The cream of Ireland’s indie game developers and Wee Man took part in the inaugural State of Play event at Dublin Institute of Technology on Friday 25^th November. Hosted by Hugh McAtamney, head of digital media at DIT, the event was aimed at encouraging people to start a games company and learn from many of the hard but often entertaining lessons learned from existing companies. How we got an invite to such a prestigious an event as ever remains a mystery, but we are so glad we did

On entering the arena, on time (yes, seriously), the lecture room was full with people already sitting on the aisles. There must have been 150 people there; at least double original estimates, a great sign for Irish Games Industry and a testament to Hugh. The presenters included a range of indie developers (mainly iPhone, Flash but also RPG for PC and Xbox Live) all 3 years old or younger. The talent in the room was intoxicating, and almost overcame the aroma of 150 guys in one room, me included as my lady friend not so subtly reminded me

First up were Red Wind who specialised in Trivia apps and the inquisitor engine. They now have two studios and seem very successful. They told a great tale of TUAW reviews, Bible app price sensitivity, growth of services v in-house development, role of content and how to cross Scrabble with Tetris! Like everyone that followed they were brutally honest, humble, and humorous with great insight, advice and anecdotes for the audience which devoured it all up. Straight out of the blocks they set the bar high for the rest of the night… and quite frankly scared the bayjesus out of us who had to present 30mins later!

All the presentations will be available in at least Podcast form from the DIT website so i’ll try not to spoil them. However what is abundantly clear, and which may not come across well on podcast is the level of goodwill and energy among the indie games sector. Furthermore, there appears to be a significant scale and spectrum of funding channels, office space and general support available to start-ups in Ireland

Throw in the hilarious and hard hitting comments from Paul Hayes (Games Ireland), the fact Games is specifically mentioned in Ireland’s Programme for Government and the concerted push behind games right now from every direction equates to Ireland being a scarily exciting place for games. Northern Ireland has talent, successes (e.g. Straandlooper DI Hector series) and agency support, but right now the buzz is with Dublin

Alan O’Dea CEO of Simple Life Forms went on to demonstrate the scale of their projects and their vision of playing games in real locations on any device. Never Mind Games demonstrated how to start with little money. Bubble Dreams brought the reality of Freemium to everyone’s attention, notably average iOS game cost $1.05, average value of iOS in-app purchase $14… and on a practical note keep your app below 20MB otherwise it can’t be downloaded via 3G.

Digital Arrow, were truly an international effort behind a new game “inMomentum” for Steam. The game was based on the unreal engine and looked great. They commented on the problems of working together and the key collaboration tools they used (Red Mine (bugs), Google Docs & Skype). Notably, they also commented on how long it takes to get tech people to speak with each other, so agree, have you ever tried to get a techie/developer to answer calls on their mobile??? Digital Arrow described using the unreal engine as ‘mysterious, exciting and being in an ocean of code with only a life vest and a whistle’… certainly a creative mind, who topped it off with mention of a games company with the second coolest name (uh hum), “Rock, Scissors, Paper, Shotgun”

Zinc Software design hardware as well as software. They combine gamification, iPhone and medical recording to create among other things, Zen Games. Zen Games are aimed at controlling someone’s breathing through playing games where the heart rate is a key control aspect in the game. This is aimed at reducing stress through preventative health care. Zinc seem a really high calibre team who will be releasing their SDK soon and a new breed of games, including possibly Poker, where you could see each of your opponents heart rate in real time on your iPhone, Lady Gaga will need a new song!

BitSmith Games are a small but ambitious team that grew out of the Masters course. They are working on a role playing game, based on the Unity Engine. At times they wish they would have tried to make a smaller game first (I hear you brother!), and Eoin reflected on the conversion from making games to becoming a studio “spend a lot of time not making games” by which he was referring to the amount of time talking, administration, emails and being a general business. He reflected many of the previous speakers in stating the amount of things you should aim to get for free, by being crafty (‘Cheeky’) and by speaking with other indie game developers. Importantly they acknowledged that applications were a pain but they taught you much and brought prospect of potential funds.

Open Emotion brought the house down with their final presentation, wit and one-liners… once he got his Mac working! Paddy described the knack of “how to pretend we’re doing really well” and the two key success factors for an indie “Passion for games and being able to talk for Ireland”, both of which he has in aplomb. Their first flash game took 2 weeks to develop and secured 2 million plays which derived just $400. They have learned and progressed amazingly to a stage where they have 2 studios (Dublin and Limerick), 12 staff and have just won a £250k contract. Typically they have the story of living on coke (coca-cola) in their first year, bootstrapping, marketing and all without money. From humble beginnings, Paddy was in a soul destroying job managing a Game store but he even he was “trumped by a co-founder working in a curtain shop”

A panel discussion followed, were Josh Holmes from Microsoft summed up the two things every indie needs: to take advantage of the help out there and be a ‘cheeky bastard’, by which he meant be proactive, go out there and network and follow examples of many of the speakers. Importantly he said there should be no Plan B, and that we should “Open up to the Opportunity of Success”.

Paul (Marketing), who managed to sum up Angry Birds brilliantly J mentioned the financial support out there and the degree to which the Irish Government is behind the games industry. Alongside seed funds, VC funds, Enda Kenny is behind games having “killed zombies in Dublin and M***** F****n Storm Troopers in Galway”. Games Ireland wants to not only support indigenous companies but attract thousands of developers to Ireland by being “better than Canada”.

Other panellists reaffirmed indies to avoid saying “I’ve a great idea but I can’t tell anyone” and outlined a number of national and international events coming up in the next 6 months. Of particular interest was the success that Open Emotion had with PSP Minis. Josh outlined a point for the audience by saying whatever you do, publish your game. Just by publishing you will be among the top % of game developers, and that in publishing you learn an awful lot and get feedback. Josh is running an XMA Gamer Conference in the Spring and only those who have published a game can get an invite.

Finally, the crowd moved on to a local bar, where even two upper floors was barely sufficient for the crowd! We had to leave after party early, but we met many great people, listened to some amazing presentations and would love to be involved next year… based on Friday’s performance the party is only just getting started for the Irish Games Industry, watch this space!  

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