Co-Development Cost Estimator

What does an embedded team actually cost? Set the number of engineers, how long you need them, and how many days a week, and see the monthly and total figures with every assumption on screen.

Engagement typethe day rate is the same

Engineers£500 a day each, ex VAT

2engineers

-£10.8k+£10.8k

Days per week, per engineer

Engagement lengthchanges the total

6months

-£21.7k+£21.7k

Your estimate

£21,667

A month, ex VAT

Clients outside the UK usually pay no UK VAT, under the reverse charge.

Total engagement£130,0006 months, ex VAT

How it adds up

Team day rate (2 × £500): £1,000
Days per engineer, per month: 21.7 days
Team days, per month: 43 days
Billable days over 6 months: 260 days

Next steps

Turn this estimate into a scoped proposal

Send us this estimate. We will book a free discovery call and follow up with a scoped proposal for your engagement.

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Which Model Fits?

Three ways to add capacity, all on the same day rate. The difference is where accountability sits.

Co-Development

We take ownership of a slice of your project and deliver it as a unit, with our own internal code review and QA. You get a feature, a platform, or a system delivered rather than a set of hands. Best when you need outcomes and have limited leadership bandwidth to direct extra people.

Staff Augmentation

Individual engineers slot into your existing team, take tickets from your backlog, and report to your leads. Same day rate, different accountability. Best when your internal leadership is strong and the constraint is purely capacity.

LiveOps Retainer

A fixed number of days per week reserved for your live game, covering server monitoring, crash triage, content drops, platform compliance, and performance regressions. Billed monthly and reviewed quarterly so the commitment tracks your update cadence.

How We Calculate

Published Day Rates

Our standard rate is £500 per developer per day ex VAT, the same rate published across our service pages. It applies to every engineer on the engagement, so two developers are £1,000 per day and the figure scales linearly from there. The same senior engineering rate applies at every team size.

Days, Not Guesswork

A billable day is 7 hours of focused engineering time. Monthly cost is your day rate multiplied by the days per week you select and 4.33 working weeks in an average month, which is 52 divided by 12. Nothing is hidden in a multiplier.

VAT Shown Both Ways

UK clients pay 20% VAT on top. Clients outside the UK are generally invoiced without UK VAT under the business-to-business reverse charge. Both figures are shown so you can budget against whichever applies to you.

Every figure this tool produces is an indicative estimate, not a quote. It applies published day rates to the days you enter and cannot account for onboarding time, codebase quality, platform certification, or unplanned live-game work. We confirm scope and cost in writing before any engagement starts.

Related Services

Turn the estimate into an engagement.

Co-Development

Embed our senior Unity engineers directly in your team, on your repo and in your stand-ups.

LiveOps & Post-Launch Support

Keep your live game stable while your core team builds the next thing.

Unity Game Development

Full-cycle Unity development from prototype to launch.

Related Resources

Team Size Calculator

Not sure how many engineers you need? Get a team size recommendation with a role breakdown first.

Game Development Cost Estimator

Costing a whole project rather than a team? Estimate by genre, platform, and scope.

Game Development Brief Builder

Turn your estimate into a structured brief before the scoping call.

Co-Dev vs Freelancers vs Hiring

The trade-offs between the three ways of adding capacity, side by side.

Game Development Outsourcing

How our outsourcing and co-development work models compare, and when each one fits.

Frequently Asked Questions

At our standard rate of £500 per developer per day ex VAT, one full-time engineer works out at roughly £10,833 per month and a pair at around £21,667 per month, based on 4.33 working weeks in an average month. Part-time engagements scale down proportionally: a single engineer at two days a week is closer to £4,333 per month.

Linearly. Every engineer on the engagement bills at the same £500 per day ex VAT, so a two-developer engagement is £1,000 per day and a four-developer engagement is £2,000 per day. The same senior engineering rate applies at every team size.

A billable day is 7 hours of focused engineering time. Stand-ups, sprint reviews, and code review within your team are included in that. We bill in half-day increments at the smallest, so a retainer of two days a week is billed as two days regardless of how the hours fall across the week.

Co-development means we take ownership of a slice of the project and deliver it as a unit, with our own internal review and QA. Staff augmentation means individual engineers slot into your team, take tickets from your backlog, and report to your leads. The day rate is the same for both; the difference is where accountability sits. Co-development suits studios that want a feature or a platform delivered; staff augmentation suits studios with strong internal leadership that need capacity.

A LiveOps retainer reserves a fixed number of days per week for your live game, typically between 2 and 5, which is indicatively £4,333 to £10,833 per month ex VAT. Those days cover server monitoring, crash triage, content drops, platform compliance, and performance regressions. Retainers are billed monthly in advance and reviewed quarterly so the commitment level can track your update cadence.

UK VAT at 20% applies to UK-based clients. Clients outside the UK are generally invoiced without UK VAT under the reverse-charge rules for business-to-business services, though your own local tax obligations may still apply. Use the VAT toggle to see both figures, and speak to your accountant about your specific position.

One month for staff augmentation and LiveOps, and typically two to three months for co-development, because a co-development team needs time to build enough context to work independently. Shorter pieces of work are usually better handled as a fixed-scope audit or a discovery phase.

Yes. Most engagements start small, prove out the working relationship, and grow from there. We ask for four weeks' notice on a reduction so we can plan handover properly, and we can usually add capacity with two to three weeks of lead time depending on the skills required.

The arithmetic is exact: it applies our published day rates to the days you enter. What it cannot know is your project. Onboarding time, code quality, platform certification, and the amount of unplanned work in a live game all move the real figure. Treat the number as a budgeting starting point and talk to us for a scoped proposal.

The day rate covers the engineer, their tooling, and the project management overhead of running the engagement, including planning, reporting, and a playable build at each milestone where relevant. It does not cover third-party licences, devkits, store fees, cloud infrastructure, or outsourced art and audio. Those are passed through at cost and agreed in advance.

Put senior Unity engineers in your team

See how an embedded team works in practice, or tell us about your project and the capacity you need.

Tell us the capacity you need How co-development works

Plan your co-development capacity

Tell us about your team, the skills you need and the duration you're considering. We'll discuss capacity, responsibilities and an estimate for the work.

Location

London, United Kingdom

Response Time

We typically respond within 1 to 2 business days.

Co-Development Cost Estimator