Yesterday I was privileged enough to be invited to an Executive Round-Table discussion. The topic revolved around the local game development scene in South Africa. Now, before I ramble off in a plethora of topics it’s probably a good thing that I tell you that my knowledge of the local development scene in South Africa equals my knowledge of something like football, ballet or how to get a rocket to the moon. Like you, perhaps, I’ve always been focused on what happens outside of our borders. I therefore shut my trap and listened to everything that was said.
Be aware that we had various members from various walks of life attending this very important step for local game development in South Africa. We had Professor Barry Dwolatsky (probably the most humble person I’ve met in my life) – Director JCSE of Wits University, Microsoft representatives, DTI government, developers (local and international) the media (SA Gamer, SA Techie, NAG, MWEB and HTXT) and also, very importantly, a Swedish contingent.
You see, the Swedish folks who attended the Round-table has been involved with some of the biggest games of our time. Do any of you know Battlefield? How about Minecraft? Oh, and then there’s this small little title that has my wife (and most of the world) wrapped in sweet addiction – Candy Crush. Sten Selander, known as the Grandfather of the Swedish and Nordic Games Industry to us mere mortals, started things off by explaining the lows and highs in their road to success in Sweden. Like us they also have the government taking light years to make decisions, but thankfully we had government representatives at the round-table to take notice and become a part of the bigger picture. It’s at this point that I was made aware of the local scenario when it comes to game development.
Nick Hall, an attorney by day and pretty much Batman by night, has been running Make Games South Africa for the last three years. It’s a non-profit organisation that’s fighting the hard, messy and muddy struggle behind the scenes. Because gaming does not have its own category in South Africa it’s been slapped in the face and slotted in with film. You know the Film and Publication Board (FPB) who rates our games? There are plans to change all that, and that’s part and parcel of the uphill battle. If you’re wondering just how big game development is locally you might be surprised. Though the numbers were nowhere near our Swedish counterparts (I mean common – Minecraft alone…), it warranted respect.
Herewith some bullets points (and I won’t lie, I nabbed this straight from the documents we were handed):
There are 32 active game development companies in South Africa
Overall the games industry has directly created 240 jobs
The local game development industry is valued at about R30 Million
22.9% of the industry is female (55 in total)
Only 5% of the industry is ‘Black’ (13 in total)
Only 31% of companies (10 in total) generate their own games for sale to consumers (that’s us). The remaining companies rely mostly on business-to-business and similar contract work.
28% (9 in total) of the companies have been trading for longer than 3 years
46% (15 in total) of the companies incorporated in 2013 and 2014
The bottom line is that game development in South Africa is in reality something that’s moving ahead really fast behind the scenes, but requires more funding to grow. While we’re all losing our minds about AAA games and other well-known Indie titles, such as FEZ, Limbo and Super Meat Boy (to name but a few), the local heroes are developing classics right under our nose. The money is mostly made outside of South Africa because, simply, South African gamers don’t care. We only want AAA. Now, having this new world brought to my attention I simply had to see more. Right after a very successful session, of where there will be more, I made my way to something called A MAZE.
I’ll be honest, I’m not quite sure what A MAZE means, but you can’t spell AMAZE(ING) without it. In the heart of Johannesburg city there is currently an exhibition on the go that involves students from Wits University, as well as other local and well-respected international developers showing off their games they’ve been working on. Or, so I have been told. You see, I would not dive head first into an interactive art gallery without Garth (the Wookiee kind) by my side who comes with a wealth of knowledge when it comes to the ins and outs of the local development industry. Don’t forget, I’m a self-confessed console fanboi. To my surprise I saw a move controller and several Xbox 360 controllers being used for experiments. They call these experiments ‘prototyping’. To get to the ‘prototyping’ stage they do what they call a ‘jam’.
Understand that to me this was all new and exciting. What’s a jam? It’s exactly what it sounds like. When a rock band enters a jam session they walk away with a few riffs and some ideas that at some point turns into a song. Well, these talented developers go into a jam session of 30 mins and at the end they see who comes up with the coolest prototype within that 30 mins. That prototype eventually becomes a game after years and years of working on it. In the main room there were several games available for you to test out as you please (we saw a game by Allesandro from Lazygamer too). Garth played something called Parallax, which looked all too similar to Thomas Was Alone, but with a twist of course. Our tour guide, Hanli Geyser (who teaches at Wits) was so excited to show us everything that I could not help but fall in love with what was there. She showed me a game called Cadence, all locally developed, that has you playing a three-dimensional audio puzzle game. It’s mesmerising and one I advise you look at. She also showed us some titles that will be on the Apple App Store as well Google Play in the near future. People, South Africa has an abundance of talent.
I walked away from yesterdays adventure (because that is what it was to me) quite embarrassed that I’ve been calling myself a ‘hardcore’ gamer for years, but at the same time grateful to have been amongst some of our future talent. I urge you to change your stance on the local scene. Don’t assume that you know what’s going on, as your guess is guaranteed to be way off. Stop this ‘South Africa sucks’ mentality. You’ve got no idea just how ‘international’ we actually are. Embrace local gaming. It might be Indie for the time being, but you might very well see their names on AAA titles in the not-too-distance future.
If you’re keen to check the local scene out give A MAZE a visit. You can find all the information you want right here. It’s a local interactive art exhibition for gamers. And you’re all invited.
Going forward we have plans to integrate Make Games SA into SA Gamer for you all to be up to speed with developments from the best talents in this country, or perhaps you’re looking for guidelines in the game development industry. We’ll do our utmost to support the local scene here on SA Gamer. And I sincerely hope you do too.