Games Industry in Ireland – Replay

[Anonymous]

Games Industry in Ireland – Replay

The article by Declan, Aphra and Seamus is interesting, but as someone who was involved in PC game development in the 90’s (PixelMagic), it reads the same as any report put out 10 years ago.

The problem then was money and skills. I imagine sklls is less of an issue now, but money is probably a bigger issue, as budgets for mainstream games have jumped exponentially over the years.

Is there a solution? I suspect the answer is to avoid mainstream, it’s too costly and risky for small players. Niches give small companies the opportunity to find a market that is too small for others. Niche games need not be as highly developed as mainstream. A company that can create several niche games in a year MIGHT hit on a game that really flies. Then they can take the game to a distributor who can see something developed and market tested. Still, chances are slim.

I used to tell my staff in 1993 that PixelMagic had a 1 in 100 chance of making it to profitability. By 1995 I revised that to 1 in 10 because of the technical, market and games experience we had developed. By 1998 we were gone, one of the 99 who never make it.

Enjoy the ride, and think about plan B.Conor O’Nolan

[Anonymous]

Hi Conor and welcome to gamedevelopers!

I think you make a good point and doesn’t it always come down to skills & finance anyway, and ultimately finance?

However, there are some signs that the new dawn has a better chance of making it past 9.00 AM this time;

-Positive noises from state support agencies
-general recognition of the games industry as an industry
-leading lights of indigenous inductry focused on middleware
-Industry organisation via gamedevelopers.ie, IGDA etc.
-Interest in industry from education sector

Of course, there is always more we can push for. Let’s see where it goes this time.

Anyway, we have nothing to worry about. Everyone knows that the best game ever to come out of Ireland was “The Adventures of Robin Hood” and it will be some time before any of the whippersnappers even come close!!

Peter

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