In the last 10 days we have pitched for investment and been  interviewed by the BBC on Gaming as a career for students, both of which has put us on the spot to state the case for Games, and in particular the gaming industry in NI. 10 years ago John Owens (co-founder Wee Man Studios) had to leave NI to get a job in the games industry. Would someone in a similar position have to do that now?

Just across the water, Dundee has a big games industry reputation, why can’t NI? There is growing Digital Media & Games base in Derry, centred round Magee, with NI’s probably biggest games developer Dark Water Studios (Dogfighter). In Belfast we have Wee Man Studios (Galactic Racer) and Creativity Hub (Rory’s Story Cubes) and in Holywood, Straandlooper (Lifeboat Luke). The latter two as an extension and additional revenue stream to their core products.

There may be many more companies and individuals who design and develop games in NI but unfortunately we are not aware of them (please let us know!). Few companies design games exclusively but either way we need to encourage the NI Games industry to promote itself. With Project Kelvin, rise in mobile games, increasingly low barriers to entry, new studios opening up in NI (e.g. ZooGloo) and overall rapid growth of the global games industry, there is no reason why NI should not have a games industry and shout about it from the rooftops.

Including hardware sales, the games industry in the UK is bigger than the film and music industry put together, in America the average age of a gamer is 35. We need to ditch the perceptions, get out of the basement, raise the banners and tell the world what the NI games industry can do. As bad as it was John having to leave NI 10 years ago to get a job in the Games Industry, it would be a sin today with all the talent and technology available if emerging graduates felt the same way. So starting from today, Wee Man Studios will be writing a fortnightly blog on NITechBlog and will be supporting a number of events next year to promote the NI Games Industry. Come join us.

Watch this space

Liam McGarry
liam@weemanstudios.com
@WeeManStudios