In this episode of The Allcorrect Gamedev Show, we chat with Brooke Van Dusen, founder of CDR External Development and author of Pixel Procurement. Brooke shares how his path from a Nintendo-filled childhood to Twitch’s golden days shaped his career, why he built CDR as a “full-stack outsourcing department” for studios, and how outsourcing still struggles with stigma in gamedev. We dive into his unforgettable story of bringing Snoop Dogg to a battle royale launch, his advice for young outsourcing studios and newcomers to the industry, and his vision of how AI, Roblox, and new business models will reshape games in the next decade.

Timecodes:

00:01:00 – First Memories of Video Games

00:04:07 – Entering Games Through Twitch

00:05:56 – The “Golden Days” of Twitch

00:07:01 – Founding CDR External Development

00:09:55 – The “Uber of Outsourcing” (But Not Quite)

00:11:17 – How CDR Differs From Competitors

00:14:20 – The Critical Role of Networking

00:17:14 – The Outsourcing Stigma

00:21:02 – The Problem With Aggressive Sales

00:25:21 – Evaluating Studio Credibility

00:28:23 – Why Portfolios Beat Demos

00:31:15 – Advice for Young Outsourcing Studios

00:35:08 – The Risk of AI Content Floods

00:38:25 – The Snoop Dogg Story

00:48:10 – The Future of the Games Industry

Text version of this podcast episode: “Outsourcing Without the Stigma”.

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