sick of local industry hype on sumea...

Submitted by astroboy on
Forum
General Chat

I regularly come to this site for local australian game dev news and have begun to get sick of the local praise of guys like John Passfield, Steve Stamatiadis.. etc.. granted these guys have done well but how about other Australians overseas and their achievements? I also know some veterans in Australia who never get interviewed and they get little praise... Am I alone on this?

Submitted by Caroo on Wed, 01/11/06 - 11:35 AMPermalink

Well it's a valid point mate. It would probably be safe to say there are a few aussies here and overseas who deserve some kind of public recognition.

But for the two examples you provided, John and Steve. These two are so commonly spoken of because they ADVERTISE themselves.

One of the keys to becoming a known industry name in my eyes.. Is that the fame wont come to you. You have to take the time to explain and show people what you're up to and what your current project is.

It comes at a cost.. Some will see you as having a big ego. But if you find a nice medium between showing your high quality work and peddling it to the public you should be getting that recognition you so mostly deserve.

What do others think?

Submitted by J I Styles on Wed, 01/11/06 - 11:36 AMPermalink

I'd never considered it an issue before -- I dont want to invalidate your opinion because you obviously feel this way for a reason, but yeah... can't say I'd ever thought about it as an issue before.

The people you talk about have achieved a lot in their lives and therefore get exposure which then gets reported on here. If you've got any candidates, name them names, or write an article, or suggest interviewing a person I guess.

Submitted by souri on Wed, 01/11/06 - 4:07 PMPermalink

To be fair, I (and the news team) report on what we find around relating to the local game development. If there is an article related to those people you've mentioned, I don't have a problem reporting on it. I don't think their names pop up in Sumea news as often as you think though, and I can only recall articles on, say, John Passfield or Steve Stamatiadis, only a handful of times this year. Someone can google sumea and check if you like, but I'm sure they don't appear that much at all per year.

But I do understand what you're saying, and you're right, there's plenty of individuals in the industry worth interviewing or writing a feature about. I know of a few Aussie developers working overseas that would be great to have something written up about. Thankfully, Sumea now has a great news team that can do this, so we can expect some of those articles sooner or later.

If you have any other suggestions on individuals that should be interviewed, by all means, let our news team know or post their names in this thread.

Submitted by astroboy on Wed, 01/11/06 - 4:26 PMPermalink

thanks for your replies.. I totally understand that sumea basically grab what they can find on the web regarding any interviews of australian developers.

What is the email address of the news team to send names and details too.. ? I remember on a forum someone saying that an aussie guy was working on the game project offset? that game is looking great.

Submitted by Tempest on Wed, 01/11/06 - 4:36 PMPermalink

You can catch me at rileyrock*AT*gmail*DOT*com

Any suggestions for people in the industry to catch up with are more than welcome. :)

Submitted by souri on Wed, 01/11/06 - 5:02 PMPermalink

Yep, that's Rod Green. He used to work for Tantalus, Atari Melbourne House, BioWare, and he's now at Project Offset. He's actually one of the judges for the current Sumea modeller challenge as well.

You'd be surprised at the amount of Aussies working overseas. I know of a fair few (many are visitors/members on this site). Unit is working at Funcom, Kris (you'll see his Rainbow Six pics in his gallery, currently on the front page), Me109, Rod etc. I have a friend working at Shiny, but I've lost his email address.

Actually, I've been meaning to conduct an interview with the 4 or so Australians working on Quake Wars at Splash Damage. Maybe that's something the Sumea news team can think about conducting. That would be immensely cool.

The team has some interviews planned already with some industry people from smaller game companies (with people you haven't heard too often in the news) which I'm definitely looking forward to.

Submitted by Red 5 on Wed, 01/11/06 - 7:17 PMPermalink

[QUOTE=Souri] Yep, that's Rod Green. He used to work for Tantalus, Atari Melbourne House, BioWare, and he's now at Project Offset. He's actually one of the judges for the current Sumea modeller challenge as well.
[/QUOTE]

Ah cool, I haven't heard from Rod since he left Atari... good to know he's doing well, nice guy and a great artist :)

Submitted by Zax on Thu, 02/11/06 - 6:46 PMPermalink

Caroo is right. The guys you hear about are the ones that promote themselves. Most people are not interested in fame and fortune and just want to work on games. (A lot of those people also give very boring interviews)

Posted by astroboy on
Forum
General Chat

I regularly come to this site for local australian game dev news and have begun to get sick of the local praise of guys like John Passfield, Steve Stamatiadis.. etc.. granted these guys have done well but how about other Australians overseas and their achievements? I also know some veterans in Australia who never get interviewed and they get little praise... Am I alone on this?

Submitted by Caroo on Wed, 01/11/06 - 11:35 AMPermalink

Well it's a valid point mate. It would probably be safe to say there are a few aussies here and overseas who deserve some kind of public recognition.

But for the two examples you provided, John and Steve. These two are so commonly spoken of because they ADVERTISE themselves.

One of the keys to becoming a known industry name in my eyes.. Is that the fame wont come to you. You have to take the time to explain and show people what you're up to and what your current project is.

It comes at a cost.. Some will see you as having a big ego. But if you find a nice medium between showing your high quality work and peddling it to the public you should be getting that recognition you so mostly deserve.

What do others think?

Submitted by J I Styles on Wed, 01/11/06 - 11:36 AMPermalink

I'd never considered it an issue before -- I dont want to invalidate your opinion because you obviously feel this way for a reason, but yeah... can't say I'd ever thought about it as an issue before.

The people you talk about have achieved a lot in their lives and therefore get exposure which then gets reported on here. If you've got any candidates, name them names, or write an article, or suggest interviewing a person I guess.

Submitted by souri on Wed, 01/11/06 - 4:07 PMPermalink

To be fair, I (and the news team) report on what we find around relating to the local game development. If there is an article related to those people you've mentioned, I don't have a problem reporting on it. I don't think their names pop up in Sumea news as often as you think though, and I can only recall articles on, say, John Passfield or Steve Stamatiadis, only a handful of times this year. Someone can google sumea and check if you like, but I'm sure they don't appear that much at all per year.

But I do understand what you're saying, and you're right, there's plenty of individuals in the industry worth interviewing or writing a feature about. I know of a few Aussie developers working overseas that would be great to have something written up about. Thankfully, Sumea now has a great news team that can do this, so we can expect some of those articles sooner or later.

If you have any other suggestions on individuals that should be interviewed, by all means, let our news team know or post their names in this thread.

Submitted by astroboy on Wed, 01/11/06 - 4:26 PMPermalink

thanks for your replies.. I totally understand that sumea basically grab what they can find on the web regarding any interviews of australian developers.

What is the email address of the news team to send names and details too.. ? I remember on a forum someone saying that an aussie guy was working on the game project offset? that game is looking great.

Submitted by Tempest on Wed, 01/11/06 - 4:36 PMPermalink

You can catch me at rileyrock*AT*gmail*DOT*com

Any suggestions for people in the industry to catch up with are more than welcome. :)

Submitted by souri on Wed, 01/11/06 - 5:02 PMPermalink

Yep, that's Rod Green. He used to work for Tantalus, Atari Melbourne House, BioWare, and he's now at Project Offset. He's actually one of the judges for the current Sumea modeller challenge as well.

You'd be surprised at the amount of Aussies working overseas. I know of a fair few (many are visitors/members on this site). Unit is working at Funcom, Kris (you'll see his Rainbow Six pics in his gallery, currently on the front page), Me109, Rod etc. I have a friend working at Shiny, but I've lost his email address.

Actually, I've been meaning to conduct an interview with the 4 or so Australians working on Quake Wars at Splash Damage. Maybe that's something the Sumea news team can think about conducting. That would be immensely cool.

The team has some interviews planned already with some industry people from smaller game companies (with people you haven't heard too often in the news) which I'm definitely looking forward to.

Submitted by Red 5 on Wed, 01/11/06 - 7:17 PMPermalink

[QUOTE=Souri] Yep, that's Rod Green. He used to work for Tantalus, Atari Melbourne House, BioWare, and he's now at Project Offset. He's actually one of the judges for the current Sumea modeller challenge as well.
[/QUOTE]

Ah cool, I haven't heard from Rod since he left Atari... good to know he's doing well, nice guy and a great artist :)

Submitted by Zax on Thu, 02/11/06 - 6:46 PMPermalink

Caroo is right. The guys you hear about are the ones that promote themselves. Most people are not interested in fame and fortune and just want to work on games. (A lot of those people also give very boring interviews)