nzgda.com

[pjcooper]

Hi Guys,

First off I've posted this in a couple of forums so sorry for spamming up your site.

I am looking for a bit of preliminary feedback on an idea for a small research project.

Without getting into too finer details, I am wondering if the game development industry in NZ would benefit from some sort of business incubator?

The project is meant to be from the perspective of local government economic development initiative. I don't mean that local govt should get into the business of making games, but rather that the game industry has the potential to generate significant economic opportunities for NZ and that it should be encouraged.

My questions are therefore:

1) Would the game development industry benefit from some form of local government support and

2) If so, what sort of support would this be?

I don't really mean grants and scholarships etc (obviously these would be good) but more along the lines of helping to co-ordinate players in he industry or to provide some sort of 'leg up' in a systematic way.

For example (and maybe I'm way off, I don't know) would the industry benefit from:

1. Helping facilitate knowledge agglomeration with other industries (the film industry maybe) in a formalised way.

2. Helping facilitate clustering within the industry (if even necessary): are there already geographical areas in NZ that particularly good at game dvlp? why? could this be promoted elsewhere?

3. Helping to make clearer links between education providers and the people in the business of developing games

4. Helping young development studios with business management advice etc

The main idea is that this would be a niche initiative within a wider local govt economic development strategy. the project is asking what role could/should govt play in helping build game development in NZ?

To be honest, I haven't done a lot of digging around yet so I don't know what sort of state game development in NZ is in. It could be (if this website is an accurate indicator) that the industry is already well co-ordinated and doesn't really need help. Anyhow, I thought this may be a good place to start asking questions.

Like I said, it's a preliminary idea so any feedback positive or negative would be appreciated.

Thanks

P.J

[AaronC]

Heya P.J.

I've a few suggestions, and feel free to discard them. Firstly the real money seems to be in big titles, heavily invested, large teams a long time in development producing really high quality work that ideally cant get cracked by hackers and pirates. The business model in behind that seems to be suited to wealthy businessmen who are borderline gamblers, willing to take a punt on a title. So maybe actually finding those potential private sector investors would be a service? Perhaps even shared investment type structures where a mix of public and private money is stumped up to bankroll a title? As a prototype?

EG Once a NZ FPS gets out there and noticed it would make it easier a second time round- now I know big titles have come out of NZ already, but nothing like the Assassins Creed's or Call of Duties of this world. Once the old school are a little more comfortable with it they might really buy into it easier a second time round- so it might take a private sector gamble to establish a BIG studio here. I reckon we could do a really good job of it given the chance. Ultimately a local or national government would probably want to step back from such a business model but there's always room for support services, scholarships etc, international marketing yadda yadda.

Back to public funding, the Apple App store has done great job of monopolising the market for iPhone games, and from where I'm sitting this is a great little market for smaller developers to churn out good ideas- I dont think it will pass as a fad, I think it will endure along side the larger consoles and PC. Perhaps some sort of incubation could be done to establish localised iPhone development studios, once one model is constructed it could be replicated in different provinces- I don't know how the financial structure of that would apply to what your suggesting but consider it as an avenue..

Aside from the journey of success and taxes to the government paid hurrah- there is also potentials to use such mediums to SAVE money rather than make it by reaching out to disaffected youth, who didn't really conquer the education system but would embrace the opportunity to work in such a medium. Social development strengthening. Historically there's been funding invested in quite a few youth programs and they don't all work out, but we never know until we try, and currently that is something that is looking like a good socially responsible thing for me personally to do is to get youth to make games for their peers. Now it might not be the golden goose, obviously, but if it ends up cutting down on violence, crime and negative social patterns, that can have a real world cost to society, and such a theory could be argued, than that's just another avenue for you to perhaps consider.

The whole edutainment thing is there for consideration.

I'd love it if there was an environment similar to the film commission where developers could "Pitch" ideas to producers, with budgets and planning, so at least the good ideas could make it onto a table somewhere where the value could be exploited for everyones good.

Just some cannon fodder to consider.

Cheers
AaronC
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The meaning of life is a life of meaning...

[pjcooper]

Hey Aaron

Thanks for the feedback, it's exactly the sort of thing I'm after. A couple of points / further questions in no particular order:

I would agree (only from my gut instinct) that the big money is in big titles and it is unrealistic to expect NZ to consistently churn out best sellers due to what I imagine is a reasonably small resource base. I can also say that i doubt govt would wholesale 'take a punt' on a particular project in the hope of hitting it big unless there was something substantial to go on.

What you have touched on about support institutions, something to co-ordinate potential investors or bodies such as the film commission is more what I'm getting at. The limit to my particular area of interest is that it has to be something that can be realistically pitched at a local govt level. i.e. "hey economic development team, this local industry has the potential to create jobs etc and this is how we can help make it happen with reasonably low up front risk to rate-payers etc"

Your idea about the iPhone games is EXACTLY the sort of thing I mean in this respect. Some project that would be reasonably cheap and easy to manage but is about facilitating the growth of the industry. Would some sort of regular competition be good? A half incubator / half pilot project? Something game version of the high school band Rockfest where individual developers compete to make a app and the winning app gets support for some larger form of development?

What I should also be asking is how is the industry currently structured and operating in NZ? I like games but im not a developer and i don't know how it works in NZ. Is it a loose collection of independent studios doing their own thing or is there some form of co-ordination in terms of information and resource sharing? where can i find this out? The current structure and method of operation is likely to dictate what sort of support or improvements would be most beneficial.

Finally I 100% agree on what you're saying about social development (and in many ways I believe that economic and social development are intertwined) however this particular project has a 'jobs and wealth' creation focus. Along a similar line of thought though i saw recently that some game has been developed in partnership with some NZ mental health entity to help combat depression. would this be a good idea? I have been told anecdotally that there is already a lot of funding provided for health research that is undedicated. Maybe a partnership between game developers and health researchers? I hear that some retirement homes are using Wii to keep their residents active. just a thought.

Anyhow thanks for the feedback. its all useful stuff

p.j

[AaronC]

Interesting stuff PJ,

Since we're ommitting the social saftey net and big bucks angles, I'll offer some further comments regarding the other bits. And do feel free to take what I say with a grain of salt to taste

The NZ industry is very small in terms of what you could seriously recognise as "Studios". There would I would guess be 5-6 such studios? Im thinking Sidhe, Binary Star, theres one in Dunedin(Not sure of its name offhand) the elusive shadow of Weta Interactive - already Im running out of names.

The other thing is that the game industry is shrouded in thick layers of secrecy, so (And Im out on a limb here because I think this secrecy factor will stop larger studios responding to your post) I doubt theres very much shared information at all-if any to be honest- for example a studio contracted to Microsoft will only share details with their corporate parent.

But it seems the larger studios do have a bit of an idea what the other large studios are up to- at a fairly shallow level.

lots of little guys like me will take on small tasks for overseas developers- as making a game (excluding mobile platforms) is usually a large task. I've shipped three games off my own back and frankly enjoy working in teams more because the collective synergy produces better quality work.

So theres not really a culture or inclination to 'Get everyone together" as corporately we're all bound by secrecy anyway. I could go back to the social responsibility angle to talk about "Everyone coming together for the common good" but you've stated thats outside the scope of your research for now.

Now the iPhones strength is probably its weakness too. At the end of the day you could be asking councils to give Apple Inc. money to simplify the scenario. Would that be a good look? Maybe not.

But say it was a good look, and we went down that road. I dont really support the competition angle, as competitions churn out losers. Losers defined by some bunch of people, bound by their opinions. I dont buy into that- its too subserviant for my liking.

to continue though, perhaps you could get local areas to make 3d interactive gimmicks for localised features ie National Parks, Historic sites, Accomodation facilities/dining/ basic shops- so tourists could buy the app before visiting, at a small cost, and it would also benefit the area in a hands on sense by increasing tourism as a result of punters liking what they see via the iPhone app?

Just ideas. And regarding my understanding of how the corporate gaming world in New Zealand works- I stand ready to be told I dont have a clue what I'm talking about by people who do, but as I said the culture of secrecy may leave you otherwise in the dark.

What I personally would like to see is the economic powers that be realise that despite the global recession, games are still selling, and that they are a worthwhile business investment if they are executed well (Think Crackproof)

Maybe if all the councils chipped in together for some kind of development prototype? Clean Green (lol) New Zealand Tourism Guide iPhone app?

You can get licensed to produce games for fairly cheap these days, If you avoid the overpriced applications.

All ideas, doubtless worthy of harsh scrutiny. Hopefully you get some more feedback from others.

You could try consulting developers directly- have a browse of http://www.sumea.com.au/sdevelopers.asp

Ahh theres our six studios

Cheers

AaronC
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The meaning of life is a life of meaning...