Ever wonder how your favorite games actually get made? It starts with a great idea, but it takes a well-organized game development team structure to turn that idea into something that’s actually playable.
At Devoted Studios, we support studios through co-development. That means we don’t just create assets and hand them over. We become part of the team. Our tech experts, producers, and artists collaborate with internal teams to create games from the ground up.
One of the ways we support studios is through our Strike Teams. Like a special forces unit, this is expert talent ready to jump in fast and solve complex tasks. These specialized teams integrate into your studio and bring the right skills exactly when you need them.
They’re small, senior-level groups built to plug directly into your production. Fast to onboard, easy to scale, and designed to move with you. No long hiring process. No full outsourcing setup. Just the support you need, right when you need it.
So how do we structure these teams? What roles are involved, and how do they work with your studio day to day?
Let’s walk through the key game development team roles, how they stay connected, and why our setup makes the whole game development process smoother for everyone.
Devoted Studios Core Team: Your Dream Game Makers
Every game project starts with the right people. Here are the key roles you’ll find in a well-rounded game production team and what each of them brings to the table.
The Executive Creative Director makes sure ideas are clear and ready for production
Creative ideas can drift when a project gets busy. Jason Millena makes sure they don’t.
Jason is our Executive Creative Director. He works closely with both studios and internal teams to make sure the vision stays clear from start to finish. He’s great at guiding teams while keeping things flexible and collaborative.
He’s worked on games like Game of Thrones, Runescape, and Jurassic World: Primal Ops, so he knows how to manage creative direction even on big, complex projects.
Having Jason in the role means there’s always someone making sure the creative vision stays clear, focused, and fully realized.
The creative lead behind the visuals is our Visual Art Director
This is the person who makes sure your game doesn’t end up looking like a mix of five different art styles.
The Visual Art Director guides the overall look and feel of the game. From characters and environments to textures and props, they make sure everything fits together visually and supports the story and setting.
One of our Visual Art Directors worked on titles like Guild Wars 2, Avowed, and Nike’s Airphoria in Fortnite, helping keep the art direction focused and cohesive throughout production.
Want a closer look at how we handle worldbuilding? Read our article on Nike’s Airphoria in Fortnite. Read it here.
Blending design and function is what our Tech Art Director does best
If something looks amazing in concept but breaks when you hit play, this is the person who steps in.
The Tech Art Director connects creative and technical teams, making sure assets work just as well in the engine as they do on paper. They’re the ones solving issues with shaders, rigging, and performance without slowing down production.
We also shared some practical tips on updating from Unreal Engine 3 to Unreal Engine 5 in this article. If you’re dealing with a similar transition, it’s a simple breakdown of what to expect.
Our 3D Tech Art Director keeps complex assets running smoothly
This is the person who steps in when the 3D scene looks great but acts like it’s haunted.
Our 3D Tech Art Directors specialize in solving tricky technical issues that come up during production. From asset integration to performance fixes, they make sure everything runs the way it should.
With personal experience on titles like Guild Wars 2, Predecessor, and Nike’s Airphoria in Fortnite, our 3D Tech Art Director brings the kind of deep technical know-how that helps complex assets run smoothly and fit right into any pipeline.
Movement, timing, and expression come to life with our Animation Director
You can model the coolest dragon ever, but if it walks like a penguin, something’s wrong.
Harvey Newman is our Animation Director. He’s worked on Warships: Jolly Roger, Dune: Awakening, and more, making sure characters move in a way that feels believable and fun to watch.
He leads the team responsible for how characters move, fight, and interact with the world. That includes close collaboration with both the client’s animation leads and our in-house rigging and tech art teams to keep everything aligned and consistent.
Want to get to know Harvey better? We wrote a whole article about him! Check it out to hear his story, career tips, and thoughts on game animation.
Behind every smooth pipeline is a smart Chief Technology Officer
Every solid video game studio workflow needs someone thinking three steps ahead.
That’s Flavius Alecu, our Chief Technology Officer. He’s worked on iconic games like Resident Evil, The Last of Us Part II, and Grand Theft Auto, and he leads the tech strategy that keeps our teams moving.
Flavius helps shape how we operate across projects and teams, so our game production workflow stays reliable and ready to scale.
The VP of Production is the one keeping everything on track
You can have the most talented artists and developers on a project, but without strong production, things can quickly go off course.
Ira Vishnetskaia runs the show behind the scenes. She has led production for major titles including League of Legends, FNAF: Security Breach, and Guild Wars 2.
As our VP of Production, Ira is the steady hand behind the scenes. She keeps timelines in check, teams aligned, and conversations flowing. She’s also the one making sure deadlines are met, expectations are clear, and no detail falls through the cracks.
Want to see how our production team pulls it off? We broke it down here. and see how they keep things moving and projects on track.
How We Communicate with Studios
Clear communication is everything. Our game studio team roles aren’t isolated, we’re constantly working side-by-side with studios through shared tools like Slack, Jira, and weekly check-ins.
We assign dedicated producers to each project, ensuring all updates, questions, and feedback go through a single, clear point of contact. Meanwhile, our directors stay closely in sync with the game studios’ leads so nothing gets lost in translation.
It’s a system that works. Some teams bring us in as their full external game art team, handling everything from concept to final assets. Others tap us for support on specific characters, props, or environments.
So… How Do You Actually Build a Game Dev Team?
A strong game development team structure is key to delivering great results. At Devoted Studios, we help studios quickly scale their teams by plugging in the right game development team roles at the right time. Our flexible model works for everything from full co-dev partnerships to targeted support.
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We start with the scope. What does the studio need? Full co-development or targeted art support? -
We build the team. Using our roster of 3000+ vetted artists, producers, and tech specialists, we assemble a team with the right experience.
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We help game studios stay flexible. Our game co-development model allows game studios to scale up or down depending on the project’s phase.
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We keep it human. No silos. No miscommunication. Just real people collaborating across time zones, tools, and disciplines.
Why Our Structure Works
Our success comes from structure. We’ve built a game development process that balances speed with quality. When game studios work with us, they work with real people who care about the outcome and know how to deliver.
Our game production team is agile, responsive, and experienced. We know how game studios work from the inside, and we build teams that reflect that.
A great example of this is our ongoing work with Obsidian Entertainment on Avowed. Over four years, we partnered with multiple teams on 2D concept art, 3D characters, large-scale environments, and hero props. We became their go-to team not just for delivery, but for reliability, style alignment, and cross-team collaboration.
— Chris Naves, Lead Art Outsourcing Manager at Obsidian
We’re proud to be an outsourced game development team that doesn’t feel outsourced. You get the flexibility of a service with the consistency of a long-term partner. We call it external game development with a feeling of belonging.
At the End of the Day, It’s All About People
Building games is a people business. The tools evolve, the pipelines improve, but it’s the team that brings everything together.
From producers to artists to tech leads, strong collaboration is what makes it all work. At Devoted, we build teams that understand the craft, the challenges, and each other.
