Hello.
This is Souri, and I have a New Years message.
I have a few hours to type up something interesting to sum up this year before I head off to prepare for my New Years celebrations of 2008, and at the moment I can really only come up with a few things I really want to talk about. These things are: Puzzle Quest, Auran, and Sumea.
The local games industry had an interesting year in 2007. We've had some incredible highs followed by some equally disappointing lows this year, and I'm sure you're all well aware of what the situation is. I was recently asked what I thought about the state of local industry, and it was a question I found great difficulty in answering. So how is the local industry faring? For a long time, we've been hearing about the "cross roads" that the games industry is at, and I think we're still very much in the "wait and see" phase. The transition is still on going, and we're all hanging on to see how some of the locally developed big titles fare in 2008.
We've all read about the statistics that the Games Developers Association of Australia have released, and while those numbers are reassuring (2000 strong workforce, $130 million annual turnover), what really matters is what comes next. The companies I'm eager to see how well they do in 2008 are: Team Bondi, Krome Studios, Blue Tongue, and Interzone Games. L.A Noire is perhaps the biggest and most ambitious title we've ever seen developed here and we have some other massive games pinned for 2008 that could either make or break some of the game developers in Australia. Here's hoping they've got their games in order.
This year saw the Game Developers Association of Australia make the biggest push for Government support that we've ever seen. For all those working in or planning a career in the local industry, it's an effort that really needs to be applauded and supported. One of the common misconceptions about the tax rebate push that I've seen is that it' needed to save our industry. Nothing can be further than the truth. We need to understand that the tax rebate is our chance to be competitive on the world stage. We've seen the incredible growth and Government support in games industries in Canada, France, and China, and this rebate is a way into that field. It's bewildering to me to see our local developers and education institutions receiving business and import awards from Government, and yet get brushed off by them when it comes to support. We should all be feeling frustrated and supportive of the GDAA on this.
I had jotted down at this point to write something about the R rating for local games, but with the Labor Government not interested in pursuing that at all, it seems just pointless on debating it any further. I'm tired writing about it, and frankly I just don't really care about pushing it anymore. As gamers, we are screwed when it comes to the classification and fair pricing for games. The solution is simple. Make your point by importing your games from Play Asia.
There have been some outstanding successes in the games industry this year, and no can argue that 2007 belonged to Infinite Interactive with their hit game, Puzzle Quest. Who knew that such a game could cause such a sensation in the games market? For me, I realised that it had hit incredible heights when you could just hop onto any obscure games forum and there'd be enthusiastic threads praising Puzzle Quest. You just couldn't escape reading about that title even if you really wanted to, the word of mouth that Puzzle Quest caused was quite extraordinary. And Puzzle Quest couldn't have happened to a bunch of developers too. The enthusiasm for games as well as the local industry that I've felt from Infinite Interactive CEO, Steve Fawkner, is something you can't help noticing. And I'm in agreement with Steve that we need more original I.P, more locally owned big hitters, someone with the balls to do something of the scale of a Grand Theft Auto for our industry. Can you imagine what a success title like that could mean?
And, of course, the biggest low of the Australian games industry in 2007 is the closing of veteran developer, Auran. Who knew that exactly two years after the closure of Rat Bag Games that we'd have another well known studio closing up shop? We've all read about the development problems and the finger pointing from the failure of Fury, but c'mon guys, you had $15 million banked on this title, and yet you didn't have the game design pinned down nor did you understand your market audience? Even if this game was developed for a few million, it was still doomed for failure. I know it's easy to have the luxury of hindsight, but looking at everything that has come out about Fury, it seems that it failed at the absolute fundamentals of game development. We were all rooting for you. :(
Now, it's time to talk about Sumea.
As some of you may know, we quietly celebrated our fifth year of operations this year. It hasn't really sunk in how long that is, but five years is an incredible milestone and a very long time to dedicate your time for something. Five years ago, I was working at a media company as a bored web designer / developer and I saw a void that needed filling. Where could you go to find any information on the local games industry or a community for people into that? What I've tried to do with Sumea in my spare time was to try to fill that hole. After five years, we've seen the site grow in leaps and bounds to become the premier site for Australian and New Zealand game developer news, information, and jobs, and it's something I'm very proud of. As part of the celebration, I was planning to write a lengthy article on why and how this site came to be, and how I've wanted to throw in the towel at times, but I've been increasingly excited of what's to come instead. 2008 will be the changing point for Sumea. We're making the move and we're gonna expand and change. For all the old Sumea veterans, we want you back. For students and those in the industry, I'm working my butt off to make this place more useful for you guys. I'll write more about the new change, but let's just say that I've spent the last few months on the new site and it's gonna be awesome.
Finally, thanks to our sponsors for supporting Sumea. Sponsorship has been important for Sumea, and if you've seen our coverage of Freeplay or Game Connect or taken part of the Sumea Challenge, you've all benefited from what sponsorship provides, so thanks again. Thanks to our newseditors who have done an exceptional job this year. A fair few of them have moved on but I wanted them to know how much I appreciate their work. And thanks to you guys for coming here, and I'm hoping you all have a happy and safe New Years celebrations! :)
1. Insanely Sane Tue, 1 Jan
Very nice stuff, Souri........ Thanks for all your work. Keep it up and we are all behind you, coming back for more. This site has always had a special place and hopefully it will integrate things further and unite developers/students/enthusiasts for more debate and work towards a better industry 'down under'.
Keep up the good work with Sumea!! We all appreciate it.
While Auran failed, Australia has definately been producing some excellent quality work the last year.
I think this year will see more solid growth.
And I'm looking forward to Sumea growing with that growth :).
What excellent quality work might that be exactly?
I would think Puzzle Quest and Viva Pinata Party Animals both qualify, and didn't 2KAustralia have a hand in Bioshock as well? All high profile and succesful titles, and not even counting games that aren't out yet or are still in development. How much more quality do you want out of such a small number of companies? Or does only Halo and Super Mario Galaxy count? Don't be a troll.
I'll give you Puzzle Quest, I like the smaller titles that do well. It shows that you don't have to be one of the big boys with huge budgets to find success.
Viva I have no idea about, but doing a quick search on game rankings, it turns out to be an E for everyone game, a licensed title, and, averaged 57%.
It sounds like one of those titles that have been hyped up by you locals to being more successful that it was.
And Bioshock... please, give it a rest.
This was developed by Boston. Sure, the Canberra studio may have had some hand, but nowhere near as much as you guys like to make out ;).
Now all that said... that isn't a very big list. That is a very insignificant looking list to me in fact. Actually, I think you guys better lift your game, 2008 is going to get tough, 2009 will probably be a real killer :).
Have fun ;D
Of course the locals will hype up a games' success - wouldn't you want to cheer on your own team to win? That doesn't make their achievements false, though. And what's wrong with E for Everyone games? Aren't kids allowed to play games too?
2008 is looking pretty good though, isn't it? Pandemic is releasing Destroy All Humans 3, Krome's got the Force Unleashed ports and Hellboy, Team Bondi have L.A. Noire... and those are just the ones we know about. What's Creative Assembly working on at the moment? And THQ, for that matter?
The usual doom and gloom predictions and 'it's not original IP!' cries aside, I think the whole idea was to point out how far the industry has come. Yeah, we don't have Bungies or Valves, but I think it's a respectable showing given the size. Nothing wrong with being proud of the year's accomplishments.
True dat!
I'm actually looking forward to LA Noire, I unlike others here, have not dismissed them ;). Pandemic are Pandemic, they'll release a solid title, but, I do wonder how long they can stretch out DAH out for. Krome... if it aint a kids game, it will probably be arse :D. So far all you've said are the usual suspects, many of which go on doing their thing, running sustainable studios whilst those that hype away, release garbage or nothing at all. Face it, even if the usual few do well... they probably always will, as they have their shit together. The rest are going to find 2008 tough, and 2009 a real bitch :).
Viva Pinata : Party Animals suffers from the normal Krome issue.. Great looking graphics, not so good to average gameplay.
They are definately getting better over time though, look at King Arthur, mention that game to a employee of Krome Studios and you'll be sure to get a chringe :)
yes , this site's commitment to Krome-Bashing is to be applauded. Keep up the good work. Huzzah!
If you could point me to any evidence of Krome-bashing on Sumea that was done by myself or my news editors, then I'd love to see it. I've always admired and respected Rob, Steve (and John in the early days) of Krome, and there's a fair few people I've known over the years who have gone off to work there.
If a poster wrote on Kotaku crapping on Capcom in the comments area, would you say that Kotaku was committed to Capcom bashing? Of course not. So why would you even say something just as absurd above?
Maybe I should put a "The comments area does not represent the opinions of Sumea", but I would have thought people had the sense to know that anyway.
Moving on, the parent comment did say something worth debating about, and he/she said it in a sensible manner too. Here's the chance for you to disagree and tell us your opinion, rather than jumping on the site that allows anonymous comments (just like yours).
I don't see the above comment as bashing though. Its just a apprasial of one visitor to Sumea about a product that Krome have made. Its not saying that Krome are bad etc, just talking about one particular product.
I don't think the intention is to claim that Sumea itself is anti-Krome, but more that the demographic that comments here has a heavy bias. It's just easier to write 'this site', rather than 'the people who comment on this site'. And some of the points are valid. But I think some people (I know I am) are getting a little tired of what feels like every second thread derailing into that discussion, hence the complaints.
For the record, Kotaku gets called PS3-hating and 360-hating and Wii-hating depending on whatever the flavor of the current comments are all the time, too. Tis the way of the Internet.
VP PA is a kids game. give it some kids and then see what they say about it.
sorry, but your too old for the game.
Just trumpetting my own horn here, besides game developers ther middleware scene is going well here including FMOD and BigWorld.
FMOD is developed in Melbourne and is used as the audio engine and toolset behind many of 2007's big titles. These were (just part of the list, there are hundreds)
Guitar Hero III
WWE SmackDown 2008
BioShock
Stranglehold
Metroid Prime 3
Heavenly Sword
Call of Duty 4
World of Warcraft
Crysis
Hellgate: London
Forza 2 Motosport
Tony Hawk Project 8
A few more coming up for 2008 will be Starcraft 2, Alan Wake, Little Big Planet, Forza 3 and a bunch of others. The aussie virus is now spreading its way into the majority of the big name titles :)
Even the above mentioned Viva Pinata : Party Animals used FMOD. :)
Great stuff Souri!
It's mindboggling to think how much effort you put into the site.
It would be great to get some more news and reviews in there. Maybe as gaming content grows within academia some budding journos and writers might like to put some effort in too?
Or the local studios could do some more press releases and PR items to feature on the site??
Mate you do a top job with the Sumea website, keep it up in 2008!!
What does the word "Sumea" mean. It stands out to alternative names there could of been like "ozgamedevelopers" or something.