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Embedded Artists for Your Studio

Senior game artists embedded in your team: your pipeline, your standups, shipping alongside you. Flat monthly cost, scale up or down with 30 days notice, and we carry the employment overhead.

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2K GamesArkane StudiosBethesdaBlizzardBossa StudiosBungied3tEAEpic GamesFatsharkFrontierGuerrilla GamesGunzillaHi-Rez StudiosInsomniac GamesIO InteractiveKoalabsLarian StudiosLucid GamesMediatonicObsidianPlayground GamesRetro StudiosStriking DistanceAlpha Channel Games2K GamesArkane StudiosBethesdaBlizzardBossa StudiosBungied3tEAEpic GamesFatsharkFrontierGuerrilla GamesGunzillaHi-Rez StudiosInsomniac GamesIO InteractiveKoalabsLarian StudiosLucid GamesMediatonicObsidianPlayground GamesRetro StudiosStriking DistanceAlpha Channel Games
Sucker PunchSupermassive GamesTechlandThe Chinese RoomTindalosTreyarchUbisoftUndead LabsVariable StateWarner BrosX10 Interactive343 IndustriesAscendant StudiosBioWareCrytekDon't NodFire SpriteFuncomGenvidinXileMainframeMountain TopNaturalMotionShift UpSucker PunchSupermassive GamesTechlandThe Chinese RoomTindalosTreyarchUbisoftUndead LabsVariable StateWarner BrosX10 Interactive343 IndustriesAscendant StudiosBioWareCrytekDon't NodFire SpriteFuncomGenvidinXileMainframeMountain TopNaturalMotionShift Up

What Horizons Is

Your team, extended

Horizons places senior game artists directly inside your team: they work your hours, use your tools, and attend your standups. You pay a flat monthly cost and scale up or down with 30 days notice. We carry the employment overhead, contracts, payroll, insurance, and HR, so you get production capacity without permanent headcount. Whether you need 2 artists for 3 months or 30 for a full production cycle, the model is the same.

48hrsAverage time to shortlist
95%First-year retention rate
£0Recruitment fees
400+Vetted talent network

How It Works

The Horizons Advantage

Embedded Integration

Your tools. Your standups. Your pipeline. Horizons artists don't work in a silo, they're in your Slack, your Jira, your dailies. They work to your Art Director's vision with our AD oversight built in.

Flexible Scaling

Ramp up for production peaks, scale down post-launch, with 30 days notice. VGEC eligible for UK studios, so your embedded team can contribute to tax relief claims.

Compliance & Care

We handle contracts, MSAs, insurance, employment law, tax, and HR with global reach. No pension, NI, or benefits on your books. Your team is looked after, you just get the talent.

We Handle

✓Contracts & MSAs
✓Employment Law
✓Insurance & Liability
✓Tax & Payroll
✓HR & Wellbeing
✓Hardware & Licenses
✓VGEC Eligibility
✓GDPR & Data Security

Global reach, so you can focus on making the game.

The Alternatives

Horizons vs the other ways to scale

An honest look at how the three options compare on the things that matter.

Hiring In-HouseTraditional OutsourcingHorizons
Time to start3-6 months to hire, onboard, and ramp.Every new vendor means new onboarding and new risks.Shortlist in 48hrs, producing within two weeks.
Recruitment fees15-25% of salary.None, but hidden costs and scope creep.£0. That budget goes into your game instead.
Scaling downHire for peak, lay off after launch.Priorities shift to whoever pays more.30 days notice. Nobody gets fired, your core team stays intact.
IntegrationFull integration, once hiring and ramp-up are done.Assets delivered in generic formats. Integration burden falls on your team.Your engine, your naming conventions, your standups.
CommunicationDirect, that's the point of in-house.Account managers relay messages. Feedback loops are slow and lossy.Direct access to your crew. Daily standups, shared Slack channels.
Employment overheadSalaries, pension, NI, benefits, hardware, HR, all on your books.Artists treated as disposable. High turnover, inconsistent quality.We handle contracts, payroll, insurance, employment law, and HR.

Case Study

PGA TOUR 2K25

2K Games and HB Studios needed to scale their art team rapidly for the PGA TOUR 2K franchise. Airship Horizons embedded 30+ artists across 3 consecutive releases.

Read the full case study

The team

12Character Artists
10Environment Artists
6Animators
2Technical Artists
2Producers
32embedded artists at peak

Front-fill, back-fill, flex

Rather than a fixed headcount, we used a front-filling and back-filling model, ramping artists in ahead of milestones and smoothly transitioning them as phases completed.

Pre-production5 artists, concept, and blockout
Production25+ artists, full character pipeline
Polish15 artists, refinement and LODs
Next titleTeam rolls forward, zero ramp-up
2xFidelity gains over previous title
EarlyDelivery ahead of milestone
0Slipped deadlines across 3 releases

“Airship were integral to us completing PGA Tour 2K25. We couldn’t have done it without you. The quality of the visuals, the integration of the team, and the way your team went above and beyond was incredible.”

Peter Jones, Senior Production Director, HB Studios

When we’re not the right fit

We believe in transparency. Airship might not be right for you if:

You need the absolute lowest cost per asset (we optimise for quality and reliability, not race-to-the-bottom pricing)

Your project needs fewer than 5 assets total (our minimum engagement is designed for meaningful scope)

You want to manage individual freelancers directly (we provide managed teams, not body-shopping)

Ready to Scale Your Team?

Tell us about your project and timeline. We’ll match you with artists who fit your culture, your pipeline, and your quality bar.