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Over the last, 19 months or so, that this site has been running we’ve seen a large gathering or people on this site, some regular, some more infrequent, from a number of companies and universities. We’ve seen the the immergence of the the Irish IGDA chapter and the rise of Tony Kelly in the IGDA ranks. We’ve middleware companies on the rise like Havok, Torc and Demonware.
What I was wondering was, is there any signs / rumours of a commerically major game hitting the high street shelves within the next couple of years? Do we have yet have a games company that can offer that and open up the real possibility of serious games developer and publishers locating in this country with the piece of mind that there are like minded people in the vacinity ?? -
Interesting question Omen, Surely 2005 will be a more promising year for the Irish games scene!
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Great Question Damian.
Also why has bugaboo’s website expired?
Are TKO just doing mobile (=phone) games? -
I mean, over the months I’ve heard rumours about studios setting up and then never hearing anything about them since. (Bugaboo is a good example )
And how about Kapooki? How are things you them, last I heard they had got themselves a nice contract, would be going public about it, but haven’t heard anything.
It seems like there is still a lot of talk but who if any are the movers and shakers taking the bull by the horns and put Ireland into the games world.
I’d love to do it, but I’m still several years away from being in a position to be able to do anything like that. -
Someone was also hinting at a big name developer that was on ‘the verge’ of setting up here a while ago…?
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Seems very strange to be honest. You think games companies would be flocking here to keep the good solid tax rates, and the highly educated and talented work force. But none so far.
Maybe in the new year, or perhaps its all down to us indies.
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Kapooki showcased their circus management game at Awakenings. That looks to be going well for them so hopefully we’ll hear more on that soon.
Also, here’s a quote from the Torc Interactive website to show how they’re doing:
“Torc are also working on their first original game title, which they will pitch to over 30 publishers later this year at the annual Game Connection event in Lyon. All going according to plan, we hope to be in a position to staff up an go into full production sometime in the 1st half of next year.”
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Someone was also hinting at a big name developer that was on ‘the verge’ of setting up here a while ago…?[/quote:40d8133563]
That was probably me :)
Haven’t heard any more about that either…
Although I think it was a marketing/support department. Dunno about anything else anywhere in the near future.You think games companies would be flocking here to keep the good solid tax rates, and the highly educated and talented work force. But none so far.[/quote:40d8133563]
There’s no proven pedigree here is attract them… Reckon Ireland is better known for its database proficiency. -
True, but the low tax rate is something, and the graduate success rate here in Ireland is higher than that in the UK. Although they have a much larger population most are not driven towards third level education.
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Companies seem to congregate though.
Look at Derby – you’ve got Core, Circle, Eurocom, think Criterion are here and think there is someone else
Dundee – Vis Ent, Vis Sci, Denki, Simeon(sp), Rockstar just down the road.Once you get A company, you’re more like to get more…getting the first one is the problem.
The UK has just always had games companies and no matter how much better the irish the education system may be, you’ll always get top notch grads no matter what the country.Yes the low tax rate is there and now is a good time to try get benefits from the the government even though you’ve still got the stupid violence misconception which may get in the way. You don’t have a publisher ( although the uk isn’t really that far to travel, as long as you’re based near an airport ). But as a country, we’re unproven…
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What I was wondering was, is there any signs / rumours of a commerically major game hitting the high street shelves within the next couple of years?[/quote:466d90533f] there are a few irons in the fire, shall we say – just nothing that has been/can be announced as yet… as to whether they will be ‘commerically major’… well, that remains to be seen
And besides, just because a game may be given an AAA budget does not mean it will be successful….
I agree with what some of you have mentioned re: the attractive tax regime in the Republic (lacking in the North, alas)… and the highly educated English-speaking workforce is also a benefit
The advent of Eastern European developers has hit us on the software development side though, as although the island as a whole is approximately 20 – 35% cheaper than the US, we can’t compete on price alone with Indian, Asian and Eastern European prices – and E.Europe in particular is getting quite a reputation for low, cost quality delivery – both in and outside the games industry
The crap broadband (at least in the Republic) also has to be doing us some harm
I’m not sure I agree with Omen’s point about companies liking to congregate… I think that tends to occur naturally around more established studios as developers who have been there a while want to head out on their own and start their own firms, etc.
On the whole Bugaboo thing… last info I had (froma little birdy at Awakenings) was that they couldn’t raise enough finance here to see them through Pre-Production on the title they were planning, and have headed back to the UK for a while to try and raise cash there themselves before returning and trying their luck again
Also, in your end of year summation, you neglected to mention CanDo, Starcave and Demonware who have all had some measure of success this year in their various activities. Upstart & Selatra continue to go from strength to strength, and as well as Awakenings (ahem) we also saw a flurry of activity in the Academic & educational side of things.
So while there may be no significant announced titles (AAA or otherwise) in development on the island as yet, there has been fairly significant growth in the sector this year…
If I was a betting man – which I occassionally am – I’d wager there’ll be a fairly significant development or two announced next year
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I’m not sure I agree with Omen’s point about companies liking to congregate… I think that tends to occur naturally around more established studios as developers who have been there a while want to head out on their own and start their own firms, etc.[/quote:9f9c13ed6e]
Yes, but isn’t that a case of like minded people in the same area, and thus congregating…Also, in your end of year summation, you neglected to mention CanDo, Starcave and Demonware who have all had some measure of success this year in their various activities. Upstart & Selatra continue to go from strength to strength, and as well as Awakenings (ahem) we also saw a flurry of activity in the Academic & educational side of things.[/quote:9f9c13ed6e]
If you read again, you will see Demonware mentioned. As for the others you mentioned, I have little knowledge of what they are doing other than seeing occasional postings here about them.If I was a betting man – which I occassionally am – I’d wager there’ll be a fairly significant development or two announced next year[/quote:9f9c13ed6e]
I hope your right :) -
Hi Damien,
To answer your question Kapooki is working on a project at present. But as you know independent studios can not go around shouting about what they are doing (even after they are signed – until a ‘joint’ statement is agreed and the publisher PR people have control over it).
However it is always in the developers best interest to keep it’s head down and ‘do’ rather than ‘talk’.
Other than saying that Kapooki are working on a PC / Console title and that we hope to be able to announce something shortly (could mean 1 month or 12) is the best we can do. (however I am not implying that we have a publisher contract!)
Believe me we would like to be more specific – but until all i’s are dotted and t’s crossed we would only be shooting ourselves in the foot. Its fair to say if we were announcing anything ‘official’ it would come via a publisher and would probably arrive on Gamesindustry.biz before it was ever announced on this forum (because of publisher control – and our commom sense)…
As to the future – 5 years ago when Kapooki and Havok started out there was no other activity to speak of … now there is a lot more…. 2005 will have its highs and lows – but I think the momentum is increasing in the Irish industry and everyone is making great efforts to ‘make it’.
Don’t forget the UK industry took almost 20 years to mature (with thousands of failures)… and even to this day there are some companies falling by the way side.
In summary – Best of luck to everyone in the Irish Game industry – lets hope 2005 will see further growth in our momentum.. and lets hope someone can make a development announcement soon (For Omen is growing impatient!) :)
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Can you at least tell us what type of Demographic you are aiming for Grifmike.
Bye the way I thought your talk at Dare two weeks back was interesting, if a little pesimistic…. ;]
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After Awakenings I really believe the future is bright for Irish game development. As Tony highlighted, there are several companies who are going from strength to strength. I think it’s without doubt that 2004 has been the best year yet for game dev on this little island. 2005 will only be better. (Hopefully ;))
Bye the way I thought your talk at Dare two weeks back was interesting, if a little pesimistic…. ;] [/quote:bd222fbe46]
I wasn’t there but I know the style of Michael’s speeches. I would guess that he was being more realistic rather than pessimistic. -
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Hey Michael,
I thought your talk was very insightful, and although it it was quite broad on the concept of gameplay, i did take a number of things from it.
I am entering the competition this year, im on a team with Darren Furlong (Short spikey bleech blonde hair with the cooperative based nudey people concept from last year!) and we did find that most of your talk sort of apply into our concept and how we approached it, having either a negative or positive effect.
So overall, we did benefit from it and it made us take a look at our concept from a different angle. Weve given it a trim around the edges and we feel that it was necessary after listening to your talk. Its obviously got a long way to go, but so far so good,
Btw, saw your game demo at awakenings, looks like some crazy fun! Was eager to give it a shot but there was two lads on it all day, presumably from kapooki, so it didnt happen!
Oh and the last thing, if it werent to much trouble, could you post up your presentation for the dare talk somewhere so we could get a hold of it? Even if you emailed it to me at paui@iolfree.ie, id greatly appreciate it!
Cheers,
Paul
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Hi Paul,
Thanks for your comments on the Demo at Awakenings – always good to ‘test your expectations’! :) (but it does make you sick with worry as to how people will react – it’s an occupational hazard I guess!)
We got overall a fantastic reaction to our early demo (very early) – and the project is coming along nicely I am happy to report.
I have to say one goes through a lot of Sh*t in this business but days like what we had at Awakenings, when people really responded well to our idea makes it worth while (and with the BBC crew falling all over themselves to film it over and over again was a real pleasing outcome!!!).
Of course the demo was still as rough as an elephants arse compared to where it needs to be – but the fact that everyone got it and saw the fun in it was great! :)
I am delighted the Dare presentation gave you some assistance in looking at your concept from a new angle – that’s all I was hoping to achieve!
I have already sent the presentation to your e-mail account.
Best of luck in Dare.
Mike.
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Hey Mike,
Good to hear it. Last time I met you you were hoping to make a public announcement within a month, but things do change and publicity isn’t always a good thing. Just look at Core…our website’s being re-designed and there is no talk of a single game there at the moment.
I didn’t intend a doom and gloom topic of no-one is saying anything therefore its all gone to shit. It was meant as a putting feelers out to see if anyone out there was in a position to say anything about current situations, just like you’ve done. All of the mysterious companies that I’ve heard rumours of, do they actually exist or not?
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Hi Damien,
Yep point taken – I would struggle to tell you all the companies that are in or claim to be in the games space in Ireland at the moment.
Now that does make it difficult to sort the men from the boys … but at least it is a sign of positive momentum in general within the Irish games sector, and in general there are some really talented people getting in and doing their bit. Havok are clearly the sectors success story at present, with Demonware certainly growing stronger by the quarter in the middleware sector. In the PC/Console development space there are some great crews working on this: Torc & Kapooki are the two closest (that I know of) to be looking at a possible 2005 breakthrough. But like everything in life there are no guarantees, some may fail but overall I feel the industry is moving forward.
Obviously it will speed up if one of the local developers can secure that all illusive publishing break through… watch this space (yet again!)
You had better hurry up and come over here to set your studio up – cos if (don’t read into this!) Kapooki did go south I need to send my CV somewhere! I don’t see myself working in a bank or insurance!
Anyway… all joking aside…
I think I read somewhere on the site that you were not going to be able to make the Shindig tomorrow? Bloody shame. It looks like (for once) I will actually be able to turn up to one!
Anyway if your not able to make it – Merry Christmas to you (and everyone else who can’t make it!) and have a great New year!
Mike.
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I have already sent the presentation to your e-mail account[/quote:806f7fdfe4]
Thanks a bunch for that Michael.
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Don’t forget PurpleNose games too:
Any one know if any of them are coming tomorrow?
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Anyway I will (hopefully) be at Toners on Friday night for the shindig – so we could discuss it more there – maybe I should buy you a pint to make up for the trauma of having to listen to me for 15 minutes (although I thought I kept the pace moving!) :) (I am a humanist at heart!!)
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Appreciate the offer Mike, but I have Christmas shopping to attend to (sigh’s dejectively).
You did indeed avoid any relation to present or future at the Talk, but still having listened to you I could not help but feel that there are certain parts of the indusrty that are unattainable at the moment by the average joe, like a job for instance. please don’t take this as a negative Mike, but you have your position in a games company(no doubt well deserved) but to us who are just coming out of college after bloody years it’s a bit disheartning to be confronted by such obvious facts: that presently, the industry is full… a little more enthuasiasm would go a long way, not that you weren’t enthuasiastic, becuase I thought you had an excellent approach to your topic, so again thanks for listening and enjoy Fri.
*Omegas slips a 50 in hope of some info on the new game*
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Hi Omega,
but to us who are just coming out of college after bloody years it’s a bit disheartning to be confronted by such obvious facts: that presently, the industry is full[/quote:ca1ea994d6]
Believe me I understand where you are coming from on this one!!
Re: more info on the game – am bound and gagged on this one :(
Have a great Christmas.
Regards,
Mike. -
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Mike is your presentation going up on the Dare website? Even if it is we could also put it up on gd.ie if people thought it might be useful?
Aphra. [/quote:0fef3c87be]
It would be much appreciated if you could, Mike. It would save you from a thousand people emailing you about it! :) -
I think awakenings was a great boost for the industry here.
Dont forget about US either. ;)
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Mike,
Yeah I still haven’t made a shindig, this is my closest yet, missing it by a day, I fly in on Saturday morning.
Don’t know where I’ll be on saturday night, if I’m in Dublin, I’ll drop into Toners to see if anyone is around, but the chances are probably low…
Maybe you’ll be around Rosslare over Xmas? -
Hi Aphra,
I have no real objection to putting up the presentation BUT –
First the Warnings:
This presentation was meant to be a very, very general discussion based presentation on a general overview of Game Play.
It is by no means in depth or an A-Z approach as it would take a lot longer than 15 minutes to get into anything other than the 50k foot view.
Also I tend to make my presentations dependent on their being a presenter (me usually) to expand on points – so that input is missing ;).
Also I can’t upload PDF files to my post – which is a bit of a snag I fear!
Finally – is it me or does the fact that ‘I’ am providing Game Play slides on developers.ie sound a little bit wa*ky?
Mike.
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Hi Damien,
I Will be down in Rosslare on Christmas day – but in Kilkenny for the rest of the holidays :(
Any plans to visit Kilkenny over the Xmas?
Mike.
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Dont forget about US either.
“We are currently working on a mini game that will help promote peace and reconciliation in Northern Ireland.” [/quote:dffd1d4bab]
I remember hearing about your project at Awakenings, Gizmo.Another way to promote peace would be to have a WWE style ‘Peace Process’ wrestling game. Just imagine the possibilities:
Dr Ian Paisley VS Gerry Adams
Martin McGuiness VS Nigel Dodds
You just know you’d be raking in the millions!! :D
Best of luck with it either way. :)
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I’ve no transport in Ireland other than the good-will of family members as I’m not taking the car over, so Kilkenny does like a big trek.
Finally – is it me or does the fact that ‘I’ am providing Game Play slides on developers.ie sound a little bit wa*ky?[/quote:680023aa22]
That’ll almost make you as famous as Mr. Kelly! -
Another way to promote peace would be to have a WWE style ‘Peace Process’ wrestling game. Just imagine the possibilities:
Dr Ian Paisley VS Gerry Adams
Martin McGuiness VS Nigel Dodds
You just know you’d be raking in the millions!! :D
[/quote:d117c9bcdf]
I wouldn’t mind having a play at that meself.
The hardest thing we’ve encountered so far is doing this without offending anyone, I think we’ve managed to pull it off though. ;)
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By the way, how is Phooka pronounced?
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yep the questions raised about the future evolution or otherwise of the development of our ‘sector’ in Ireland initially appear as frustrating as ever – while Mike has explained some of the practical difficulties associated with what some have experienced as a pre product launch limbo [that time when you are gagged by agreements but really wanna shout from the rafters] he & his colleagues are developing full time, all the time – something that in itself deserves recognition and respect !
it’s really heartening to see soooooo much activity now compared to say 1995/6/7 when there was actually zero measurable activity – (source Enterprise Ireland Interactive Entertainment Software Feasibility study circa 97 – I know, I wrote it.) Yes the e-learning bandwagon was about to hit town – yes the word mobile gaming almost entered the lexicon, telekinesis research and perhaps two others were becoming seriously committed to some form of full time game development activity. 10 years and at least 10 very big lessons later the situation, while perhaps not ideal is very very much more healthier and continues to improve:
Kapooki, Cando, Demonware, Torc, Meedja, phooka, purplenose, Starcave, upstart, eirplay and a number of others are contributing to a new critical mass of game development activity on this island. Fitchsounds and other specialised ‘support’ companies, in animation, ecommerce and other digital mediums are beginning to underpin and strengthen than mass. Even sections of the academic community are fully on board today. An event like awakenings or darklight or DTBD all, in someway publicise that mass – efforts are now underway to concentrate that critical mass and get formal and realistic supports in place to allow it to grow. A point were quality and quantative data enters a research equation. Forms like GD offers community support and real opportunities to interact and exchange views and Ideas.
People like Tony, Mike, Aphra, Frank, Peter, Steve, Gary, Dylan, Mal and many many more (even me) are now acting as professional ambassadors for the whole industry – for the first time in the history of the industries development on the island we form a critical mass also. Deals are being done, some succeed, some don’t – but at least the door is now open to do them and when you enter you are taken very seriously – that in itself is a quantum leap – so I’m moving – yes I’m off to reside in ‘the undiscovered country’ because in my personal opinion we are entering a growth phase, all of the above are nourishing that growth, essential for it and I am personally optimistic about what 05 can and will bring.
THX
MJM -
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Hi Mick, (Clevercelt)
so I’m moving – yes I’m off to reside in ‘the undiscovered country’ because in my personal opinion we are entering a growth phase, all of the above are nourishing that growth, essential for it and I am personally optimistic about what 05 can and will bring.[/quote:793e9684ee]
Best wishes to you and yours for Christmas. We all are rooting for the Midas innitiative! Hope launch etc. are huge successes!!
Have a great New Year.
Mike.
P.S. Never let it be forgotten that all the crew at Taintech have always been vital in assisting, and aiding in anyway they could the new kids on the block!!!
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Taintech rulez
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