Quod Soler · Unreal Engine technical due diligence · 11 shipped games in 10 years

Technical due diligence for deals that hinge on an Unreal Engine codebase.

Before you sign, I read the code, the builds and the team's process the way a lead would on day one of a takeover: risks scored, remediation estimated in engineer-months, a written report and a 90-minute readout inside 10 business days. You sign knowing exactly what you are buying.

$7,500 flatone title, one codebasereport in 10 business days

Book a 20-minute scoping call · confidential

NDA before you even name the target.

11 shipped games · 10 years, AAA and indie · 950+ Unreal devs read my weekly newsletter

Is this your deal right now?

Is there a term sheet on the table, and nobody on your side has opened the repo?
Does the studio demo beautifully, and you cannot tell whether the code underneath survives two more years of content?
Is the pitch deck full of "proprietary framework", and you need to know whether that is an asset or a liability?
Are you being told the game is 90% done, and you have been in this industry long enough to flinch?
Do you need someone technical in the data room who is not a generalist auditor grading the documentation?

If you nodded at any of these, this read was built for exactly that.

How it works ( NDA first, then the data room )

You are not buying a checklist pass. The read is the one I would do walking into the project as its new lead, compressed into a week and written down.

Scoping and NDA ( 20 minutes, free )

You tell me the deal shape and the deadline. I tell you honestly whether I am the right reader for this codebase and declare any conflict on the spot, before any money moves. NDA before you even name the target, if you prefer.

The data room ( read-only )

Repo, builds, a trace capture if one exists, CI and branch history, and up to two hours of interviews with the technical leads. Less access is workable; I will tell you upfront what it costs in confidence.

The read ( 3 to 4 days inside the material )

Architecture and module boundaries, gameplay systems, performance headroom, replication, content pipeline, build and release health, dependency and plugin risk, and how the team actually works: reviews, CI, bus factor.

Report and readout ( inside 10 business days )

A written report with every risk area scored and evidenced, remediation estimated in engineer-months, and the short list of things I would renegotiate over. Then 90 minutes with your team, recorded, questions argued.

What you walk away with

The report. Eight risk areas, each scored, each with the evidence next to it, so nobody has to take my word for anything.
The remediation estimates. What the debt costs to fix, in engineer-months, so it can be priced into the deal instead of discovered after it.
The red-flag page. The findings I would renegotiate over, ranked, on one page, written for the person who will not read the other thirty.
The readout. Ninety minutes with your team, recorded. Bring your lawyers, bring their CTO, I do not mind.

Book a 20-minute scoping call · confidential

Who this is for ( and who it is not for )

This is for you if:

You are a publisher about to sign a co-development or full development deal on an Unreal title.
You are a fund putting money into a studio whose main asset is an Unreal codebase.
You are acquiring a studio, a codebase or a live project, or taking over one mid-flight.

This is not for you if:

You need legal, financial or IP-ownership diligence. Your lawyers do that; I read the tech.
The codebase is Unity or a custom engine. I will say so at scoping and step aside, and you will have lost twenty minutes, not the fee.
You need a rubber stamp. If the code is bad, the report says so. That is the product.

Who does the reading

I have shipped 11 games in ten years, on AAA and indie budgets, with teams from two people to two hundred. My home ground is combat systems, the Gameplay Ability System ( GAS ), C++ architecture and performance.

More than once in those ten years the job was walking into a codebase other people had built and deciding, fast, what would hold and what would not. That is the exact read a deal needs: not whether the demo is impressive, but whether the code under it carries two more years of content.

If you want to audit my judgment before paying for it, read the blog: 950+ Unreal developers already use it to check their own decisions.

Read the blog·LinkedIn

Track record

Lead Gameplay Programmer · AAA action RPG

Key art from a shipped AAA action RPG sequel

Lead Gameplay Programmer · AAA action RPG ( sequel )

Lead Gameplay Programmer · co-op shooter

Key art from a shipped licensed action game

Lead Gameplay Programmer · licensed action game

+ 7 more shipped titles

The alternatives, honestly

	A DD firm	A CTO friend's weekend look	This read
Fee	$15,000 to $40,000	Free ( you owe a favor )	$7,500 flat
The reader	A generalist auditor	Smart, but guessing at games	A lead with 11 shipped games
Deliverable	A process report	A phone call	Scored report, red-flag page, readout
Timeline	2 to 4 weeks	Whenever	10 business days
Accountability	A brand	None	Wrong-reader refund inside 48 hours

The price, and the clock

The fee is $7,500, flat. One title, one codebase, everything above included. It does not change if the repo turns out to be ugly, and there is no hourly meter running behind it. On the deals this read protects, that number is a rounding error.

For calibration: due diligence firms quote $15,000 to $40,000 for the same window, and the person reading the code has usually never shipped a game.

If the deal has a shorter clock, the rush option is 5 business days for $10,000, one deal at a time, subject to the calendar.

After the deal: the report is written so any senior engineer can execute the remediation without me. It is not a sales document for my own services, on purpose. If the new owners want ongoing help anyway, that conversation happens after the readout, never inside the report.

What $7,500 includes

The 3-4 day read of repo, builds and process
The scored report, eight risk areas with evidence
Remediation estimates in engineer-months
The red-flag page
The 90-minute recorded readout
NDA from before the first call

Your side's total effort: about an hour to grant access, plus two hours of your leads' time.

The wrong-reader guarantee

If I get into the data room and find this is not a codebase I can judge at full depth ( wrong engine area, heavily custom engine, something outside my lane ), I tell you within 48 hours and refund in full. You lose two days, not the deal.

What I will not guarantee is a clean report. The report says what the code says.

The fee is due at engagement start and is not refundable once the read begins; the wrong-reader window covers the first 48 hours. If what you need is a rubber stamp for a deal you have already decided on, do not hire me.

Book a 20-minute scoping call · confidential

Questions people ask before booking

Why you and not a due-diligence firm?

A DD firm sends a generalist who reads the CI config, counts the tests and grades the documentation. All useful, and none of it answers the question you are paying to answer: can this codebase carry this game for two more years? A generalist can verify the process. It takes someone who has shipped on the engine to read a GAS setup and know whether ability #40 will take the team a day or a week.

How does confidentiality work? What about conflicts?

NDA before anything moves, before the target is named if you prefer. If the target conflicts with work I am already committed to, I tell you at scoping and decline; nothing from one project ever crosses into another. Discretion runs both ways: I will not confirm to anyone that a read happened.

What access do you need?

Best case: read-only repo, a build that runs, CI history and two hours with the technical leads. Every piece you cannot get moves some findings from "evidenced" to "flagged as unverifiable", and the report says which is which. I will tell you at scoping what depth the access you can get actually buys.

The target will not open the repo before a signed LOI.

Common, and workable in two stages: everything except the code first ( builds, process, interviews, pipeline ), the code read after the LOI. Ask at scoping and I will split the fee to match the stages.

We sign in a week. Ten days is too slow.

That is the rush option: 5 business days, $10,000, one deal at a time. If the calendar cannot hold it, I will say no at scoping rather than deliver a thin read.

We are the studio being diligenced. Can you prep us?

Yes. The sell-side version is the same read pointed the other way: you get the report before the buyer's people arrive, and you fix or pre-explain what they will find. Same fee, and it tends to pay for itself in the first negotiation.

How does the invoice work?

Payment at engagement start, with a proper invoice from a registered business in Spain. For clients outside the EU ( including the US ) there is no European VAT on top. EU businesses with a VAT number usually fall under reverse charge, and Spanish clients have IVA added on the invoice.

What does the report not cover?

Legal and IP ownership, financials, market fit, and whether the game is fun. It covers whether the technology and the team can deliver what the deal assumes, and what it costs to fix where they cannot.

One codebase. Ten business days. A report your side can argue from.

The term sheet already has a technical assumption in it. Tell me the deal shape, pick a time, and we will find out in twenty minutes whether this is a read I should take.

Not the deal stage yet? I write one email a week about GAS, combat and performance. 950+ Unreal devs read it.Join the newsletter →

Book a 20-minute scoping call · confidential