On the outside it looks as though all is great, the power hitters of the Australian game industry are all working on projects and there are a few jobs laying around for those with enough ambition and skill to nab them.
However is all as good as it seems? Australian developers are forced by American publishers to design and develop their titles so that they can be squarely aimed at the American audience. An understandable move since the vast majority of people who purchase their games will in fact be American themselves.
This I feel is very bad for the health and state of the game industy in our country. How are we going to distinguish ourselves as a nation of great game developers if we are forced by those who control the purse strings to make stuff that looks and feels like all the rest of the American stuff on the market?
Developers get feed the lines, ?you will alienate the American market? or ?they won't go for it? which I rekon is a load of crap. Some aspect or another of ?Australian? culture (its always a bit distorted) is popular in the United States, take for example the crocodile hunter. Love it or Hate it and no matter how it distorts the image of the Average Aussie it is a show that has a Australian flavor and is HUGE in America. Then if you take a look at our ?motherland? (the Brits) they have always been avid fans of our soaps.
We CAN push whats left of our culture onto other nations in the form of Electronic Entertainment, cept don't do it like a crappy T.V. show. Aussie Developers are a pretty clever bunch of people we know you CAN make games with fresh and FUN gameplay, just don't be afraid to give it an Australian setting and storyline.
But how mochumbo? Our publisher laughed at us and told us that they could never sell a game with Bunyip in the title. Well i'm not sure of an immediate solution, what I do know is that a government funded firm similar to the Australian Film Finance Commision is required to help make this happen. Don't the government realise that film is a rusting artform and games are the way of the future?
Anyways nothing like a morning rant to kickstart the day.
I'm not a big fan of american social structure and beliefs as a whole but I'm goddam tired of people whineing that everything that goes wrong is because of the americans. Are we that weak as a nation that we can't define our own fate? If you want to change the "americanisation' of australia and the games industry don't buy american 'flavoured' games and don't wear nike shoes while eating Mcdonalds infront of your X-box, sipping Coca Cola.
As for an Australian 'feel' to games, why?? Yeah we have a history too, but it is relatively short and apart from the horrors we rought on the Aboriginal people its pretty sedate and has little use for a dramatic or action based game market. Our history by and large has been determined from outside forces, we went to WW1 and 2 for our motherland England, we went to Vietnam for the Yanks etc. Other countries have a vast amount of rich, exciting historical chapters that they formed through years of social change.
One more rant, Krome did a great job on Ty, hey it may not be the most innovative product in regards to gameplay but the fact is the Australian game industry has a lot of bigger companies to contend with and playing it a bit safe in order to build up your company seems like smart business sense to me.
Just make games that are great to everyone, not 'Australian' games or "American' games.
I think I said some of that stuff about australian history, albeit in shorter terms, but was then told that I was wrong...
To me, it would be nice to actually still have "australian" culture, but really, we are just a slightly skewed attempt at american culture, and that will always show through in our games. Putting in fake aussie stuff is really just marketing bs and to me has no effect on game making/designing decisions.
Snootchie bootchies!
Any off-topic issues send to maitrek@austarmetro.com.au
I recently played the Outback level in Coutner-Strike, and I have to say that its almost australian culture gone bad, there's the ute, the bundy bear, xxxx beer, all the good stuff. Is this all our culture is to the outside world? And if so do we really want it to be included in more games? Plus I've never seen that level being played online at all.
Man I had nearly forgotten about that movie...damn yous! Damn yous all to hell!!!
Snootchie bootchies!
Any off-topic issues send to maitrek@austarmetro.com.au
i just watched Young Einstein by Yahoo Serious, you want to talk about Australian culture gone bad :)
lachlan inglis
Showreel WIP: http://effectism.com/sample/
e=mc2 is the forumla for putting bubbles into beer......
lachlan inglis
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I would like to see people define Australian culture to me :) I mean this in a serious manner.
I have been here for almost 7 years now and I really don't see Australia as having its own culture. I see that lots of immigrants here still "keep to their own" for social circles. People still bring with them their old traditions and ways and really dont seem to create or embrace the new.
I think Australia has a lot of icons - 'roos, koalas, fosters beer (everyone in the US knows about it), opera house, etc etc.
But I am not conviced that Australia has its own culture. I see Australia's culture as a mixture of mini cultures from every other place in the world :) The one "true" culture that Australia has is a culture that some people tried to destory - the aborigines.
-I spent my Valentines Day getting drunk with 40 guys!
Jacana: I've been trying to define it and I really can't, I could define the social structure and major mainstream belief systems but as for culture well all I can come up with is a mixing pot of various cultures. We have a pretty big sporting culture I guess thats the most stand out one. We have a culture of fairness and 'mateship' as Howard puts it (unforunately lately it only applies to white Australians.) We have a culture of tall poppy syndrome, we love the battler but when the battler gets above us, we want to take him down. We tend to define ourselves based on our icons and what the rest of the world is doing as opposed to history because ours isn't that old.
I wish we started to define ourselves from our actions and strengths not from some tourism marketing idea like the Crocodile hunter. Crikey!!
I'm guessing your from the US from your post. "...everyone in the US knows about it..."
And yeah the aboriginal culture is the original Australian culture, just like the American Indian culture, seems we have something in common with the Americans apart from our fat children.
You miss the point, we ARE a nation of immigrants. Our culture IS a mishmash of those who have moved here! That is Australian culture! When you moved here 7 years ago, you brought your own little slice of culture with you and we welcomed it with open arms as part of "Australian culture". I brought this point up earlier, Americans make up a tiny slice of immigrants to Australia, yet there media swamps our shores and hence there cultral influence is unfairly huge! As a result it would easy for someone to take a quick glance and only see a reflection of America in Australia, dig a little deeper and you will notice a swag of these "mini-cultures" bustling for space.
Just because we don't have a history of violence and oppression (excluding what was done to the aboriginals, that was bloody disgusting) where we had to goto war to fight for our freedoms or rights doesn't mean we don't have a colourful past, it just means that we were sensible enough not to mash each other over the head for it.
But if you want to see cliche Australian culture of days of old, come on a little road trip, I'll take you to real rural regions and you will shades and glimers of that marketed culture that is naturally blown out of proportions for the mass media. You will see racism, you will see mateship, you will hear some accents with that aussie twang and you will see drinking that verges on the insane.
As for what kind of culture I want seen in games... I want to see bushranger games, games based on aboriginal mythology, 70's bikie gangs. games based on the gold rush and the stockade (That was really the begining of the cultural melting pot) and games that portray the rape of australian industry by foriegn corporations. I want games based around grity crime of miltant unions of the 80's!
We don't have a history of violence hey, well if thats true then its just because of the shorter time period we have had to commit the atrocities, your comparing a few hundred years to a few thousand remember. I think weve done alot in our short time that could be classed as oppressive and violent, we are still doing it.
Not sure If you realise but 70's bikie gangs kinda originated from the US of A.
If you want to see Australian flavoured games then try making one, I'm sure there are lots of people who would help you, but don't bag the Americans because the majority of the nation idolises their ideals.
The games industry like any other industry is about making a profit, its a great industry and alot of us do it because of our intense love for games but if American flavour sells, so be it, I for one just want to make fun games, I could care less if it has an Korean/mexican/antarctican feel to it. Just stop blaming the Americans and start buying other games, or as I said make one.
Mochumbo: Quote"..rape of australian industry by foriegn corporations..." man does our government or the population in general have any responsiblity in the way we are as a nation or are you just going to blame everyone else.
I know I'm sounding all high and mighty but really guys no one takes resonsiblity nowdays its all buck passing. Rant over.
If we are going to get into our government and its responsibilty towards its adoption of "Free trade", the deregulation of agricultural industries and the detremient it has to small to mid sized australian industry I will literaly crap on about that for hours but thats getting very off topic. At NO point did I blame anyone or pass the buck, I said I would like to see it as an undertone or theme to a game... To explore its causes and flesh out solutions in an entertaining manner, to develop games that go beyone the click fest fast food nature that they currently are.
Your point about profit is exactly true, and considering the American market is huge in comparison to ours, its little wonder that games are specifically aimed at the Americans. I have mentioned this and offer the solution that an Australian publisher or government assistance would help lead to the development of games aimed specifically at the Australian Audience. But to suggest that the majority of our nation idolises American ideals, I think is false. We have become so accustomed to games being aimed squarely at American market that its easy to get confused with the real fact that just maybe Australians might want to play Australian themed games if given half the chance, unfortunatly the Americans might not "get it". And as you suggested that profit dictates the direction of a title to be aimed at the largest possible audience, the aussie idea will be scraped by the publisher in favor of an American one.... Just so they can appeal to the larger audience.
Yes I understand that bikie gangs are kinda originated from America, but have you seen old footage of arrests of Australian bikie gangs?? About the only thing American were the bikes they rode. Yes we have commited violent atrocities and still are oppressive to some races within this nation. But nothing on the scale of other nations in the quest for "freedom", yet people have claimed our history to be bland and boring simply because we only have 200 years of it.I mean a game that employed a bit of social commentry on these very Australian issues would surely be a benefit to the people of this country... Of course the game would still have to be fun, but what if after sitting in front of a computer game the player walked away with the idea that "hey, thats fucked up... I don't like whats happened to those people"
As for making Australian games... Well since i'm new to the whole game creation scene i'm starting with a mod and yes its Australian themed and yes it can still be classed as click click fast food... (http://bystander.ausgamers.com) As for which games I buy, I generally stick to titles that are pretty neutral. SimCity, rollercoaster tycoon, civ, but if I dig around I do probably own a couple of American themed titles.
As for a mexican/antarctican RTS, that would definitly be on my must have list ;) I mean who would pass up the chance to command a massive army of penguins?
If i'm passing the buck, i'm passing it by saying hey Australian studios don't get to make stuff they really want to because they have to please an American publisher and American audience. I can afford to sit down and hammer away at a little mod in my spare time, but for you and everyother developer in the forum. Wouldn't you like to have a little more creative control over your products if you had an Australian publisher? Wouldn't you rather satisfy your own gaming desires then that of an American audience? Yes it is all about making fun games but surely you would rather draw on local inspiration rather then be feed inspiration by an American publisher?
quote:I'm not a big fan of american social structure and beliefs as a whole but I'm goddam tired of people whineing that everything that goes wrong is because of the americans. Are we that weak as a nation that we can't define our own fate? If you want to change the "americanisation' of australia and the games industry don't buy american 'flavoured' games and don't wear nike shoes while eating Mcdonalds infront of your X-box, sipping Coca Cola.
As for an Australian 'feel' to games, why??
Because no one else wants to answer this question and would rather test out their nitro flame thrower on you and bitch about America vs. Australia, I think I'll answer your question.
As a budding section of the market, Australia is in a unique position to define it's style of gaming, rather than just plain old American style gaming (and please don't bitch about me branding the current style of gaming as "American" I've gone through that flame war before, just go back a coupla pages). Australian culture isn't entirely based on violence - as for the history, we've never started a war with another nation ( the only war we did start was with the indigenous inhabitants) but obviously we've taken sides in some instances. As to what makes up this whole Australian style of game? I don't think that's up to any individual developer to say, my personal point of view as perhaps a future part of the Aussie industry, is that I'll make a game using any influence I like, which to me, is part the Australian culture.
Where the rest of the industry stands on that situation is up to the rest of the industry, but I think what people are bitching about here, is that the rest of the industry seems content to just go with the flow of mass-marketeable gaming (the so called American style), and the Australian industry takes no risks in it's content.
My point is, put Australian content in a game if it fits in, exploit the fact that we've got Australian cultural references all around us, which America can't use first hand, make an Australian style game if you really want to, the whole "ned kelly" hero worship syndrome springs to mind. But obviously, I'm a big advocate of just making a good game and using whatever material is best suited for it.
But for the record, Ty was just sub-par, I mean to me you stated the whole problem with it. It's just too darn safe, and playing the same game I've played before just doesn't get me off, even with a Tassie creature as the main character. Hell I was even born in Tassie and the patriotism doesn't flare at all. Sure it's business "sense" but then, so was Dirt Track racing and see where Ratbag are now, making more dirt racing games - and now they are attempting to break into another type of market which I'm not sure they've got the background in to accomplish, and will people even accept that kind of change? You have to be fairly ground breaking nowadays if you want to break out of being a niche-market developer.
Snootchie bootchies!
Any off-topic issues send to maitrek@austarmetro.com.au
I'm just jumping right in here and making my comments without reading back on the rest of the comments - so I apologise if I repeat anyone's points or what have you. I would be making the same comments one way or the other.
In my experience, the trouble with the Australian games industry is a corollary of problems in the worldwide game industry. It's no coincidence that I look back on many games I played as a kid far more fondly than the ones that have come out in the past ten years. I came across a Six Pack of Ozi Soft Classics for the Commodore 64 the other day - it included probably the best Commodore game of all time, Wizball - and I was just knocked out by the level of innovation in concept they were able to achieve back then. Games weren't about shit-hot graphics, or sound cards, or online playability or what have you. They had little more to offer than their game play and concept, so these things had to be bloody good.
It's perhaps no coincidence that the rot started to set in as the capabilities of the home computer really began to take off. It's even difficult to remember the days before this - remember when your parents bought you a computer because it was educational? Remember text adventures - the early Sierra games? Douglas Adams' game version of `Hitch-hikers Guide'? A lot of these games were intellectual as opposed to visceral, something we've largely lost. The `blam blam thankyou ma'am' reputation of games came a long time later later and, in my opinion, have handicapped them ever since. Games used to be about so much more than this. I'm certainly not saying all games ARE like this today, but the crutch on which the industry rests is basically increasingly sophisticated variations on Castle Wolfenstein.
The industry is so large now that it has starved itself of innovation. It's a vicious cycle: a new game becomes more expensive to develop. Therefore, to be viable it must sell more units. Therefore, it must appeal to the greatest number of consumers. It must be equally attractive to Average Joe as it is to Highly Intelligent Joe or Chimp Factor Five Joe. And therefore - it must be as safe as possible. An innovative game that falls on its ass can be a disaster - look at Black and White. The guys with the deep pockets would much rather build a first person shooter based on a popular TV show or movie, which Granny is going to reach for when it's Sonny Jim's birthday, than take a gamble on innovation.
Where does this leave the Australian industry? Most Australian developers as nothing much more than cheap sweatshops for overseas publishers who want to churn out another sequel, or another game based on a pre-existing franchise (Starship Troopers, Fallout:Tactics, South Park Karts ... or whatever the thing was called ...). This keeps Australian studios open, but it actively discourages them from being innovative with gameplay, with concept, even with graphic style. An original idea is so unlikely to go ahead that it's not even worth spending the time on.
The greatest irony of all is that the biggest success of the last few years, `The Sims', was also both the most simple and the most innovative. You could have easily played The Sims ten years ago (we did ... anyone remember Jones In The Fast Lane? [:)]) because it's got good, solid gameplay and an attractive concept.
As you can see, I'm not particularly optimistic about the local scene, and I find that a terrible shame.
well australias culture can be described in many ways but when you trully look at it from a distance we have three channels of american tv one english and one covering events from around the world, if you cast sports aside the only real arts that gets any airplay is our music which is a proud export.
as for our games i think any company that can make a serious go at it we should support because our alternatives are???
as for ty a game with australian fcolloquialisms i rekon good on ya maate bloody ripper of a game eh!
oh yeah go see ned kelly when it comes out because its damn unpatriotic not to.
support australia buy our games and music and go to the cinema when our movies are released.
nannoo nannoo
quote:Tripitaka : It's perhaps no coincidence that the rot started to set in as the capabilities of the home computer really began to take off.
Well to be honest here, I'm not entirely sure that everything produced is rot, but the fact of the matter certainly is that modern computer games are focussed on the lowest common factor. It's happened to pretty much every entertainment medium in the past 30 years or so. Music, cinema, animated cartoons, even things like literature, things like poetry have been transformed in rap/hip-hop culture, it's all become part of appealing to the largest possible audience.
The only entertainment media that maintain their sense of artistic value, or any value other than their commercial, are things like theatre or classical music, opera (most of the so-called neo-classical stuff is wank though) and pretty much stuff that can be appreciated by a few, but is not mainstream applicable - the reason these things are always associated with the "well off" is because they are the only people that can afford to pay for it's existence.
I think you can see how this could apply to computer games as well...at first it was more a playground of the rich/lucky/middle class until every thomas, richard and harold had one.
quote:Tripitaka : The industry is so large now that it has starved itself of innovation. It's a vicious cycle: a new game becomes more expensive to develop. Therefore, to be viable it must sell more units. Therefore, it must appeal to the greatest number of consumers
Computer games are just like every other form of media out there, they must appeal to the lowest common factor. However, I don't agree that it's driven entirely by the fact that australian game developers are *forced* to make boring sequels or bankable games. I think it's because the great Aussie games industry actually doesn't give a crap about changing the state of the whole industry or avoiding the stereotype. The industry is big bucks, and that's how most people like it, the more money you can make on a game, the better it must be right? (well wrong, but whatever floats your boat)
quote:shiptu_shaboo : oh yeah go see ned kelly when it comes out because its damn unpatriotic not to.
support australia buy our games and music and go to the cinema when our movies are released.
I'd hate to think that someone went off and saw a movie I made, or read a book I wrote or played a game I made just because it's Australian. Due to the fact that I am a bit of an artistic person myself, I'd like to think that my game would be appreciated on content, not it's origins, and I always play and buy games based on that. Voting for (ie buying) Australian products simply because they are Australian could have a negative effect on the ozzie industry due to the fact that our developers will simply think "Wow all I have to do is release a typical game, nothing innovative at all, and people will love it" when really if you vote on content and don't buy based on origin, and the developers have made a shit game, then they'll either get their act together and try harder next time, or just leave the industry altogether.
well when i pick any object up whether its in the supermarket to the computer game store i always check to see if its australian product, that doesnt mean i will buy an inferior product just because its australian it just means that i support our economy because that is where i will be employed that is where my taxes go and that is where
my future is this is, this is where i live and if brought overseas products steadily i would find myself either unemployed constantly or living in a third world country
nanno nannoo
quote:Maitrek: Computer games are just like every other form of media out there, they must appeal to the lowest common factor. However, I don't agree that it's driven entirely by the fact that australian game developers are *forced* to make boring sequels or bankable games. I think it's because the great Aussie games industry actually doesn't give a crap about changing the state of the whole industry or avoiding the stereotype. The industry is big bucks, and that's how most people like it, the more money you can make on a game, the better it must be right? (well wrong, but whatever floats your boat)
Yes, but the problem is that without making bankable games, an Australian industry is simply not viable. Few developers I know would prefer to toil on yet another sequel or clone rather than developing an interesting and original game on their own, but if it's down to a game you don't want to develop or none at all, you have to choose the former, or go out of business. I don't think the Australian industry is commercially motivated by choice - it's commercially motivated because the development of a game and the maintaining of a design studio is a VERY expensive business indeed. You MUST be working on something all the time to justify the overheads - as little as two weeks of idle time is enough to lose you a lot of money and require you to lay off staff.
The saddest thing of all is, as I said, that the larger games industry can only really move forward *if* people innovate, and they're not being allowed to. The same goes for the Australian industry. It becomes very difficult indeed not to become not much more than a branch office for a larger overseas company (who tend to treat their overseas partners appallingly - I've heard exactly the same complaint from Canadian developers).
It's difficult to see what the solution will be. Again, this goes for the whole industry, and for much of the wider media and entertainment industry too. The only way developers will make better products is if consumers refuse to accept mediocre ones, and unfortunately it's not something I see happening soon.
Call me naive, or a tool, or a dreamer, but I think that there is way more to life than money, if the aussie games industry wanted to make innovative games, they could, but they want money instead so they make bankable products. I don't think them going out of business is an entirely realistic proposition, unless you've got some exmaples of aussie developers trying innovative games, and then going out of business?
I think it's entirely based on choice. If enough individuals were prepared to work hard enough on an innovative game for the reward of getting the product out there (and a reduced wage compared to the $80,000+ a year programmers expect and royalties etc etc) then it would happen - but the fact of the matter is, getting enough committed individuals to do this is unrealistic because people just want cash and the more the merrier.
The industry is not "risking" much, they want safety, security, and future, just like an average workforce. It wasn't so long ago that making games was a labour of love, not of profit! I think alot of new developers have forgotten the hard work that those earlier people did to lay down the groundwork and build up the industry that they get their bread on the table from.
Sure I believe aussie game developers are sell outs, and I think they are greedy too - not that they are ridiculously money grabbing.
I'm sure alot of the people in the industry are in it because they love it despite the crunch times the stress and the missed milestones, but there's no risk when it comes to the pay cheque compared to the old days because the old days of making "risque" games and innovative products are over, no one wants to resurrect those working conditions, we're "too good" for those conditions nowadays....I think this is just a difference in opinion, and I'm pretty much as stubborn as a mule and I'm going to stick by my opinion.
quote:well when i pick any object up whether its in the supermarket to the computer game store i always check to see if its australian product, that doesnt mean i will buy an inferior product just because its australian it just means that i support our economy because that is where i will be employed that is where my taxes go and that is where
my future is this is, this is where i live and if brought overseas products steadily i would find myself either unemployed constantly or living in a third world country
Sorry to be a smart-arse (and I hate smart arses - I'd probably punch me if I met me in the street :)) but that point of view is amazingly one sided. If Australia is forced to compete on an international level in terms of product, then people overseas will buy our products as well as aussies buying products - heard of exporting? That helps us out! Australia is a small market - some 19-20 million people in Australia - let's say any old individual alters their choice of product by 10% towards their countries produce based on feelings of patriotism or "supporting their country".
Now imagine if America did the same with their products over ours? A 300 million person market and we lose 10% of that because they choose American products based on patriotic reasons and see how those figures kill our export industry!!! It just doesn't make sense to just say "well this countries population is more important than this other group of people who lives miles away from me because I don't know them". I think this boils down to my belief that everyone is equal. I think I have a bit of a saying "no matter how good you think you are, you probably aren't actually a better person than the people you hate most". Just to sort of show you where I'm coming from here.
By you choosing Aussie products over an overseas product, you damage the overseas companies - you might not care too much about them because you live thousands of kilometres away, but I don't want to judge anything based on where it's from, rather than it's content. It's all about treating things equally for what they are...
I know the rest of the world doesn't think like this and it's unrealistic to imagine people ever will...but they probably should :) At least, in my opinion....I'm sure the rest of the world thinks that I should think differently, but I'm as stubborn as they are in terms of changing my thinking.
quote:Originally posted by Maitrek
Call me naive, or a tool, or a dreamer, but I think that there is way more to life than money, if the aussie games industry wanted to make innovative games, they could, but they want money instead so they make bankable products.
But this is my point entirely. I think there's way more to life than money, too. It was a contributing factor in my leaving the games industry. Believe me, it's very easy to go in there very idealistic, believing that if you come up with a great, innovative idea that somehow it will get off the ground and become a huge hit, but - I'm sorry, it just doesn't happen that way. Australia is a very small fish in a very big pond.
Australian game studios don't WANT money. They NEED money. This is not an issue of greed, it's an issue of being able to exist - to break even! Do you know how much it costs to run a games studio? I worked on one project that was barely even off the ground when I joined it, but two million dollars had already been poured into getting it that far. Each artist on the team was working on a $12,000 computer. The overheads are astronomical.
The idea that anyone would go out and make a game in the Australian industry solely in the pursuit of profit is absolutely laughable, I'm afraid. It just doesn't work that way. That's not what Australian developers are after, and even if they were, it's not in their reach. If you want to make a huge amount of money, you have to spend a huge amount of money, and the amount of money required to make a game huge just doesn't exist within the Australian industry. You might get an American publisher to take it on, but even then you would have to spend an enormous amount just to get it to the standard where a publisher would even consider it.
I hate to disillusion you - I hated to say the same things (worded a bit more mildly) to the many people who would email me saying that they had a wonderful idea that would definitely be a big hit and could they discuss it with the CEO urgently - but it just doesn't work like that. When's the last time you heard of an unknown designer going in and wowing the biggest game publishers in the world? Counterstrike, perhaps - but that's a single example, an exception and not the rule.
Australian developers are absolutely in it for the love: let me emphasise yet again, there's simply not that much else to be in it for. I can tell you now that salaries are next to nothing, especially for programmers, there's no job security or project stability. When you are working on a project, rather than running around making presentations to convince someone to fund your project, or finding someone else to fund your project because the other guy dropped out at the last minute, or sitting around a speakerphone at 4am listening to some asshole in America tell you how incompetent you are for making some mistake that one of their employees made anyway, it's about the most fun you can have in any job. It's just that anyone considering entering the games industry - as passionate as they are, and they need to be passionate as hell - should know that they need to drop a lot of their illusions at the door. That's the hard reality.
I think the global economy is a fallacy its based around a competitive point of view and honestly Australia cant compete with America; we don?t have the population we cant produce the same amount of goods.
That is why when you go to the computer game store to buy a game there are a hundred American products to our one.
We are struggling our fledgling game industry needs as much support as possible and dismissing an Australian product just because it is Australian or knowing our companies don?t have the budget to develop a product at the same level as the American competitive is cutting your own throat.
As for killing Americans export industry? yeah right!
if Americans thought that we were patriotic and brought our games over there?s do you think our games would seem more interesting to them?
I do.
Nannoo nannoo
Lets just say this,how much or wether an australian developer is in it for love or money is irrellevent, the fact is game development is an economic industry, designed to make a profit, they need to keep there heads above the water by making a product that will sell, if it was feasable that a game would make money with an acceptable risk they would do it, they are not stupid.
There may be more to 'life' than money but bussiness is not a mirror of life, money talks even if we don't like what it says.
Just to add to that, itt is unfortunate that we must rely on overseas (not just american)licences and ther ilk to get a foot hold in the market in australia and internationally but I believe the biggest threat to the Oz game industry is a lack of community between developers, schools and the government, it is a massive industry ripe for the picking but we havent capitalised on this fact.
Alot of brisbane companies have round table meetings to discuss various issues and I believe this is an excellent start and these types of forums (Sumea) help to promote our Australian industry , its people and aid in actively discussing issues that need to be resolved.
I just think we need to lay off the "its someone elses fault" talk and get to work fixing what is wrong. Australia is an amazing place with some of the most talented and capable people around I just want to see them stand up and be noticed and actively change the industry from within.
What a rant hey :P
****Warning**** this post contains a naughty word due to my lack of extensive vocabulary and inability to express myself eloquently.
Sorry to be crude Tripitaka, but if the Australia games industry *really* was that bleak, why the fuck is anyone working as a professional games developer when they could just spend some of their free time making amateur hobbyist games and working on ideas and innovative games that they'd enjoy making?
You make it sound like anyone in their close to right mind would be better off spending four/five years in Uni and then some general programming experience for a coupla of years to get the requirements for a working visa in America and go work there instead of wasting time on a fledgling industry that'll never get anywhere here.
I don't think you quite got my point Maitrek - what I'm emphasising is that if you want to enter the Australian games industry, don't do it for the money. Do it for the love. There are enough passionate and talented people out there to make it a great industry, but you can't enter it wearing rose coloured glasses on.
quote: Malus: Just to add to that, itt is unfortunate that we must rely on overseas (not just american)licences and ther ilk to get a foot hold in the market in australia and internationally but I believe the biggest threat to the Oz game industry is a lack of community between developers, schools and the government, it is a massive industry ripe for the picking but we havent capitalised on this fact.
The NSW State Government are terrible for this - their IT policies are hopeless. The Victorian government is streets ahead, which is why so many games studios and other IT initiatives have sprung up there. And when we reach the Federal level ... yeesh. Does Richard Alston even own a computer? It's a terrible shame that we don't have Kate Lundy, the Shadow Minister for IT and Sport in charge - I've met her (she actually gave a talk about this very subject at the AGDC in 2000), and she really knows her stuff. Sadly, in a climate in which they are more worried about building bigger and badder Net Nanny programmes rather than bringing broadband to every house in Australia or building an independent IT industry, computer games are going to be at the bottom of the pecking order for some time.
The way it resembles the early Australian film industry is uncanny ...
Actually by the last census we haven't even cracked 20 million people yet, just scraping past 19 million now.
And we do have many games, not all of them "decent" in the classical sense of an FPS, but most of the games produced in Australia sell relatively well, here and overseas. Its just that its a very small industry in Australia still, but we are getting more and more companies over here, and so in a few years the games should start flowing.
With regard to the culture thing, a good game is good regardless of what culture it emphasises, and a poor game won't be made good by jsut adding random bits of culture into it.