Gd.ie and Jamie McCormick are asking if you could help with two things: an update to the Irish games industry survey from last year and an expat survey. Results of both will be published here on gd.ie and elsewhere in the media in summary form. Read on to see how you can get involved. (Aphra)
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As you may be aware, last year I (Jamie) published a report looking into the Irish Computer Games Industry, to map out where it is, what it’s made up of, how many people work across all the company types, and to see how it is growing. The results were impressive.
The 2012 survey identified 91% jobs growth since 2009 with over 2800 employed across 80 companies by October 2012. It also identified significant growth in the game development sector of activity in Ireland. A summary of the report is available athttps://gamedevelopers.ie/features/viewfeature.php?article=5652
The full report is available as a PDF at https://gamedevelopers.ie/features/TheGamesIndustryinIreland2012.pdf
Workings are also available at http://irishgamessurvey.wordpress.com/
So for 2013, I am looking ahead at doing the next one, as I unofficially count about 100 companies in total. However, I need to find out if people have closed, merged, phoenixed out of the ashes of ones that shut down, started, or went from being a part time or college project to a full time project. I also didn’t really have much luck on the North, so I’d like to really improve this to have an all-island view of the industry this time around.
So favour number one, if applicable, is for you to pass this to any Irish people you know working in the games industry based in Ireland, please ask them to go to http://jamiegdie.polldaddy.com/s/irishgamesindustryreport2013 to be on the report.
I’ll take figures for February now, and then get an update of numbers at the end of October again, and put this out in November. I’m especially interested in those of you who did the last one and have changed numbers.
Now for favour number two, and this is where all of those of you who have fecked off somewhere hotter come in :) ! I am running a survey of Expatriate game development personnel across the world and need you to share them a link to fill in a 10 question survey – tinyurl.com/ismaithliomcacamilis
What I am trying to do with this survey is fairly straightforward, looking for honest, plain English answers. I’m asking when they left, where they’re from and if they did college, what they did, how they got to their current job working on what games and platforms, why they left Ireland (ie family commitments, better career opportunities, better weather etc) and if they’d come back, if they’d want to work for a company or set one up.
Any help on this would be greatly appreciated, it’s a slow burner and I want to aim for 50 participants, and I have over 25 already and would like to get the report published in the early summer. The expat survey report will be overlaid over the one I’ve done, to try and find areas where there are overlaps, but maybe only entry and mid-level roles, and where there are clear gaps.
This will enable colleges to adjust courses, and stakeholders in the industry to see what needs to be done over the next two years to get us going from baby steps to toddling about. With up to 30 companies going to be catered for at http://gamesireland.ie/wordpress/420/pilot-games-co-shared-space-established-by-games-ireland/ , the industry is going from strength to strength, and the more we can show this with facts and figures, the more we can help build on the real industry that exists here today.
Please share any and every way you can – pint, text, instant message, email, tweet, phone call, blog post, or good old fashioned printing this message and handing it to the Irish person you work with.
Thanks!
Jamie