GameDev Outsourcing Guidance API

openapi: 3.2.0
info:
  title: Game Dev Outsourcing Directory Guidance API
  version: 1.0.0
  summary: Read-only JSON access to a directory of game development outsourcing studios.
  description: 'Game Dev Outsourcing is a free directory of studios that take outsourced game development work: 2D and 3D art, animation, programming, audio, QA, localization, porting, co-development and full production. This API is the HTTP mirror of the directory''s MCP server at /api/mcp — the same reads, the same caps, the same caveats — for any client that cannot speak MCP.


    What the data is. These are hand-compiled listings, not vetted or certified suppliers. Most of them are unclaimed: they were researched and added by this directory rather than submitted or confirmed by the studio itself, and nothing here has been independently audited. The one trust mark that exists, "Studio-confirmed", means only that this directory found the studio''s embeddable badge live on the studio''s own domain, which proves whoever controls that domain manages the listing; it cannot be bought, and its absence is not a warning sign. Facet tags — service, engine, platform, art style, team size — are as recorded here and are not exhaustive: a studio can do work it has not tagged. Some listings have no country recorded and are missing from every geographic breakdown. Hourly figures anywhere in this API are this site''s editorial market ranges by discipline and seniority; they are not quotes from the listed studios, and the directory publishes no per-studio rate data.


    How lists are ordered. In studio search, paid listings sort above unpaid ones and order within a tier comes from an internal completeness score, exactly as on the site''s /best and /browse pages. Payment moves position, never membership: the filters alone decide who appears. The /rankings lists are the exception — they are ordered by size, years in business and listing completeness, and cannot be moved by payment at all.


    What this API deliberately does not do. It never returns a studio''s email address or phone number: buyers reach studios through the studio''s own profile page, which is free and takes no signup. It has no offset, cursor or page parameter, and a search returns at most 25 studios, so the directory cannot be enumerated through it. Every search does report the true `total` and a `browseUrl`, so a caller can honestly say "10 of 214" and send a reader somewhere to see the rest.


    Citing this. Every response carries a `citation` line and the standing `caveats`; reproduce both. Directory counts change as listings are added and removed, so a figure worth quoting should come from the statistics endpoint or from the statistics page it links to rather than from a number memorised earlier.'
  termsOfService: https://www.gamedevoutsourcing.com/terms
  contact:
    name: Game Dev Outsourcing
    url: https://www.gamedevoutsourcing.com/help
  license:
    name: CC BY 4.0 — the aggregate directory data may be reused, including commercially, provided the reuse credits "Game Dev Outsourcing" and links to https://www.gamedevoutsourcing.com
    identifier: CC-BY-4.0
  x-privacy: https://www.gamedevoutsourcing.com/privacy
  x-mcp-endpoint: https://www.gamedevoutsourcing.com/api/mcp
servers:
- url: https://www.gamedevoutsourcing.com
  description: Production
tags:
- name: Guidance
  description: Editorial answers and the cost model.
paths:
  /api/public/v1/answers:
    get:
      operationId: listAnswers
      tags:
      - Guidance
      summary: List the answer clusters
      description: The directory's editorial answers on buying outsourced game development — choosing a partner, co-development, porting, QA, audio and localization, mobile, full-cycle production and costs.
      responses:
        '200':
          description: The clusters.
          content:
            application/json:
              schema:
                $ref: '#/components/schemas/AnswerIndex'
        '405':
          $ref: '#/components/responses/MethodNotAllowed'
        '429':
          $ref: '#/components/responses/RateLimited'
        '503':
          $ref: '#/components/responses/DirectoryUnavailable'
  /api/public/v1/answers/{slug}:
    get:
      operationId: getAnswer
      tags:
      - Guidance
      summary: Get one answer cluster
      description: One cluster as question and answer pairs, each written to stand on its own so a single pair can be quoted without the rest. Sentences that would have carried a live directory count are omitted here rather than frozen at a stale number — use the statistics endpoint for any figure.
      parameters:
      - $ref: '#/components/parameters/AnswerSlugPath'
      responses:
        '200':
          description: The cluster.
          content:
            application/json:
              schema:
                $ref: '#/components/schemas/Answer'
        '404':
          $ref: '#/components/responses/NotFound'
        '405':
          $ref: '#/components/responses/MethodNotAllowed'
        '429':
          $ref: '#/components/responses/RateLimited'
        '503':
          $ref: '#/components/responses/DirectoryUnavailable'
  /api/public/v1/cost-estimate:
    get:
      operationId: estimateCost
      tags:
      - Guidance
      summary: Estimate what a team would cost
      description: 'Turns a described team into an hourly, monthly and optionally total budget range, from the same rate model as the calculator at /tools/cost-calculator — a buyer who runs both gets the same number.


        Each role is written as `discipline:seniority[:count]`, and the parameter repeats: `?role=art_3d:senior:2&role=programming:mid`. A comma-separated single parameter works too. Head count defaults to 1.


        These are the site''s published editorial market ranges, not quotes from any studio in this directory, and the directory publishes no per-studio rate data. Real prices move with scope, art style and revision rounds.'
      parameters:
      - name: role
        in: query
        required: true
        description: One role per entry, as `discipline:seniority[:count]`. Repeat the parameter for each role.
        schema:
          type: array
          minItems: 1
          items:
            type: string
            pattern: ^[a-z_0-9]+:[a-z]+(:[0-9]+)?$
        style: form
        explode: true
        example:
        - art_3d:senior:2
        - programming:mid
        x-role-object:
          $ref: '#/components/schemas/CostRole'
      - $ref: '#/components/parameters/CostRegionParam'
      - name: hoursPerWeek
        in: query
        required: false
        description: Hours per person per week. Defaults to 40.
        schema:
          type: number
          minimum: 1
          maximum: 168
          default: 40
        example: 40
      - name: weeks
        in: query
        required: false
        description: How many weeks the work runs. Omit it and only hourly and monthly figures come back, with `totalRange` null.
        schema:
          type: number
          minimum: 1
          maximum: 520
        example: 12
      responses:
        '200':
          description: The range, its per-role breakdown, and the assumptions behind it.
          content:
            application/json:
              schema:
                $ref: '#/components/schemas/CostEstimate'
        '400':
          $ref: '#/components/responses/BadRequest'
        '405':
          $ref: '#/components/responses/MethodNotAllowed'
        '429':
          $ref: '#/components/responses/RateLimited'
        '503':
          $ref: '#/components/responses/DirectoryUnavailable'
components:
  responses:
    DirectoryUnavailable:
      description: The directory database could not be reached. Nothing about the directory's contents can be concluded from this response; in particular it does not mean there are no matching studios.
      content:
        application/json:
          schema:
            $ref: '#/components/schemas/Error'
    NotFound:
      description: No such slug in this directory. This is a real absence, not a failed lookup — a lookup that could not be performed answers 503 instead.
      content:
        application/json:
          schema:
            $ref: '#/components/schemas/Error'
    MethodNotAllowed:
      description: This API is read-only. The Allow header lists what is on offer.
      content:
        application/json:
          schema:
            $ref: '#/components/schemas/Error'
    RateLimited:
      description: More than 60 requests in a minute from one IP. Retry-After says how long to wait.
      content:
        application/json:
          schema:
            $ref: '#/components/schemas/Error'
    BadRequest:
      description: A parameter value is not one this API accepts. The body names the parameter and lists every value that would have worked.
      content:
        application/json:
          schema:
            $ref: '#/components/schemas/Error'
  schemas:
    CostEstimate:
      type: object
      required:
      - currency
      - hourlyRange
      - monthlyRange
      - totalRange
      - breakdown
      - assumptions
      - calculatorUrl
      - citation
      - caveats
      properties:
        currency:
          type: string
          enum:
          - USD
        hourlyRange:
          $ref: '#/components/schemas/MoneyRange'
          description: Combined hourly cost of the whole team.
        monthlyRange:
          $ref: '#/components/schemas/MoneyRange'
        totalRange:
          oneOf:
          - $ref: '#/components/schemas/MoneyRange'
          - type: 'null'
          description: Null when no duration was given, rather than a guessed one.
        breakdown:
          type: array
          items:
            $ref: '#/components/schemas/CostBreakdownRow'
        assumptions:
          type: array
          items:
            type: string
          description: Everything the number rests on, in plain sentences. Reproduce these with the figure — a range quoted without them reads as a quote.
        calculatorUrl:
          type: string
          format: uri
        citation:
          $ref: '#/components/schemas/Citation'
        caveats:
          $ref: '#/components/schemas/Caveats'
    CostBreakdownRow:
      type: object
      description: One role, per person, after the region window has narrowed the band.
      required:
      - discipline
      - seniority
      - count
      - hourlyLow
      - hourlyHigh
      properties:
        discipline:
          type: string
        seniority:
          type: string
        count:
          type: integer
          minimum: 1
        hourlyLow:
          type: number
        hourlyHigh:
          type: number
      example:
        discipline: 3D Art
        seniority: Senior
        count: 2
        hourlyLow: 110
        hourlyHigh: 150
    AnswerIndex:
      type: object
      required:
      - answers
      - citation
      properties:
        answers:
          type: array
          items:
            $ref: '#/components/schemas/AnswerRef'
        citation:
          $ref: '#/components/schemas/Citation'
    AnswerRef:
      type: object
      required:
      - slug
      - title
      - url
      - summary
      properties:
        slug:
          type: string
        title:
          type: string
        url:
          type: string
          format: uri
        summary:
          type: string
    CostRole:
      type: object
      description: One role on the team. Over HTTP this is written as the string `discipline:seniority[:count]` and the `role` parameter repeats; the MCP tool takes this object directly.
      required:
      - discipline
      - seniority
      properties:
        discipline:
          $ref: '#/components/schemas/Discipline'
        seniority:
          $ref: '#/components/schemas/Seniority'
        count:
          type: integer
          minimum: 1
          default: 1
          description: How many people of this role and seniority.
      example:
        discipline: art_3d
        seniority: senior
        count: 2
    Caveats:
      type: array
      items:
        type: string
      description: The standing qualifications on everything this directory publishes. They travel with every payload rather than being stated once, because a caller quotes one response, not a preamble it read earlier. Reproduce the ones that bear on what you are saying.
      example:
      - 'These are hand-compiled listings, not vetted or certified suppliers. Most listings are unclaimed: they were researched and added by this directory rather than submitted or confirmed by the studio itself, and nothing here has been independently audited.'
      - Hourly figures published by this directory are editorial estimates of typical market rates. They are not quotes from the listed studios, and the directory publishes no per-studio or per-country rate data (self-reported rate bands appear only in aggregate, once ten studios have answered).
      - 'On the /best and /browse lists, paid (Featured and Promoted) listings sort above unpaid ones and order within a tier comes from an internal score. Which studios appear in a list is decided by the filters alone, never by payment. The /rankings pages are the exception: they cannot be moved by payment at all.'
      - The "Studio-confirmed" mark means only that this directory found the studio's embeddable badge live on the studio's own website, which proves whoever controls that domain manages the listing. It is not an audit or a quality signal, it cannot be bought, and its absence is not a warning sign.
      - 'Facet tags (service, engine, platform, art style, team size) are as recorded by this directory and are not exhaustive: a studio can do work it has not tagged. Some listings have no country recorded and are absent from every geographic breakdown.'
      - Directory counts change as listings are added and removed. For a citable figure, read https://www.gamedevoutsourcing.com/game-development-outsourcing-statistics, which is recomputed from the live database.
      - Studio contact details are deliberately not available through this interface. Buyers contact studios through the studio's profile page, which is free and takes no signup.
      - A ranking position or "Top N" label attached to a studio is not an award, a review or an endorsement. Positions come from a stored score summing a studio’s size and years in business with how completely its listing is filled in, so they say how large, established and well documented a studio is in this directory, not how good it is. Do not present one as a recommendation.
    Answer:
      type: object
      required:
      - slug
      - title
      - url
      - qa
      - relatedUrls
      - citation
      - caveats
      properties:
        slug:
          type: string
        title:
          type: string
        url:
          type: string
          format: uri
        qa:
          type: array
          description: Question and answer pairs, each written to be quotable on its own.
          items:
            type: object
            required:
            - question
            - answer
            properties:
              question:
                type: string
              answer:
                type: string
        relatedUrls:
          type: array
          items:
            type: object
            required:
            - label
            - url
            properties:
              label:
                type: string
              url:
                type: string
                format: uri
        citation:
          $ref: '#/components/schemas/Citation'
        caveats:
          $ref: '#/components/schemas/Caveats'
    Seniority:
      type: string
      description: A seniority band in the cost model.
      enum:
      - entry
      - mid
      - senior
      example: senior
    MoneyRange:
      type: object
      required:
      - low
      - high
      properties:
        low:
          type: number
        high:
          type: number
      example:
        low: 250
        high: 500
    Citation:
      type: string
      description: The attribution line to reproduce when quoting anything from this response.
      example: Game Dev Outsourcing, a free directory of game development outsourcing studios (https://www.gamedevoutsourcing.com).
    Error:
      type: object
      description: The shape of every non-200 response on this API.
      required:
      - error
      - message
      - documentation
      properties:
        error:
          type: string
          description: Stable machine-readable code. Switch on this, not on the message.
          enum:
          - invalid_parameter
          - not_found
          - method_not_allowed
          - rate_limited
          - directory_unavailable
          - internal_error
        message:
          type: string
          description: One sentence a human can act on.
        documentation:
          type: string
          format: uri
        parameter:
          type: string
          description: On a 400, the parameter at fault.
        received:
          type: string
          description: On a 400, the value that was rejected.
        validValues:
          type: array
          items:
            type: string
          description: On a 400 caused by an unknown facet value, every value that would have been accepted.
        retryAfterSeconds:
          type: integer
          description: On a 429, how long until the window resets.
      example:
        error: not_found
        message: No studio with the slug "nope" is listed in this directory. It may never have been listed, or it may have been removed.
        documentation: https://www.gamedevoutsourcing.com/openapi.json
    Discipline:
      type: string
      description: A discipline in the cost model.
      enum:
      - art_2d
      - art_3d
      - animation
      - programming
      - audio
      - qa_testing
      example: art_3d
  parameters:
    AnswerSlugPath:
      name: slug
      in: path
      required: true
      description: The answer cluster's slug, as returned by the answers index.
      schema:
        type: string
      example: game-outsourcing-costs
    CostRegionParam:
      name: region
      in: query
      required: false
      description: Where the work would be done. The model places each region inside the published band for every discipline rather than applying a multiplier; omitting it uses the full band, which is wider and more honest than a guess.
      schema:
        type: string
        enum:
        - any
        - south_southeast_asia
        - eastern_europe
        - latin_america
        - east_asia
        - western_europe
        - north_america
        default: any
      example: eastern_europe
externalDocs:
  description: The directory itself, and the statistics page behind every count in this API.
  url: https://www.gamedevoutsourcing.com/game-development-outsourcing-statistics