Before diving into our six-step playbook for successful RFPs, here’s what we learned reviewing every fixed-price RFP we ran between Q2 2024 and Q2 2025.

Out of a dozen or so signed deals, clients never chose the lowest or the highest bid, and only twice picked the second-lowest. The clear signal: studios win work when their approach, culture, and game experience line up with the brief, not when they undercut on price.

Why? Because when it comes to creating external partnerships that work, alignment is more important than price. Sure, the savings we achieved makes for a catchy headline (and yes, we will put that in our marketing), but it’s not the real objective.

Curious how to write an RFP that surfaces the right partner? I break down our six-step playbook and why it jump-starts onboarding inside the full post. Give it a read and tell me how you keep alignment front and center.

RFP Data in the Details

Ok, I said this was a surprising detail, but in reality it's exactly what we were expecting. To add a little context, Global Games Alliance (GGA) went live last week, and as a launch member we offered a free RFP-authoring service. As part of that, we took a look back at every competitively run, fixed-price RFP we’ve administered and found the following:

• Average savings vs. top bid: 65%
• Dollar weighted average: 63%
• Average bids per project: 7.6
• Median bid-spread (highest ÷ lowest): 6.3×
• Bids within ± 15 % of project median: 32 %
• Largest single-project price gap: 88.5%
• Lowest: 33.3%

This helps shape a clearer picture of what the RFP process brings to teams evaluating external talent.

For example, when the spread between bids is huge it usually signals a problem. Either the brief left too much room for interpretation, inexperienced shops padded for risk, or studios didn’t allocate enough time and rushed an unoptimized proposal, quoting sky-high. Sometimes we see low-balls driven by desperation or overlooked effort. Happens more than you’d think.

Our real goal is to reduce that 65% average savings figure over time. When scopes are clear and provider shortlists are well-matched, bids cluster tighter. That’s the sign of a healthy process, one where every studio in the mix has a fair shot to show their best work, and pricing reflects effort, not guesswork.

If you’re curious how we approach RFP writing and how we craft briefs that eliminate noise and surface great fits, we broke down the full process below.

What You Miss Without RFPs

RFPs (Request For Proposal) are a tool for structured evaluation of external vendors. Not just for pricing, but for capabilities, approach, and alignment. They’re a critical step in evaluating external teams, and when done well, they surface the details that lead to smart, informed hiring decisions.

While reviewing online portfolios is useful for spotting experience matches, think about the information they don’t provide:

• Portfolios are incomplete. Often a studio’s most recent work is hidden under NDAs, meaning you’re judging a studio on what they’re allowed to show, not what they’re capable of.
• A slick public facing presence may tell you more about marketing than delivery. A polished site doesn’t always signal a strong dev team, and a barebones one does not mean low quality.
• You don’t know who would actually work on your project. A studio’s portfolio might showcase the team’s best work, but there’s no guarantee the same artists, engineers, or producers will be available for your project.
• No insight into how much focus your project will receive. A studio might look great but be slammed with existing projects, overcommitted, or only have junior staff available.
• You don’t know how they’ll approach your problem. Portfolios show what a studio has done, not how they’ll approach your game, pipeline, or creative constraints.
• There’s no insight into process or communication. Even great work can be a nightmare if the process behind it is chaotic.
• And of course, no one shares pricing publicly. Don’t fall in love with a studio only to find out they’re twice your budget.

If you don’t have answers to these questions, you’re guessing and more than likely biased by presentation, reputation, or familiarity.

And don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying RFPs are bulletproof. But when every team responds to the same set of thoughtfully crafted questions, gaps and strengths emerge fast.

A Good RFP Process to the Rescue

The job of an RFP is not to squeeze price but to give every invited provider the clarity they need to decide whether the project fits and to show their best work. When the brief is crisp, providers can bid with confidence and clients can choose on alignment rather than guesswork.

1. Clear, focused objectives

A strong RFP starts with an agreed definition of what success looks like. That sounds obvious yet when we step in we often discover that different teams have quietly been aiming at different targets, and when CDR proposes a single objective statement, it exposes these gaps. Needless to say, providers prefer to avoid projects without a stable goal line.

2. Crystal-clear scope

List every required feature, dependency, tool, and middleware. If the work touches existing code, share the repository up front. Guesswork inflates risk and risk inflates price. Detail lets the provider give a precise plan and schedule instead of a safety-loaded estimate.

3. Ruthless brevity

An RFP is not a data dump. Keep only information that changes the technical or creative solution. Extraneous pages cause providers to chase side paths and can skew estimates. A focused document respects everyone’s time and produces bids that line up cleanly.

4. Advance notice

Before the RFP drops, confirm that each shortlisted studio has bandwidth and intends to respond. A simple heads-up builds goodwill and ensures no one is blindsided by a deadline.

5. Parallel process

Distribute the brief, timelines, and any updates to all bidders at the same moment.  That structure keeps the cycle measured in weeks, not months, and puts every bid on your desk at the same time, making comparisons straightforward instead of a rolling game of “wait for one more quote.”

6. Open Q&A

Invite written questions, answer them in writing, and circulate the replies to every participant. Providers learn how peers are interpreting the challenges, clients learn where the brief is fuzzy, and everyone ends up costing the same problem set rather than personal interpretations.

CDR’s role is to run this playbook on the client’s behalf while also acting as an advocate for the invited providers. Run well, the RFP doesn’t just pick a vendor, it kick-starts onboarding by aligning goals, scope, and communication before the contract is even signed.

Final Takeaway

When you treat external hiring with the same rigor as internal hiring, you don’t just save money; you find partners who actually fit. That’s why none of our clients picked the cheapest bid. They weren’t looking for the lowest price; they were looking for the right team, and that’s exactly what a well-run RFP delivers.