There's a fantastic four page article at www.theage.com.au on the current issues regarding game development in Australia, with a particular focus on Melbourne. It includes the comments from Melbourne developers Trevor Nuridin (systems manager and director of Tantalus Interactive), Bill McIntosh (Torus Games), and Ben Palmer (director of IRGurus) who discuss the problems arising from the publisher grip on the industry, the lack of original games as a result, retaining I.P, the proliferation of work-for-hire service in Victoria, the rising dev costs of next-gen, and the recent company buy-outs in Australia...
For Mr McIntosh, interest from overseas represents a reluctant exit strategy for Torus, and a growing sense of pressure for independents as a whole. "I find it very difficult to compete with chequebooks the size of THQ in terms of retaining your staff and so on," he says. "These guys have the capacity to clean everybody out and that's a shame, 'cause every company that gets bought out diminishes the local industry. Essentially, you've got an island in the middle of Melbourne that belongs to the US."
It seems independant game developers have it pretty tough in the local industry. Trevor and Bill offer some of their ideas on how game developers could be assisted. From the article...
"The same way that investors get involved with films, we'd love to see that involvement in our industry," says Trevor Nuriden. "That's what we're actively trying to encourage. With independent investors, we can develop projects to their full extent then sell them as working games."Bill McIntosh says one solution suggested is a pooled development fund.
"Investors won't invest in one project but they'd be more likely to invest in a portfolio of projects on the basis that some of them will be successful. That way the ownership of the intellectual property stays in Australia, and so do we."
A great read, be sure to have a look!
While there'll alway be room for the smart independent studio, I think consolidation and increasing professionalism are to be expected in this industry. The days of low wages to kids fresh out of college and eager to make games is drawing to a close.
"The days of low wages to kids fresh out of college and eager to make games is drawing to a close."
I don't know, have you had a look at the Governments new policies?
Do ya mean low wages for senior people now too? ;)
Development costs are rising, the requirement for professionalism from both studios and teams is inscreasing, which drives the costs up further. While there'll alsway be room for talented kids out of school the demographic of the industry is changing - it's ageing and becoming increasingly professional in nature. There's a growing realisation among studios that to obtain the talent required to work on next-gen titles, you have to be willing to pay, especially with a globalised workforce such as that in the games industry. The Australian industry is competing against the best studios in the world for talent, and to attract talent, studios have to be willing to pay.
Increasingly too, particularly with artists, there is the lure of film where conditions and pay levels have been often higher. In order to retain or to encourage people to move from film the games industry is realising that it has to be willing to meet the conditions and pay levels that artists expect and can now demand elsewhere.
The reality is the dev costs required to make games is exponentially increasing - this comes in part form technology but increasingly comes from having to hire ever larger numbers of talented, experienced and professional individuals. So with increased financial exposure comes increased conservatism, both with the type of title produced and the teams studios tend to employ. If you have everything riding on a title for a next-gen console, are you A) going to spend 20-28K on untested kids fresh out of school or source the bulk of your team from veterans who invariably demand much higher figures for the skills they've acquired? Think about it.
Publishers are increasingly acquiring studios so that they can have total control over the development process and to try and keep costs down. Its hard to justify building up a studio overseas on next gen when the risk is so high - when you are taking a S20 to S30 million US bet on a title you are going to want total control over the company. And that cost is purely for the development, let alone marketing and cost of sales.
If you're a standalone, they are going to look at what you have done and who you have on your team and what they have done - to play you are competing directly with any of their internal studios or a successful US independant studio. Your work explicity has to be that good. The issue isn't so much money - its the quality of the work and the elimination of risk. Internal studios are getting very professional - there is just too much at stake to work otherwise.
The US industry is pretty aggressive at chasing quality talent as well. Its way more dynamic than Australia for sure. If you can cut it, they will pay you very good money for your skills.