Even with 9 years in business and solid technical skills, PandaTech Studios struggled to compete for better-paying projects. They were missing out on premium game development contracts and spending too much time sifting through irrelevant job posts.
They implemented Vollna's filtering system to focus on high-budget Unity and Roblox projects. They also used real-time notifications to seize opportunities right away and looked at proposal analytics to improve their strategy for attracting premium clients.
5x increase in annual revenue from $30K to $150K in 18 months
The average project value increased from $500 to $3,500
15+ hours per week saved on manual job hunting
85% reduction in low-quality proposals sent
PandaTech Studios has been creating high-quality 3D assets for game engines since 2015. Located in Mohali, India, the studio has more than 10 people and focuses on Unity and Roblox development. They offer services that include character modeling, environment design, and complex optimization work. Over the past 9 years, they have completed over 80 projects and earned more than $500,000 on Upwork. They have built a reputation for delivering outstanding 3D assets that bring games to life.
By 2022, after years of steady work and proven skills, PandaTech Studios found themselves in a frustrating spot. Amrinder Singh, the studio's founder, watched his team's potential waste away on projects that didn’t showcase their true abilities.
Competing on Price, Not Value: Most of their proposals focused on small-budget projects ($200-800). Clients often chose based on the lowest price instead of quality. Their skills in complex optimization and high-end 3D work went unrecognized and unpaid.
Missing Premium Opportunities: Large game studios and established clients posted high-budget projects ($5,000-25,000). However, these opportunities frequently got lost among countless low-value posts. By the time PandaTech spotted them, over 50 agencies had already applied.
Inefficient Manual Search: Amrinder and his lead artist spent 3-4 hours daily scrolling through Upwork's job feed. They manually filtered through generic "3D modeling" posts to find the specific Unity and Roblox projects that matched their skills.
No Data-Driven Strategy: They placed bids based on gut feelings rather than data. Which proposals were successful? Which clients should they target? How much should they bid? These questions went unanswered, leading to inconsistent outcomes.
We had built an amazing team capable of creating AAA-quality game assets, but we were stuck competing for $300 character modeling jobs against beginners. We knew there were bigger opportunities out there, but finding them was like searching for a needle in a haystack.
Amrinder found Vollna through a recommendation from another successful agency. After looking at their workflow, they put in place a solution that focused on three key areas: precise targeting, timing optimization, and data-driven bidding.
With Vollna's filtering system, PandaTech created very specific job feeds:
They set up Slack notifications to alert the team right away when high-value projects came up. This helped them be among the first five applicants for premium projects, greatly improving their visibility.
Using Vollna's bidding analytics, they tested different proposal approaches and found that highlighting specific optimization results, such as "reduced polycount by 60% while maintaining visual quality," had a three times higher response rate than general portfolio showcases.
"Vollna transformed our approach from spray-and-pray to surgical precision. Instead of sending 20 proposals for random projects, we were sending 5 highly targeted proposals to clients who actually valued our expertise."
The results of using Vollna were immediate and compound. Within the first month, PandaTech saw a significant improvement in the quality of responses they received. By month six, they had completely changed their business model.
The turning point came when Vollna's alerts identified a $15,000 project for optimizing over 400 racing game vehicles. The client needed Unity optimization expertise, which was PandaTech's strength. They were among the first to apply, submitting a proposal that showcased their past achievements in reducing polycounts by 60%. They won the contract over 12 other agencies.
This project, which took 3 months to complete, brought in more revenue than their previous 6 months of smaller projects combined. More importantly, it positioned them as a top studio for optimization work, resulting in several follow-up contracts.
"That racing game project changed everything. Not only was it our biggest contract to date, but it proved we could compete with the top-tier studios. The client was so impressed they referred us to two other game companies."
18 months after implementing Vollna, PandaTech Studios had completely transformed their financial trajectory:
When asked about Vollna's most valuable features, Amrinder highlighted three game-changers:
"Vollna's client ranking feature was a game changer for us. We could quickly see which clients had big budgets and a track record of hiring quality agencies. Instead of wasting time on low-priority leads, we focused on clients who valued expertise and paid well."
"Getting instant notifications when a perfect project showed up gave us a huge edge. We went from applying as the 40th agency to ranking in the top 5 consistently. That visibility was worth every penny."
"The analytics revealed exactly what worked and what didn't. We found that mentioning specific technical achievements, like 'optimized 400+ vehicles with a 60% polycount reduction,' led to much higher success rates than just sharing generic portfolio links. This data-driven approach changed our entire bidding strategy."
Based on their success, Amrinder offers strategic advice for other game development agencies looking to scale on Upwork:
"Don't compete on price; compete on precision. Use Vollna to find clients who need exactly what you're best at. A $5,000 optimization project is much more profitable than 20 generic modeling jobs. Focus on your strengths and let the tool find the right clients for you."
Instead of trying to be everything to everyone, PandaTech focused on their core strengths: Unity optimization, Roblox asset creation, and complex 3D rigging. Vollna's filtering let them target projects that needed these specific skills.
They set aside time each week to analyze their Vollna dashboard. They refined filters based on which projects were most profitable and improved proposals based on data about response rates.
PandaTech Studios now earns 75% of its total revenue from Upwork. They are using this success to expand further. They have hired two more 3D artists and are looking into partnerships with game development studios for bigger, long-term contracts.
"Vollna didn't just fix our lead generation issue," Amrinder says. "It completely changed how we think about our business. We went from hoping for good projects to actively attracting them. Now we are growing our team based on steady, high-value work instead of rushing to find anything we could."
For PandaTech Studios, Vollna was more than just a tool; it was a game changer that helped them match their great technical skills with the right market chances. By moving from manual, time-consuming lead generation to smart, automated targeting, they built a system that keeps driving growth while allowing their team to concentrate on what they do best: creating amazing 3D game assets.
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