The Academy of Interactive Entertainment (AIE) launched their games business incubator program to turn games development students into entrepreneurs late last year, and if there's any proof that they're taking things seriously, the AIE have flown their incubator students to the Games Developers' Conference (GDC) to experience the process of pitching their games and creating valuable industry contacts. It's a path well taken by many local games developers and start-ups over the years, so it's certainly a step in the right direction for these future entrepreneurs.
All up, the AIE are taking 17 startups and 53 individuals from their Sydney, Melbourne, and Canberra campusses to the GDC conference currently held in San Francisco this week.
(press release)
A large contingent of Australian game development start-ups are set to invade the Game Developers Conference (GDC) which kicks off in San Francisco next week. These young digital entrepreneurs, attending GDC as part of the AIE Incubator Program, are ready to pitch their ideas and make some valuable contacts at this annual event.
With 17 start-ups comprising of 53 participants from Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra, these potential tech giants of the future are more than excited at the opportunity to network with some of the world’s most successful developers. “Going to GDC is pretty much a start up studio's dream. Not only do you get bounties of information, but you also get the opportunity to meet all the other developers you could only hope to see” said Daniel La Rocco who is a Lead Designer from Sydney currently developing games for mobile devices with the aim of creating “epic memorable moments”.
GDC is the world’s largest games conference and expected attract over 19,000 attendees to share insights into the future of game development. “GDC is the holy grail of game dev events. I can’t wait to get there and discuss industry trends with the best in the business” said Dale Ward, lead designer of Orbitor, a 2.5D puzzle game for PC.
The young start-ups are hoping to follow in the footsteps of successful Australian independent developers such as Firemint and Halfbrick, who have released successful mobile platform games such as Flight Control and Fruit Ninja respectively. Fruit Ninja has incredibly surpassed 100 million downloads across all mobile platforms.
Games entrepreneur and AIE Chairman John De Margheriti is excited about the impact that the conference will have on the graduates. “Attending the GDC conference in San Francisco will be an amazing opportunity for these start ups to network” said John. "This is their chance to meet the people in the games industry that make things happen and try and try to get some deals" he enthused.
AIE stands for the Academy of Interactive Entertainment, a not for profit educator and one of the world's first specialist games schools. AIE launched the Incubator Program last year to give game development graduates the business, marketing, production and publishing skills to establish commercially sustainable games studios. The AIE Incubator Program is part of AIE's mission to help grow the digital interactive entertainment industries both in Australia and the United States where it recently opened campuses in Seattle and Lafayette.