A licence, a build, and a few hours of one engineer.
The second question every studio asks, after whether the game fits: what does this cost us in people we do not have. Less than it sounds, and the parts that do cost something are front-loaded on purpose.
Three things: a licence for the named use, a build of the game, and a few hours from one engineer who knows how that build is made. benned does the engineering — headless running, the observation and action spaces, resets and seeds, the scored tasks — and the AI lab pays for it through the integration fee, so the studio funds none of it. Art, design, production and QA are not involved, because the shipped game is not modified and nothing is released.
One person has a recurring role. The rest sign or stay out of it.
The estimates below are what we scope to and commit to, not averages from a long delivery history — benned is early, and saying otherwise would be the wrong way to start a relationship built on a contract.
| Who | What they do | How much |
|---|---|---|
| An engineer who knows the build | Explains how the build is produced, how saves and resets work, where game state lives. Answers questions as they come up. | A handful of short sessions, front-loaded |
| Someone who can sign | Agrees the licence terms and the revenue split. | Two or three conversations |
| Legal, or your lawyer | Reviews the licence. We bring a template to start from. | One review round |
| Art, design, production, QA | Nothing. The shipped game does not change. | None |
Four stages, each with a defined end.
| Stage | What happens | What we need from you |
|---|---|---|
| Fit check | We assess realism, breadth, customisability and the technical route. Free, under NDA. | A conversation and a build |
| Scoping | What the lab wants to measure becomes a list of scored tasks with a fixed scope and an end date. | Your engineer, briefly |
| Agent-ready build | Headless running, observation and action spaces, resets and seeds, the scored tasks. Our work, paid by the lab. | Questions answered as they arise |
| Handover to the lab | The environment runs on dedicated hardware for that lab, metered, with support. | Nothing |
A black-box route needs only the licence and the build and reaches a running pilot fastest. An engine integration needs project access and takes longer, and gives exact determinism and faster-than-real-time play in return. The two routes compared.
The list matters more than the one above it.
Most of what a studio fears losing in a deal like this is simply not part of it. If any of these ever came up, something would have gone wrong with the scope.
Request a fit check- Changes to your live gameTraining copies are separate. The shipped build is untouched.
- Your roadmap or your plansWe need how the build works, not where the studio is going.
- Source code, for a black boxA licence and a build are enough to start. Engine access is optional.
- A public announcementNothing about this is public unless you decide it should be.
- MoneyThe lab pays the integration fee. The studio funds no engineering.
Three things that move the date.
- Rights that have not been checked. An engine clause or a publishing agreement discovered late is the most common delay, and the cheapest to prevent — check them first.
- More scored tasks than scoped. Each one is designed, tuned and tested against reward hacking. It is the largest line in the integration fee for a reason.
- A build that cannot run without a screen. Solvable, always, but it is engineering rather than configuration when the game was never built for it.
About effort and time
How much of my team’s time does this cost?
We scope it so that one engineer who knows the project is the only person with recurring involvement, in short sessions rather than a block of work. Art, design, production and QA are not involved at all, because nothing about the shipped game changes.
Do we have to build anything?
No. benned does the engineering. For a black-box environment we need a licence and a build; for an engine integration we need project access as well, and we write the plugin.
How long does a pilot take?
We scope a black-box pilot as a fixed engagement of a few weeks and an engine integration as a longer one, both with an end date rather than an open commitment. The variable that moves it most is how many scored tasks the lab wants.
What if our engineer leaves or gets pulled onto something else?
Everything we need from them is front-loaded into the first week: how the build is produced, how a save or reset works, and where the game state lives. After that the dependency is small enough to survive a reassignment.
Does any of this touch our live game?
No. Training copies run on separate, dedicated hardware with no connection to your live servers or player base, and the shipped build is not modified.