As part of the Australian IGN’s new feature, Developer Friday, they flew off to visit Auran’s studios in Brisbane to get the grand tour, and to talk about the state of the gaming industry in Australia, how Auran operates, and about the games that the team there currently have in development.
When questioned on the status of industry in Australia, and if he was concerned about a decline, CO of Auran, Tony Hilliam, had an interesting view of what the future may hold.
The 'Australian games industry' is a bit of a misnomer; most of the studios here are either owned by international publishers or they do work for hire for international publishers. Truly independent Australian-owned studios like Krome and Auran are really the only major ones. All the others are owned by large international studios, with the money going offshore. I've got genuine concerns for the industry. China is getting more creative, and they are hiring more international support to help them. Eastern Europe is very competitive - most of the money is already going out of our country already, and it's going to be very hard to be competitive once China gets its act together properly.
He also had some advice for those interested in getting into the gaming industry:
There are courses like QUANTM for example - you've got to demonstrate a passion for games and you've got to have a portfolio that says 'this is what I've done'. Get an engine - if you're an artist, get some programmers; if you're a programmer, get some artists. Make it look good, make it run, make it fun. It doesn't have to be original, even if it's a mod. It's demonstrable work. From there, start at the bottom, climb the ladder - from QA, swallow your pride. If you want to be lead game designer, start in QA and get some skills. You're never going to start at the top. Everyone has great game ideas - what matters is the execution.
you linked to page 2 :P
Thanks, it's been fixed.
Thanks, Souri. The edit function sends my posts back in time for years. ;)
At least in Melbourne, I would have added IR Gurus and Tantalus to the list of independant Australian developers that have managed to get out independant titles. They've been round since the mid 90's and IR Gurus has managed to get out an independant title through Codemasters with another on the way, and Tantalus has Payload on the DS, plus there are many other promising developers such as Firemint and Torus.