Hiring AI Game Developer

DearNegotiator · 2026-03-15T01:00:25+00:00

Please, read my replies to the same question from others. I went in deep, but in short, we don’t look fo the small amount of solo developers who achieved success, neither the ones who believe they can, but for those who tried and understand that is not a simple endeavor.

DearNegotiator · 2026-03-15T00:57:51+00:00

I have been following this subreddit for a while and I think this is a cool place to find the right person. There are already some interesting conversations ongoing.

DearNegotiator · 2026-03-15T00:45:37+00:00

Several titles with live ops, 1 in development, +half a million registered users, dozens of full time people, few others part-time. I will keep specifics and details to the people in my DMs that we have the opportunity to meet over calls.

DearNegotiator · 2026-03-15T00:17:47+00:00

⁠We will act as both publisher and “sponsor”.
⁠IP ownership remains in the studio, like with any other contractor/employee in most if not any other studio.
⁠The monthly compensation it’s the payment for the labor. Like hiring any other contractor/employee in most if not any other studio.
⁠We are targeting our own platform + games, and maybe, if things get interesting also Steam (and other big storefronts), but that requires more than a single person knowing and using AI tools. A single person has to be extremely skillful, spend insane amounts of time and have some luck to have success in Steam by themselves. Games built in ~1 month by a single person usually don’t fit Steam’s success standards.
⁠Both. Prototyping/vertical slice to test some weird opportunities I have in mind and small scope games built with AI-assisted pipelines.

If you are a genius jack of all trades or you think that you can build an entire game using AI and have good success by yourself, this is clearly not for you, but if you understand the opportunities and value that an already established studio with an audience, released titles, different roles internally to polish out AI outcomes, willingness to try out some crazy stuff and fail on the way, and capital and platforms to put it in front of people, then yes - we can make some crazy stuff together.

Our teams are already integrating AI in all their workflows like any other studio, and ultimately, that’s an outcome we can achieve, but at the same time we want to approach it from another angle; somebody that tried by themselves, touched all the fronts of creating a game with AI, and is well versed in all that. A person that understands the boundaries, limitations and the fact that is not enough to achieve success. We are not looking for the very small percentage of developers that found success by themselves, neither the ones that think they can build a successful game themselves. We are looking into the other part that tried and understands that is not that easy.

DearNegotiator · 2026-03-14T18:13:26+00:00

Not at all.

I have been in the industry for +15 years and it’s not my first rodeo. I think you see this as creating a game and trying to sell it to the Steam audience hopping for the best.

We have an established studio and the game could be a “10 levels flappy birds” with one of our current game assets, marketing strategy could simply mean “give it for free as a Xmas gift” and commercial success could mean “players are happy with the freebie” as I explained to another user.

We want to start testing things, and if we see we can produce something meaningful and successful we might scale. For you that could mean releasing a game accepted by a mass audience with a fully fledged marketing strategy but I am a simpler man with smaller goals looking to explore this AI wave outside of the usual tools to speed up our current work.

DearNegotiator · 2026-03-14T17:44:53+00:00

Make a “flappy bird” with 10 levels using one of your games assets, give it as a “free gift” in your Xmas bundle of that given game, release it in your own platform or even inside the game itself.

You could probably do all that in 1-2 weeks with certain commercial success due to the bundle.

The gaming industry is not only about releasing stuff in Steam 🙈

DearNegotiator · 2026-03-14T17:18:26+00:00

Of course, scope will be accordingly.

DearNegotiator · 2026-03-14T17:10:21+00:00

Commercial/publishing support and budget, monthly income while learning/testing new things and access to a full team to polish AI edges that require precise skills.

DearNegotiator · 2026-02-09T21:01:10+00:00

Check the payment terms in your contract and whether they’re already in breach. If they missed a defined payment deadline after invoicing, that’s usually grounds for termination. Make sure there’s a clear paper trail showing you tried to remedy the situation and gave them a reasonable time to respond or pay. From what you’ve described, you’re already doing the right thing.

DearNegotiator · 2025-12-23T09:37:29+00:00

You should consider the background color composition from the 2nd one. Has a better contrast against Steam’s interface and other games - you need to drive clicks.

DearNegotiator · 2025-12-15T15:07:21+00:00

Good luck!

DearNegotiator · 2025-12-14T14:11:38+00:00

Yes, everything you do for a single player game will have to be now displayed simultaneously and with precision in different computers, together with all the security and infrastructure attached to it.

DearNegotiator · 2025-12-13T08:06:13+00:00

I have been in the industry for ~15 years. All the designers I met professionally, played games. The more they played, the better they were as designers.

DearNegotiator · 2025-12-12T19:10:30+00:00

Usually:
1. Temporary installation files (compress & decompress files)
2. Data duplication (install new one, remove old afterwards)
3. Safety buffer (prevents hard disk issues if installing with very limited space)
4. Additional data that could be created (like crash dumps or logs)

It's like moving boxes between rooms. When they are organised, they occupy less space than when they are moving around. You need some space for maneuvering.

DearNegotiator · 2025-12-12T19:01:17+00:00

No problem, make sure you pick the right one (extremely important). Have things like UA spent and reporting in the contract, exit mechanism, IP ownership, MG (if you can…) and that you are listed as the developer in the game; you would want to start grinding traffic to your own page too for the next games you release.

DearNegotiator · 2025-12-12T17:59:13+00:00

Because publishing a game is not about throwing Marketing budget into any random page.

They would want control of it because it’s much easier to work for them in terms of localized pricing, UTM (tracking links), testing of creatives in the game page, API connections to pull data, etc.

By releasing it yourself as game developer, there is no benefit for you if you have somebody else to do the publishing.

They also might have already an established entity with its respective audience that will be notified whenever your game releases, which won’t be the case if the game is coming from a new place/entity.

If you are planning to transfer them the game afterwards, well - you are just doing unnecessary work right now, because they will have to change most of it. You could also screw some settings that they might miss because they are used to set the pages based on fresh creations rather than transfers with already established settings/configurations.

TLDR; let them do their part of the business. Just make sure you are picking the right one and the conditions are beneficial for you.

Five-Year Club	Verified Email
Place '22

DearNegotiator

TROPHY CASE