things are on the up!

Hi – Thanks for the mention…. just a short note to let you know that last week Kapooki began production on two new Games titles… can’t give any more details (NDA’s). Certainly – at the moment – things look like they are ‘on the up’ for us, and it seems for the growing Irish industry in general…

Heya Mike,

Well remember most colleges are finishing up either already in the next week or two, so get one or two Irish graduates to help you out >:)

Jamie

…. A lot of credit should be given to the guys at kapooki for they are the first Irish Games Company, well at least as far as I know. ..[/quote:6df29ff9cf]

Actually …no.

Over the years theres been quite a number of game companies in Ireland, (Gremlin, Funcom etc etc) I know quite a few people that worked for some of them. However they all folded and disappeared one by one. The game industry is well over 10 years old so its hardly surprising that theres been a few here before now. Actually some history of the Irish Game Development scene over the years would be interesting if anyone knew it.

The first and only? Irish computer game publisher that I know of was Chymesoft (part of Chyme music, Naas rd, Dublin). They were in business from roughly 1983-85.
Game developers in those days were usually individuals, not companies.

Publishers I dunno about, but there were a few Game Developers and they had 20-30 people in them. All gone now though. Even in the UK the industry has had a bit of downturn in recent years. But great to see it picking up again, though I don’t agree that one or two companies is the sign of a big upturn. A flicker of hope maybe. Wap and flash game development seems to have more potential IMO. Since it requires a skillset that already exists here and compatively low investment to produce any product.

The killer is the lack of publishers.

Here’s my take on the issues mentioned here…

I reckon anyone could set up a games development studio back in Ireland quite easily, and mix experienced staff imported from the UK and Europe with young up-and-coming Irish talent. However, it’s hard enough to convince a publisher to get onboard with an unproven team of people, so it would be even harder if a publisher and external producer needs to cross the Irish sea (or worse still, the Atlantic) every time they want to drop by for a status meeting or to bash through the issues. You can only get so much done over email…
Anyway it’s not impossible, but it’s not exactly helpful either.

You’d have to do it outside of Dublin too. The costs of setting up in Dublin are far too high, and the salaries you’d need to pay people so they can live there comfortably is just not feasible. Another reason not to set up in Ireland.

As for the theories here about the bright future of mobile gaming – I can tell you that there is no money in it for developers. Aside from the fact that mobile gaming a totally unproven model for creating revenue anyway (outside of shitty SMS games and the post-pub market), Java/J2ME skills are cheap and common and you would be lucky to cover development costs. Additionally, as you’ll see with the launch of N-Gage, publishers are less interested in original IP and more interested in established brands. For a developer that isn’t creating original IP, you’re destined to be a low-paid coder sweatshop. If the work dries up, so does the business. I don’t see it as being sustainable.

As for games-specific university courses, no disrespect to anyone here but personally I feel they are bad idea and damaging to the industry in the long run. Most of the ones I’ve seen are either “games technology” courses (in which case you are better off doing a generic computer science degree and becoming a good software engineer before becoming a games programmmer) or else “games design” courses which I’d argue is best learned from experience anyway – and you can learn to write a design doc yourself, you don’t need a diploma for it. Although I admit – 3D modelling, animation and art is a very specific skillset that definitely requires some training courses.

Not being a “negative Nigel” here though – just being pragmatic. I’ve often thought Havok should team up with some small Irish studios to promote and showcase their technology, since they’ve not yet had a real “killer app” to showcase exactly what their middleware can add to a game (until people saw Halflife 2 at E3, that is!). There’s definitely a future for growing a games industry in Ireland – I know some of the lads in Havok and Kapooki will both tell you that it has been a long and difficult struggle, and they certainly deserve kudos :)

Ian

Unfortunately I think what Kiigan says makes perfect sense.

On the comments about Games Courses, I’d like to make a point. I started out by doing a Computer Applications degree in DCU which gives a good grounding in software engineering and then this year have come into doing a PgDip in Games Technology. If anyone was going to do a games course, I think this is the way you should do it (not that I had plans in doing this 5 years ago!).
If you were to just do the BSc in Games Technology, you are not thaught any software engineering, which I find bewildering.
Equiped with a degree and doing a single year, and lets face it, its only only 9 months, does have its benefits. True, I haven’t hit the real working world yet, but the year has given me a good grounding in the gaming world. I had no idea of the business side of things before this year and have also picked up DirectX and OpenGL. And possibly, one of the more important things I gained, was contacts.

Everything else, I’d agree with.

On the comments about Games Courses, I’d like to make a point. I started out by doing a Computer Applications degree in DCU which gives a good grounding in software engineering and then this year have come into doing a PgDip in Games Technology. If anyone was going to do a games course, I think this is the way you should do it (not that I had plans in doing this 5 years ago!).
If you were to just do the BSc in Games Technology, you are not thaught any software engineering, which I find bewildering.
Equiped with a degree and doing a single year, and lets face it, its only only 9 months, does have its benefits. True, I haven’t hit the real working world yet, but the year has given me a good grounding in the gaming world. I had no idea of the business side of things before this year and have also picked up DirectX and OpenGL. And possibly, one of the more important things I gained, was contacts.

Everything else, I’d agree with. [/quote:ddf3c660d5]

Fair point. I guess I was mainly talking about people doing games-specific courses as their primary degree. Doing it for a year after getting a good ground as a s/w engineer is no bad thing at all, I’d agree with you there.

Yeah, as a primary degree I’d have huge reservations.
If for no other reason than, what happens if you can’t get into games for whatever reason, you’re left with nothing.
The lack of SE that is taught this quiet amazing.

Hi,
I’m just finished the PgDip. Should I want to, I can stay on until xmas to complete the MSc, but that probably isn’t going to happen as I’m getting a taste for doing some actual game work now.
As far as I can see, the degree course is constantly changing to keep up with the ever changing demands and what with the installation of a new PS2 lab over the summer, further changes will be taking place.
The actual teaching of how to program games may not be done extremely well, a lot of onus will be put on you to learn this yourself, but the staff that are available to help out are very very good.
I will be sending a brief course descriptor for the MSc course to Aphra shortly which you may be interested in looking it.
If you have any queries, let me know, you can contact me @ furlond2@mail.dcu.ie.

Damian