How to Run Reference Checks on a Game Studio

To check game development studio references, ask for two or three past clients with projects like yours, call them rather than email, and ask specific questions about deadlines, communication, and what went wrong. Then find one reference the studio did not give you. Thirty minutes per call can save months of trouble.

Why reference calls are worth the time

A studio's portfolio shows what it built. A reference tells you what it was like to build with them. Those are different things, and the second one is what you will live with for months.

Reference calls cost nothing but time, and they often surface issues no proposal or pitch call will reveal. For a first-time founder about to commit a large share of the raise, that is the best value diligence available.

Who to ask for

Studios will give you their happiest clients by default. That is fine, but ask for references that match your situation.

Ask for:

• A client with a similar budget and scope. A studio that is great on large projects may handle small ones differently.
• A client from the last 12 months. Teams change, and older references may describe people who have left.
• A client whose project had a problem. Every project has one. How the studio handled it tells you the most.

If a studio cannot offer any reference with a difficult moment, that is worth noting. It may just mean they are careful with who they share, but ask why.

Call, do not email

Email references tend to produce polite, short answers. People are more open on a call, and you can follow up on hesitations in real time.

Keep it to 20 or 30 minutes. Tell the reference you only have a few questions, and that you are about to commit a real budget. Most founders are happy to help another founder avoid a bad decision.

The questions that get honest answers

General questions get general praise. Specific questions get useful answers.

Finish with one open question: "Would you hire them again for your next game?" Then listen to how long they take to answer.

Reading between the lines

References rarely say anything harsh. The useful signals are in the tone.

Things worth noting:

1. Hesitation before praise. A pause before "yes, they were good" often means "mostly".
2. Praise only for people, not results. "Lovely team" without "shipped on time" is a soft warning.
3. Vague answers to specific questions. If a reference cannot name a single milestone, they may not have been close to the project.
4. Repeated themes across calls. One comment about slow replies is noise. Three is a pattern.

One reference is an opinion. Three references saying the same thing is evidence.

Find one reference they did not give you

The strongest check is a backchannel reference, someone who worked with the studio but was not handed to you by them.

Look at games listed in the studio's portfolio. Check the store listings for the developer and publisher names, then look on LinkedIn for people at those companies. A short, polite message asking for ten minutes often works.

Also confirm the basics yourself. Download a couple of the listed games, check they are live, and see whether reviews mention crashes or abandoned updates. Our guide on technical due diligence for a game build goes further if you want a code-level check.

Where references fit in the selection process

References come after you have a shortlist, not before. Run them on your final two or three studios, once you have compared proposals.

A sensible order:

1. Shortlist studios on portfolio and fit.
2. Compare written proposals side by side. Our post on comparing game development proposals has a scoring method.
3. Run reference calls on the top two or three.
4. Make the decision, then negotiate terms.

What we would do

We would ask every shortlisted studio for three references, including one project that had a problem. We would call each one with the same six questions, so the answers are easy to compare.

Then we would find one backchannel reference per studio. If that conversation matches what the official references said, we would feel confident. If it does not, we would ask the studio about the difference before signing anything.

The short version

• Ask for references with a similar budget, from the last year, and one with a problem.
• Call references instead of emailing them, and keep it to 30 minutes.
• Ask specific questions about slips, replies, quality, team changes, cost, and handover.
• Listen for hesitation and patterns across calls, not just the words.
• Find one backchannel reference the studio did not give you.

A good studio expects these calls and makes them easy to arrange. If you would like to compare notes on a shortlist, talk to us.

Related reading: How to choose a game development studio, Questions to ask a game studio before signing, Red flags in a game development proposal