Gametech 2011: The state of Australian game development

Who was there: Tony Lawrence, general manager at 2K Marin and president of the Game Developers Association of Australia (GDAA); Tom Crago, CEO at Tantalus Interactive; and Cari Callewaert, lead unity evangelist at Unity Technologies.

What they talked about: Lawrence kicked off the talk by acknowledging that the Australian game development industry has seen a lot of change recently, highlighting the successes of games like Team Bondi's L.A. Noire and Halfbrick's Fruit Ninja. According to Lawrence, the industry has reached a point where it must ask itself where it wants to go next and focus on its international image.

Crago talked about the recent hardships faced by the local development industry but said that the industry today looks very different than it did a few years ago. For example, while there are still a lot of strong foreign studios based in Australia, in addition to the independent studios that survived, it is the new batch of studios that represent the future of the local industry. These companies have embraced new models like digital distribution and are looking to capitalise on the new wave of success in the local market. Talk shifted to the success of L.A. Noire and the success in the mobile space with studios like Halfbrick and Firemint, with Crago identifying these companies as ones that found new business models to work with and, by doing this, helped the industry get to where it is now.

Callewaert described that his company, Unity, focuses on creating games to help people--for example, a game that helps people overcome a fear of spiders. He emphasised that the Australian game development industry is more flexible than other industries because of its size: it is small and can adapt to change quickly and more efficiently than larger industries.

Crago began discussing the potential for Australian studios to be acquired by other publishers, saying that it can be viewed as a beneficial thing for the industry. According to Crago, there are 1,000 to 2,000 people employed by game studios in Australia currently. "Of course, it's preferable when local studios create their own intellectual property and manage to stay independent," he said. "The industry should be proud of its history of making games in this country; we've been doing it for more than 30 years." Crago said that in the past he has ultimately had to surrender his intellectual property to bigger publishers, a model that has worked for Tantalus so far. Usually, Australian studios have to pay for development themselves, but it's now becoming a lot easier for studios to publish their own titles on platforms like Android and the iPhone. So, is owning intellectual property the holy grail for Aussie developers? Some people think it's more important to hold onto jobs and grow the industry. According to Crago, both are correct. Ideally, doing work that pays the bills is fine--as long as you also have the time to make something that you really believe in. Having a marketing plan is also important; getting the product out there to consumers in the right way is vital to the way that a title is going to sell. Lawrence pointed out that this is one of the benefits of teaming up with a larger publisher: they know how the business works and will help smaller studios in this respect.

Talk shifted to government legislation for the local game development industry. Crago brought up the new research and development tax credit, saying that he believes it is as important a step for the industry as it is for potential investors. While the industry has had some version in the past, the new legislation will make it easier for game developers to work.

On the topic of education, Lawrence believes that the local industry should nurture graduates and teach them the skills necessary to survive in the local market. The fact that the games industry is maturing means that there are more qualified teachers in game development. Established programmers, artists, and designers should present more entrepreneurship opportunities for today's students, particularly when it comes to encouraging game development from a very early stage in order to allow students to learn what works and what doesn't. The panel agrees that this is an area where the Australian government could spend more money, promoting a wider range of game courses and internship or cadetship schemes.

Talk shifted to independent game development with the issue--that the resources required to develop games is steadily increasing--bringing about the question of how much longer independent developers can survive in the current climate. According to the panel, the biggest challenge is game design; indies currently don't know the difference between good game design and bad game design because most do not have the same amount of experience as most established game developers. However, some indie games can be AAA quality, so it is possible to make high-quality games with small teams.

Takeaway: The panel provided a good insight into the current state of Australia's game development industry and touched upon important issues such as education, legislation, and independent game development.