There's no escaping the news that Queensland is currently suffering what is fast becoming the worst flood disaster on record in the state. There are some heartbreaking stories of loss of life and pictures of immense property and infrastructure damage. Thirty-five Brisbane suburbs are currently gulfed by floodwater, and Australia's third largest city is currently a power-less ghost town as Brisbanites are advised against entering the CBD. Bus transport is no longer in service, other public transport operations in question, and evacuations are taking place in various parts of the state.
Brisbane is also home to a huge proportion of Australia's local games industry and education institutions, including Half Brick Studios, THQ Studio Australia, Sega Studios Australia, 3 Blokes Studios, Qantm, QUT, as well as a number of great independent games developers. It's therefore no question that a sizable amount of our visitors are from Queensland and are likely enduring some hardships and concerns.
We'd like to send our thoughts to all the folks affected by the floods, and for goodness sakes, keep yourselves out of harms way if you can help it.
Like many other business and games developers based in Brisbane, Halfbrick Studios, developers of Fruit Ninja and Raskulls, have closed down for the next few days as staff seek out how to help those close to them.
Halfbrick will be offline for a few days due to flooding of our home town Brisbane. Studio is fine, but helping out friends and family!
Well wishes have been forthcoming from the local games development community to their Brisbane counterparts including..
Firemint :
Our thoughts are with our friends in Brisbane - http://bit.ly/e2AaNa. Please donate to the flood relief appeal - http://bit.ly/fO7R6E
Brawsome :
My thoughts go out to all the flood affected people in Queensland. Just saw some shocking pictures on the news. I didn't know it was so bad.
Hoping our friends @halfbrick are staying high, dry and safe! Hang in there guys!
@Halfbrick our thoughts are with you, if there's anything we can do to help just say they word
Nice article Souri
Nice article Souri
Flood Relief
Thank you everyone for the outpouring of support and concern. I certainly hope that our fellows in the local industry are ok, not to mention as many others as possible. It's been truly distressing to see the damage so close to home. I would encourage all of those that can afford it to donate to the flood relief appeal. So many people will need your support.
We just got power back here, but that seems to be coming from a large generator and may go again at any time. Stay safe everyone, and advice from a doctor: get mosquito repellant a-plenty, as there's an expectation of a Dengue and Ross River Fever epidemic. That's not what any of us need coming out of this.
Mick Gordon
Wow.. Mick Gordon from Game Audio Australia posted some pics of the flooding around his apartment building.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=355003&id=679429656&l=d82df8fd2d