They are teams that serve only one purpose – successfully creating a game.
So, how do top game development studios create a game? What steps do they follow, and what does the development process look like? Let's take a closer look.
Game Development Process
Whether you are creating a mobile game or a significant AAA title, the basic principle stays the same. Here are all the steps that all top game development studios will follow to stay organized and efficient.
1. Planning
Planning is the first step in the pre-production cycle, and it is critical to define your game, how long it will take to create, how many resources and people you'll need, and how much everything will cost. In a professional environment, planning can last anywhere from one week to a year, depending on the size and complexity of the project. A good gauge to estimate how long your planning will take is – 10-20% of your estimated game development time. (So, if it is a 6-month project, planning will likely take anywhere from 2 to 5 weeks).
2. Design
Many professional studios record what the game will look like in a "Game Design Document". The purpose of this document is to fully record the game's vision, describe the contents, ensure that team members know their roles, and map out a production plan. That said, game design documents are very long and detailed and can be time-consuming to complete from start to finish.
Many top game development studios debate whether game design documents are even worth the effort because no matter how well you plan the game – many things will change, sometimes drastically, during the production phase. The changes can happen due to technical limitations, game mechanics not working well together, hardware or software limitations, or key developers or artists leaving mid-project.
Because of that, many modern studios have started adopting the much smaller "Macro Design Document", born by Mark Cerny (the lead architect of PS4 and PS Vita, and designer of titles such as God of War 3, Uncharted, and Killzone 3). The macro design document is a short 1-2 page high detail document that contains only the essentials and can be expanded on during the development of the game.
3. Development
Once everything has been set and organized, it is time to start the game's development. At the same time, still in the pre-production phase, a top game design studio will focus on prototyping. Usually, we will get a rough prototype to get a core feel for what the game should look like once it is finished. These prototypes test the game mechanics, functions, and art direction. Many successful game studios have discovered that the easiest way to complete a game successfully is to prototype a lot and often. Because you can use primitive objects from the game engine or purchased stand-in assets, you can fully develop a functioning game without risking creating the entire graphics and risk losing it because a core mechanic has proven unviable.
Start of production. Production is the most extended phase of the game's development and is where team members and staff are assigned to the various roles planned out after the design and prototyping cycles. Production is focused on content, assets, and code creation. Production is where it is essential to balance creativity with time management. The production phase is best described with the following cycles:
- Vertical-slice
- Pre-alpha
- Alpha
- Beta
- Gold
Vertical-slice is a game demo that will showcase what the game will look like when finished. A vertical slice is often used to start early marketing campaigns for the game to generate momentum and an early following. It is also instrumental in determining how long the game will take to finish and the total budget.
Then, the pre-alpha stage begins.
Pre-alpha refers to all activity performed during the game's development before official testing. This stage is where the majority of the content gets made. At this point, the artists create the characters and the environments, animators bring the characters and creatures to life with movement, designers lay out the map and levels, and the programmers bring it all together by coding all the functions and events, and interactions.
Once all the core-game development has been created and necessary cuts have been made due to various limitations – testing begins.
4. Testing
In the testing phase, the Alpha version of the game starts. In the Alpha phase, every functionality and game mechanic is tested for bugs and ensures all the functions and elements perform as desired. Any bugs, errors, or inconsistencies are recorded in a Bug Sheet or a Bug Database.
After the Alpha phase has been finished, the game enters its Beta phase. The Beta phase is also where the entire production process stops. The game is considered content-complete, focusing on fixing all bugs and optimization before launch.
After the game passes the Beta phase, it enters the Gold phase. In the Gold stage of the game's development, all the weeks, months, or even years of hard work finally paid off. In the gold phase, the game is given to the publishers for testing, and if it is found to be acceptable, it is finally released to the public.
5. Launch
Once the fully developed game has been launched, the game development enters the post-production phase. Most marketing happens in post-production to ensure the most profit when the game is published.
After launch, most of the people working on the game title are transferred to work on additional downloadable content or game patches.
The game has been officially released, and this is a significant accomplishment all in itself. But the journey is still ongoing.
6. Maintenance
After the game has been released to the public, several subsequent versions or patches might be released to fix or improve the game. These actions are usually driven by how to public response to the game. Performance optimization and bug fixes are everyday things that are worked on upon the release of a game.
Two crucial phases after the game has been released and finished are – the postmortem and the closing kit.
Postmortem is where top game development studios look at how the game was developed and at things that the game development team could have done better and more efficiently. Learning from experience is the best method to improve the game development process for the future. The main goal of a postmortem is to find out which techniques worked and didn't work during the game development process.
During post-production, it is vital to organize all sources, assets, and code into a "Closing Kit" so it is readily available for future use or reference. A closing kit is a compilation of the design documents, code, art, final game assets, music files, and everything else used to create the game.
Closing kits are essential if you plan on developing a sequel to the game or additional content, such as DLC.
Best Programming Languages for Game Development
Each top game development studio will use a programming language best suits its style.
Here are the most popular programming languages for game development today:
C++
It is still the number one pick of many game developers as it is a very optimized and quick programming language, and it can yield outstanding results in terms of performance. If you are developing a AAA game title or are developing for consoles, then C++ is a must. You will use it in some form.
C#
Microsoft's answer to Java C# is an excellent object-oriented programming language that has gained much popularity due to its use in the Unity game engine.
Go
While go can be highly potent in terms of performance speed, it would require a developed game engine to create more significant games.
Haskell
Haskell is a very popular and loved language, and although it is not ideal for game development, you can create both 2D and 3D titles with it.
Java
Java is often used for Android-based mobile games or PC desktop games. It is a popular choice because of its extensive ecosystem of libraries and tools.
JavaScript
Depending on the sort of game you want to build, JavaScript is a great language choice for game creation. JavaScript is ideal for mobile and web-based gaming.
Kotlin
Inspired by Java, Kotlin tries to show a better version that is cleaner, simpler, quicker to compile, and implies a combination of object-oriented and functional programming. Kotlin is used in game development, especially Android mobile games.
MATLAB
You can use MATLAB for the development of simple game projects.
Objective – C
Objective – C is a super fast language used for mobile development and is along c/c++, and Swift is the go-to language when it comes to developing iPhone games.
Perl
Perl is often used for text manipulation and is best suited for text-based games.
R
Game development wasn't the primary purpose for creating the R programming language. With native support, however, you can use R to develop games.
Ruby
Ruby is a popular option for making 2D games. It may need to be faster for 3D games. Top-rated games such as Tetris, Pong, and Floppy Bird were developed using Ruby.
Rust
Rust is often used in the same sentence as C++ for a good reason. It is very similar in performance to C++ and is an excellent choice for developing even AAA titles.
Scala
Scala, on its own, is an excellent programming language for creating browser-based games.
Scheme
Functional programming can stumble upon a few roadblocks regarding graphics rendering. Scheme is best suited for the development of simple games.
Swift
Swift is a prevalent language, especially for developing iOS games.
TypeScript
Microsoft's answer to JavaScript – TypeScript, has gained massive popularity recently. It is speedy and easily written.
How to choose the right Game Development company for your business?
Narrow down a list of potential Game Development companies to collaborate with
Use the "Filter" option to narrow down a list of companies that have the closest to what you are trying to find. Service line and location can be essential when making this choice. Think of what type of game you want to create – is it a 2d game or perhaps a 3d game? Will it be an online or offline game? Will it be for PC or cross-platform? Maybe you want the game done in a popular game engine such as Unity or Unreal or built from scratch.
Unity Game Engine
Unity is a robust, integrated development environment designed for developing interactive 2D and 3D content. It creates software and applications for multiple platforms, including Mac OS X, iOS, Windows, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and more.
The unity game engine includes various purpose-built tools for creating complex real-time experiences in both 3D and 2D environments. These tools include an optimized graphical user interface (GUI), asset management, debugging, animation systems, and the multithreaded runtime engine.
Unity's built-in scripting language provides speedier prototyping and makes it simple to design unique behaviors while enabling developers to use Unity's massive variety of features.
Unity is also very popular because of the integration of Visual Studio and the ability to code in multiple programming languages such as C# or Java.
With the ability of this engine to accommodate different platforms and styles of interaction with its robust framework, Unity could be the ultimate choice for game development.
Unreal Game Engine
The Unreal game engine is a powerful tool for developers of all platforms and sizes. It is a real-time 3D engine created by Epic Games, allowing for visually stunning worlds and experiences.
Unreal was first released in 1998 and has been used to make iconic video games like Fortnite and Bioshock. It provides a robust suite of features, including AI control systems, an intuitive level editor, physic-based lighting capabilities, plug-in architecture support, and cloud scalability.
Additionally, unreal supports multiple platforms such as Windows PC, Mac OSX, PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, iOS, and Android.
With its high-performance graphics output and user-friendly programming environment, it is simple to understand why the Unreal Engine has been so popular with game creators over the last two decades.
Check specializations and portfolios
Once you have narrowed down your selection, we suggest browsing and checking their portfolios for game titles the studio has done or worked on already. If you are looking to create an online MMO game, you are more likely to get a better outcome if you go with a studio with a proven track record in developing online MMOs.
Check the company's project management methodologies: Agile, Waterfall, Kanban, or Scrum
Top game development companies that use Scrum usually tend to produce work faster. Those that are looking to improve their production process use Kanban. If your project requires a linear workflow, choose a game development company that uses Waterfall.
Game development companies often use agile because of its simultaneous and incremental workflow where the development company breaks projects into smaller interactive bits – so it is very user-testing-friendly. It is also very adaptable.
Compare prices keeping your budget in mind
Think of your budget. And while it is hard to think of a number with little information and experience in game development. But luckily, you can decide later. Set up a few meetings with your top choices and let them give you a quote.
Once you have all the necessary information, you can decide which leading game development firm to choose.
How much do Game Development companies charge for their services?
Depending on how much time the game will be in development, the number of staff required to complete it, and the company's hourly rate. Also, keep in mind that each company has a minimum project size.
So, a little mobile game may cost you 50,000$, while a big AAA title might cost you upwards of 1,000,000$. These numbers serve only as a representation. You will not be able to see and analyze the actual cost before you have a meeting with a top game development studio in order to discuss the budget and expenses.
Conclusion
If you have no experience in coding, game art, or management but have a fantastic idea that would make an excellent game - consider working with a game development team to make this concept a reality.
If you were thinking of developing a game yourself or with a team, you have to consider not only all the costs but also the cost of opportunity. The cost of opportunity is where you take the projected time of the game's development and calculate all the money you can earn by working your job, for instance. If it will take two years to finish a game, and you are currently making about 7,000$ as a game developer – the game development will cost you at least 168,000$ plus all the expenses for the development of the actual game.
The above is the minimum cost. Now also consider marketing, which can eat a large chunk of your budget. Consider if you are hiring a publisher to do marketing for you or if you are going to do the marketing yourself. If you are doing it yourself – will you be able to do it successfully, and will you be able to manage game development and marketing simultaneously, or will it affect your performance and, in turn, the quality of the finished game?
The final factor to consider is that you are paying more than just someone to develop a game for you. What you are doing is hiring a top game development company that exists to create a game. You have the idea, and they have all the tools, the technique, the organization and logistics, and in some cases, even marketing. They will know precisely how to start and finish the game and how to deal with the problems that will occur.
Because of all these factors, we suggest finding a company that offers game development services that best suits your needs and having a meeting with them regarding your idea. After getting a clearer picture of the game's development process, you can make that decision much more quickly.
All the top game development companies are listed below. Use the filter option to narrow down the choices based on your preferences, and consider contacting them to start an exciting journey that might become your legacy.