The Knights of Unity

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the creative director at a game development company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with The Knights of Unity?

We needed Unity development services.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They developed a large majority of our game including new features and gameplay mechanics. They were also responsible for building servers.

What is the team composition?

We worked with three developers.

How did you come to work with The Knights of Unity?

I did an online search and read recommendations from good companies. The scalability of their development team was attractive.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $25,000–$50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from October until December 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

They sped up production of our game significantly, delivering good results in a short time. Because they delivered the core of the game, we have a foundation that’s easy to build on.

How did The Knights of Unity perform from a project management standpoint?

They communicated once a week on Skype. Even though I was expecting more frequent interactions, everything was documented properly, and they delivered on time.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The size of their team means they can handle any Unity requirement you have. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

You have to understand how they work: fast. I prefer to work slower with more communication, but they built a good core for us regardless.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

You can trust them to deliver quality work.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a senior developer at the second largest robotics company in Austria. We’re in the top 10 in our industry worldwide.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with The Knights of Unity?

Our project scope and timeline were very tight. We needed to hire a fast-paced outsourced team to support our work. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The Knights of Unity helped us create emulation and simulation to show our customers how a real system works before they buy it. In addition, they developed our licensing solution along with several systems for our internal application.  

The team used Unity as a development tool. The entire scope of the project took them about three months to complete.

What is the team composition? 

We usually work with 2–3 people from The Knights of Unity.

How did you come to work with The Knights of Unity?

I searched online for development companies in Poland. The market average there is more affordable than it is in Germany. Very few developers had the proper experience. The Knights of Unity was the best choice.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from October 2018–February 2019.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

The Knights of Unity is very professional.  They delivered a clean, well-documented codebase. The deliverable is high-quality and fully optimized. The team provided all the information necessary to modify their development. 

Minimizing the turnaround time was crucial for us, and they produced the complete code solution faster than we expected.  We were pleasantly surprised by the speed and quality of their work and are happy with the results. 

Dependent on the project demands, they allocated the most skilled developer in the field to fulfill our needs.  The Knights of Unity has 40–50 Unity developers on staff, each one with an area of specialization. For example, certain teammates work exclusively on VR. The range of experts they employ offers us a valuable benefit. 

Partnering with The Knights of Unity enables us to flexibly rent from their knowledge base. We’d have to hire 5–8 new internal resources to have the same abilities.  They’re an impactful and cost-effective team that can secure professional results. We plan to assign them additional confidential projects in the future.

How did The Knights of Unity perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management has worked well. They sent us reports and estimations every two weeks. We were fully satisfied. They worked just as fast as our internal team. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

The Knights of Unity always assigns the proper people to our projects. They have a wide range of employees who specialize in different areas.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Our only challenge happened at the beginning. They’re a rather small company, while we’re a multinational business. Since we use different types of contracts, it was hard to get on the same page. They’ve had to learn how to work with larger companies.

I think they should become more knowledgeable about the billing methodology international companies use. Since we’ve been working together, they’ve already improved and have learned to work with us effectively. Their primary strength is in the gaming industry, but they have more to learn in our sector. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re the co-founders of OpenPixel Studios, an animation studio for businesses, agencies, and nonprofits. We provide visual storytelling for organizations looking to promote their product or service.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with The Knights of Unity?

We were approached by a nonprofit organization called the American Canoe Association to create a mobile game that taught children how to paddle safely. We don't have any developers in-house so we needed a partner to be able to serve the client.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The Knights of Unity developed the 2D flat-style game for both iOS and Android using their own platform. We provided them with assets, artwork, and a plan for what the game should look like and do. They translated that creative direction into development requirements and we made tweaks and changes as they built.

What is the team composition?

We worked with a project manager and one developer on a regular basis. There was a second developer on our project as well. They adapted the team as needed when we required more or fewer developers.

How did you come to work with The Knights of Unity?

We found out through DDM, which is an agency for game studios that we had a connection with. We reached out to DDM and they put us in contact.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in December 2017 or January 2018. The product went live towards the end of July or beginning of August 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

This was the first mobile game that we've worked on so it was great to have a development team that walked us through the process and helped us to understand everything.

How did The Knights of Unity perform from a project management standpoint?

We met once a week to talk about the project and they sent regular updates. They provided a lot of feedback. We weren't afraid to ask questions because they were happy to answer. Communication was very open which helped make the process seamless.

They were flexible in terms of being able to use the assets that we provided. Their time estimates were also accurate. They were very good at understanding how long something would going take and letting us know in case anything required more time than we had initially anticipated.

What did you find most impressive about them?

For us, one of the highlights was that they were able to show us so many demos of the working product. We were able to show our client the process. It got us – and our client – really excited.

Are there any areas they could improve?

The time-zone difference sometimes got in the way, which is normal. It was a slight issue but we got used to it.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm a project manager at primalstudioz.com. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with The Knights of Unity?

We started a project for a game called Jelly Jellies about three years ago and began our collaboration with The Knights of Unity last year. The first company we engaged didn't work out, so we brought them on board as a replacement. We hired them for all the programming, mainly frontend and backend development. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our game is a single player match-three puzzle game set in an intricate, semi-3D environment that users can decorate. It's similar to a small Tamagotchi style role-playing game. Users can raise and care for a pet as it evolves. The Knights of Unity coded the complete frontend and backend. We had all the art assets, animations, and sounds ready to provide. They walked through the game design document we'd compiled internally and did an excellent job rendering our concepts.  

They tackled a challenging cross-platform third-party hosting software integration. Our game is equipped with a multiplayer functionality that goes between an iOS device to a PC, or even from a PC to an Android or Android to iOS. As a fairly cutting-edge feature, I appreciated how much effort this required. 

We created the game with Unity. This software is reliably stable and comes with the most features and tools. Based on my assessments of other mobile games, it was the proper engine to use. After the release, we listened to our user feedback. We're still in the process of updating and polishing the app to make it even better.

What is the team composition?

We worked with a project manager and a team of three developers. One programmer focused on the Facebook API and the GameSparks API. Another was in charge of the mechanics for single player and gameplay aspects. The senior developer did most of the work for the 3D environment and setup of the scenes in general. 
 
How did you come to work with The Knights of Unity?

We actually used Clutch.co to scout out potential third-party developers, which led us to The Knights of Unity. Their communication style and approach set them apart from other teams. They were the most transparent company out of the list of six options I'd compiled, verified, and contacted. We spoke on the phone several times, and I even visited their office overseas to confirm their legitimacy. The reviews I read from their past clients were helpful and honest. 

With Unity software as their area of expertise, they seemed like the right fit. Their ability to provide cross-platform, third-party hosting software was another major plus. They fit within the budget I had available, which was critical for us to complete the project. After a year of collaboration, our first partner charged us double the original estimate. The Knights of Unity have a similar hourly rate, but they actually stuck to the timeline. 

How much have you invested with them?

The Knights of Unity worked about 3,400 hours which cost roughly $155,000–$160,000. Initially, they gave a maximum and minimum estimate for how long it would take to complete. They stayed with their first quote for the timeline and budget.

What is the status of this engagement?

After finding The Knights of Unity in August 2017, we started working together in October 2017. Our development project lasted six months, but we’re still actively continuing our collaboration to continually update our mobile app. They already have access to our Jira file and understand our goals. It made more sense to keep working together than to seek another vendor.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

The overall results have been decidedly positive. The Knights of Unity is a very honest company that strives to be as transparent as possible. They took the time to explain their rationale for working in Agile, which especially for bug fixes can take longer than other methods.

I'm vouching for The Knights of Unity as one of the top third-party development agencies on Clutch.co. Whenever we faced tough challenges, they always provided robust solutions. For example, we had a difficult experience synching data with the GameSparks servers. They kept on working at no extra charge until they succeeded.

How did The Knights of Unity perform from a project management standpoint?

I had a very smooth collaboration with The Knights of Unity. As a highly organized entity, they conduct accurate supervision. I never have to focus on management because it’s gone so seamlessly. They handled their internal affairs adeptly to avoid negatively impacting us. When I check hours on Jira, they’ve always properly recorded and described tasks with the correct corresponding durations. We can contact them whenever we have updates.

At one point, our original project manager left the company without notice. The Knights of Unity provided a replacement almost instantaneously, within two days. The switch was hardly noticeable. Daniel (Project Manager, The Knights of Unity) is fantastic. He’s always available. In fact, he did an even better job than his predecessor. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

I had a great experience working with The Knights of Unity and want to continue working with them. I hope that we can grow together in the future as we become even larger companies. That's the most positive feedback I could give. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

Everybody makes mistakes once in a while, but The Knights of Unity are doing an excellent job. They always do their very best to resolve any challenge. When we ran out of hours, some features were slightly broken. It was ultimately up to me as the product owner to decide how to react. 

I reached out to the budget manager and CEO to discuss the QA aspect of their terms of service. They took it upon themselves to push through and fix them at no further cost. That's how a company should work. It’s impossible to get everything right the first time, but they took responsibility to finish it accordingly. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If you're honest with The Knights of Unity and follow their instructions, they'll do the same for you and provide a good quality service. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

It doesn't really have a company relation. It's just me.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with The Knights of Unity?

I originally contacted The Knights of Unity to complete a job for a Unity 3-D extension that was going to be placed on the unity access store. It's called Quick Poly. The goal of it is you quickly create dynamic 2-D primitives. If you know anything about unity, it's very difficult to have to access different mesh classes. It is more of a specialized type of tool just the way it's functioning. They completed it in a very professional manner. I had a few questions afterward even when we were done completing the tasks that I had for them and what we had agreed upon, and they even helped me past that without charge. I was very impressed with that.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

I started working on the plug-in myself but I got stuck in working the mesh properly. I was looking online, and I found The Knights of Unity. I contacted them, and they got working right away. They originally laid out the scope and how long they were going to estimate things would cost. They broke it down into segments. I would pay for a certain segment upon completion. I thought that was effective. I felt it was great that they broke it down for me, which is better because I can actually see I'm getting something. It's a lot to look after, especially with code. You need to make sure it's all working correctly. If they implemented a feature that wasn't exactly what I was thinking, they would go back and switch it. They were very good that way.

How did you come to work with The Knights of Unity?

I basically found them on a Unity forum, where you can go through and people can post their work, and they can ask for potential hires and some of their other clients' work. I was going through that. They were offering a 50 percent rate for any first time customers, which was very nice because I was a little cash strapped at the time. That was definitely one of the main motivators and seeing how many clients they had dealt with before and their reviews. They had very high reviews. I can see why.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

It was $5,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

This project will be ongoing. It's on hold but, in the future, I definitely will have them keep adding certain features. It'll be on a couple of months, and then it'll be off a couple of months.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

All our reviews on the store have is five stars. I don't think it can get any better than that. I have gotten quite a few emails and people are very impressed with the tool itself. If they have a question, I'll be more than happy to answer. Even if they have a question, and I can forward it to The Knights of Unity, they can help me out if there was a problem.

How did The Knights of Unity perform from a project management standpoint?

They're excellent.

What distinguishes The Knights of Unity from other providers?

As I mentioned before, they did so just by going above and beyond.

Is there anything The Knights of Unity could have improved or done differently?

I don't think I have anything negative to say about them. No, I would say everything went well. We didn't have any speed bumps. It was smooth sailing.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

My company is developing a gaming platform. It was started 3 years ago, based on a few patents that I'd written. I wasn't able to obtain funding for it in Japan because people here don't like taking risks. I ended up doing a lot of the development myself.

I am the CEO [Chief Executive Officer] of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with The Knights of Unity?

I needed development resources in order to create an initial game for my platform.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The Knights of Unity are developing my software using the Unity platform. I purchased many plug-ins and gave The Knights of Unity access to them. They are able to create custom programming, so many of those tools have been bypassed. The Knights of Unity developed a lot of custom coding in order to make the system more manageable.

I am using a different team for artwork. I haven't gotten into music and sound effects, but The Knights of Unity told me that they could help in this area. They'd worked on projects in the past which involved music, sound effects, and so on.

We're building a prototype, so The Knights of Unity has only assigned me 2 people for the work. If the market reaction to my game is good, we will develop further updates using a larger team. I work directly with the developers. I've been involved in software projects in the past, so I can talk a bit of geek. My original meeting with The Knights of Unity did involve a project manager, but working directly with developers is usually faster.

How did you come to work with The Knights of Unity?

I found The Knights of Unity by accident. I had a few issues with one of the Unity plug-ins that I was using, so I contacted the author, who had a banner for The Knights of Unity on his blog. He told me that they could help with outsourcing projects, which was perfect for me, given that I'd mostly done design work up to that point. I got in touch with The Knights of Unity's CEO and had a look at some of their projects and sample code. It all looked very sound, and the quotation that The Knights of Unity gave me was reasonable as well.

I've inquired with a few other companies, but our talks didn't get much further. I base my decisions on first contacts. If I get the feeling that the person I'm talking to isn't committed, then I'll usually stop the communication.

How much have you invested with The Knights of Unity?

The initial cost of The Knights of Unity's development was $25,000. I expect the total cost to reach between $30,000 and $35,000. I am constantly changing scopes in order to keep my game up-to-date with the other thousands of releases being made every day.

What is the status of this engagement?

I started working with The Knights of Unity in February 2016. They are still working on my prototype.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

It is extremely early to give any feedback for their work. Any bugs will only reveal themselves in the quality assurance stage, which is scheduled for later in 2016. The demos and code snippets that The Knights of Unity provided haven't had any issues.

How did The Knights of Unity perform from a project management standpoint?

The Knights of Unity works a lot faster than me. When I initially gave them the game outlines, The Knights of Unity worked at such speed that they had to wait for me to finish my part. I was very impressed with this. The Knights of Unity accomplished in a few weeks what would have taken me a couple of months.

I started using Jira, which is the platform that The Knights of Unity uses internally. They setup a Jira project for me, and I've also created one for my work with the design artist.

What did you find most impressive about The Knights of Unity?

I appreciated the friendly and casual approach that The Knights of Unity offered. There is a professional level present with them, but game companies tend to be more relaxed and casual in general. They will strive to enjoy doing what they're doing, rather than making money. I felt comfortable right from the get-go. The Knights of Unity answered all my questions and were helpful in general.

Are there any areas The Knights of Unity could improve?

The only difficulty I've come across so far is with the accent of one of the developers. I sometimes have to ask him to repeat what he's saying, but I do understand him in the end. This has been as difficult as it gets, and everyone else's English is fine.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We provide an engagement platform which helps mobile game developers monetize and reward their players through a points-based mechanic.

I am the founder of the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with The Knights of Unity?

I needed development resources for building the first version of my software. Once it’s ready for beta testing, I plan on reaching out to my network, get them signed on, and continue to make improvements.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The Knights of Unity is developing a minimum viable product for Android and iOS. We chose the Unity engine because it's free and there are many developers for it. I don't have to worry about someone becoming sick or unavailable in the middle of a project as I would if I was using a freelancer, since the Knights of Unity are a team they will always have someone available. 

The Knights of Unity is working on the backend and server side of my platform, also adding social media login functionalities. We haven't reached the client side of the work.

How did you come to work with The Knights of Unity?

I first heard of The Knights of Unity on Twitter. Their principal reached out to me and we had a good conversation. I'd received solicitations from other outsourcing firms in the past, but they never convinced me. The Knights of Unity seemed to understand what I was trying to build and they had a legitimate interest in it, from a development standpoint.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

The total cost of The Knights of Unity's development has been between $10,000 and $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The Knights of Unity is still working on my project.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

We haven't reached the testing phase yet, but that is included in The Knights of Unity's package.

How did The Knights of Unity perform from a project management standpoint?

The Knights of Unity always met deadlines. I communicate well with the team. I was able to send my requirements documentation to The Knights of Unity, have a few Skype calls around it, answer questions, and have them simply understand my needs. The Knights of Unity has an intuitive grasp of what I need to accomplish. The best example is that, unlike the Android app, we will have to consider how the login system will work on iOS. I had to do some research on this topic myself, but The Knights of Unity already knew about the limitations, which I appreciated.

I receive progress reports from The Knights of Unity on Bitbucket, and we also use Jira for ticket tracking.

What did you find most impressive about The Knights of Unity?

The Unity game engine is The Knights of Unity's specialty, and they are also proficient in backend server programming.

Are there any areas The Knights of Unity could improve?

The only drawback has been the time zone difference. The Knights of Unity is based in Poland, and I'm in Texas. There isn't much to be done about that, but I can usually talk to their principal during my working time.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a three person independent games developer based in Melbourne, Australia. I am one of the three creators of the company, and the programmer.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with The Knights of Unity?

We required online multiplayer and the use of an external content sharing API to be implemented into our game.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The game had been developed for single player, and as such required the addition of multiplayer to the core framework. Additionally, our game enables the use of user created content. The Knights of Unity were also tasked with adding integration with the Steam platform’s ‘Workshop’ feature. Which allows users to upload their content and have it automatically downloaded in games.

How did you come to work with The Knights of Unity?

We looked through the Unity jobs forums to find eligible parties. Once we found a number of possible people, we also investigated their websites, previous projects, and contacted each for an example of work, a rough outline of cost, and whether their skills suited our requirements.

How much have you invested with The Knights of Unity?

The project came in around the $8,000 - $10,000 mark. We are currently undergoing a second project with them that is worth about $7,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The first project went from the 1st of February to the 31st of May [2016]. The current project began on the 4th of July and is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

Multiplayer and Steam Workshop support were successfully integrated. Any minor bugs that arose during tested were promptly solved by the Knights. The only metrics we can share are that the game is currently owned by approximately 1,200 people, and since completing the project, we have not received any bug reports for multiplayer integration or for Steam Workshop integration.

What did you find most impressive about The Knights of Unity?

Contact was particularly good with the Knights. It was extremely easy to get in touch with them, to raise a bug, or to workshop issues together via Skype calls. Having such easy communication, particularly with such different time zones, made the project much easier to coordinate and work through.

Are there any areas The Knights of Unity could improve?

It is perhaps cliché, but I have absolutely no issues to report having worked with the Knights. Knights was friendly, easy to communicate with, and did a superb job. They were also extremely dynamic in their development. When unexpected issues arose from a game design perspective, they were quick to report them, and then offer suggestions and eventual implementations for solutions.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the CMO of the mobile gaming company Sviper which is based in Hamburg, Germany. We develop multiplayer games for mobile iOS and Android mobile devices. I am responsible for all marketing and business development activities for our games.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire The Knights of Unity?

Development of a Google Play Instant Game for our latest mobile game Super Spell Heroes.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to have an instant game that runs on as many Android devices as possible and has the same graphical quality level than the original mobile game.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Price, availability, production planning and sympathy.

Describe the project in detail.

We discussed the overall objectives in two kick off calls and after around two weeks we received the first prototype. Every two weeks we discussed the progress via phone and on a daily basis via Slack.

What was the team composition?

1x Project Management 2x Developers

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

The team and our partner like the quality of the instant game.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Overall the communication was great, we only had smaller communication issues at the beginning of the project but this got sorted out pretty quickly.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The flexibility and attention to quality.

Are there any areas for improvement?

We had some smaller delays during the projects but that was not an issue.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the founder of City Quests Media and am involved in curating talent, writing, and producing content.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire The Knights of Unity?

We hired them to fix and take our game from an app to a desktop updating software while adding gameplay, characters, and color.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted a beautiful, working game built in the latest Unity software to offer to gamers on Steam.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

They came recommended by a game developer in Canada but also had good reviews online. I skyped with Sir Peter [CEO, The Knights of Unity] and engaged them immediately.

What was the team composition?

There was a team leader, two programmers, and a wonderful supervisor.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What outcomes or results can you share that demonstrate progress and/or success?

We're launching the game this week, so I can't answer this yet but I have no hesitation in recommending this company. I'll hire The Knights of Unity next time for sure. If there is a fault with the game, I believe they will want to fix it.

How effective was the project management?

Project management was excellent. They respond quickly and you always know where you stand and when you'll get answers to queries if they can’t immediately respond.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

The team was thoughtful, innovative, considerate, and honest. Whenever they weren’t sure of solutions, they would find them. It’s real teamwork and they’re charming to work with.

What tips or recommendations do you have?

I’d recommend to give them your best projects.