Reinventing The Game: The Future of Games in Australia and the World

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Reinventing The GameThe Future of Games in
Australia and the World

• Ted Hung
• iDEF Develop Symposium 2008
• November 13, 2008

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Overview

• About Me
• Games in Australia vs.Games in the U.S.
• The Future ofVideo Games
• What can Australia do?
• Where I am heading

3
Education

• Graduated Duke University 2002
• BS Computer Science
• Certificate in Neuroscience

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Education

• Graduated Carnegie Mellon 2004
• Master of Entertainment Technology
• Interned at Electronic Arts

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Electronic Arts

• Accepted fulltime job at Electronic Arts
• Walnut Creek, California, USA
• Redwood Shores, California, USA

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BlueTongue

• Left Electronic Arts in 2005 to accept position
  at BlueTongue Entertainment
• Melbourne, Australia
• Bought out by THQ

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Lucasarts

• Left BlueTongue in 2006 to accept position at
  Lucasarts
• San Francisco,California

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Australian Games Industry

• Small compared to the U.S.
• Still relatively new industry here
• Smaller talent pool
• Less experience

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Australian Games Industry

• IGDA Game Developer Demographics Survey 2005
• Excludes Asian Countries

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Australian Games Industry

• www.gamedevmap.com

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Australian Games Industry

• Much more dependent on external IP developed in
  the U.S.
• Very little new IP being developed in Australia
• Independent games and IP are more common in U.S.
• U.S. companies outsourcing low-risk games to
  Australia

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Australian Games Industry

• University of Melbournes Intellectual Property
  Research Institute of Australia (IPRIA) Assessing
  Australias Innovative Capacity 2007 Update

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Australian Games Industry

• Cheaper than U.S. to develop games
• Lower salaries
• Currency

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Australian Games Industry

• Management
• Better Quality of Life
• Less Overtime
• Less Career PathPlanning
• Less experienced

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Australian Games Industry

• Funding
• U.S. is mostly venture capital or angel investor
  based funding
• Australia has some funding in terms of Government
  Loans
• Majority of funding for Australian game
  companies comes from U.S. publishers

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The Future

• Expanding Demographics
• Current 18-35 males
• Future
• Females
• Casual Games
• Older Gamers
• Younger Gamers

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The Future

• Interactive Australia 2009 report
• 88 have a gaming device
• 54 Male, 46 Female
• By 2010, it will be 50 male, 50 female
• Average Age of Gamers is 30
• Average Age of Non-Gamers is 40

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The Future

• Global Market
• Current
• U.S.
• Japan
• Europe
• Future
• China
• India

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The Future

• Diversified Genres
• Current
• Action, Puzzle, Platformer, FPS,RTS, Party,
  Rhythm, MMO
• Future
• Many moreNiche Genres

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The Future

• The Long Tail Chris Andersen (2004)

Units Sold
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The Future

• Re-emphasis on narrative
• Current
• Action, interactivity, graphics
• Physics
• Future
• Story will becomemore important aswith other
  narrativemediums
• Movies
• Television

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The Future

• The Lumiere Brothers (1895)

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The Future
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The Future

• Emotional Diversity
• Current
• Fear, Surprise, Anger, Anticipation
• Fight-or-Flight Response
• Future
• Love, Sadness,Jealousy, Optimism,Submission
• More complexemotions will beevoked

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The Future

• Maslows Hierarchy of Needs

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The Future

• Distribution
• Current
• Retail outlets
• Future
• Online distribution
• Steam
• Xbox Live Arcade
• Playstation Network
• Wii Virtual Console

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The Future
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The Future

• Business Model
• Current
• Publishers fund developers
• Full games (20-80 hour gameplay)
• Future
• Bypass the publisher, sell throughthe
  distribution channel
• Shorter games
• Episodic Content

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The Future

• Episodic Games

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The Future

• Programming
• Current
• Teams of 30-40 Programmers for a next gen game
  (PS3 or Xbox 360)
• Games are very technology driven
• Emphasis on graphics
• Future
• Smaller programming teams
• More emphasis on content and design
• De-emphasize graphics

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The Future

• Jason Rubin GDC 2003Great Game Graphics Who
  Cares?

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The Future

• Tools
• Current
• A large amount of technical expertiseis required
  to build a game
• Expensive development tools (Unreal, Doom 3)
• High barrier to entry
• Future
• Better development tools
• Cheaper development tools(Torque, XNA, Unity,
  Ogre3D)
• Lower barrier to entry but higher budgets

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The Future Better Tools
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The Future Higher Budgets
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The Future

• Prototyping
• Current
• Very little game prototyping
• Slow iteration times
• Future
• Faster prototyping and development tools
• XNA Game Studio
• More gameplay iteration

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The Future

• Developers
• Current
• Commercial Game Development
• Future
• Independent Game Development
• Non-Commercial Games becomeCommercial Games
• User Generated Content becomesCommercial Content

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The Future

• Commercial games that started out Non-Commercial

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The Future

• Recognition
• Current
• Individual developers are not given recognition
• Publisher takes most of the credit
• Future
• Developers will become more recognizable
• Individuals within game companies willbecome
  more recognizable

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The Future

• Employment
• Current
• Programmers, Artists, Designers, Producers are
  hired on a fulltime basis
• Future
• Employment will be on a contractual basis
• More freelancers in the industry
• More outsourcing of tasks
• Possible unionization?

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The Future

• Overview
• Game development is getting cheaper, faster, and
  more diversified
• Ideas and intellectual property will be more
  important than technology
• Independent developers and independent game
  development will have a greater role in shaping
  the games industry

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What Australia Needs to Do

• Foster more internal IP development
• Encourage development ofnon-commercial game
  projects
• i.e. Film Industry
• Encourage development of gamesfor niche genres
• Encourage more prototype development

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What Australia Needs to Do

• Help bring together the people necessary for
  developing an independent game project
• Programmers
• Artists
• Writers
• Producers
• Hold competitions to encourage development of
  games

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What Australia Needs to Do

• Continue to build the base of professional game
  developers in Australia
• Immigration
• Education
• IGDA Events

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Where Am I Heading

• Make games that tell a great story
• Make more innovative games
• Make games that evoke emotions
• Make games that appealto niche audiences

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Questions?

• E-mail
• ted.hung_at_alumni.cmu.edu
• Web
• http//www.tedhung.com