What does it take to make a game in Australia?

THE Aussie developers of Clockwork spoke to news.com.au about what it took to make the innovative game.

IT’S a well-known fact computer gaming is a multi-billion global dollar industry which rivals Hollywood in many respects.

But while Australia has a well-established movie industry making successful local films and TV shows, the games industry here is not nearly as vibrant — but does feature a range of smaller, mostly independent studios working to produce a range of innovative titles

Vishal Gumber is the CEO of Parramatta-based studio Gamesoft, which released its steampunk-themed PC platformer game Clockwork on Steam on October 11.

The game takes place in the future when people have encased themselves in mechanical bodies and find their world is starting to break down and decay. As well as traditional platformer gameplay, Clockwork also uses an innovative time-bending mechanic which the player can employ to solve the game’s increasingly complex puzzles.

Mr Gumber said the game was a result of about two years of work from a team of about 25 people. It had also not been cheap to make, he said, estimating the cost to be about $500,000.

“We need to sell 50,000 copies to break even,” he said.

It sounds like a lot of money to make a video game and Mr Gumber agreed it was a surprisingly involved process.

“The key areas the money gets sucked up is art and animation,” he said.

“The first thing is you need a game designer, they’re someone who can write the game on a piece of paper, what the levels are, what should be in each one, a proper plan for the entire game. You need an experienced game designer,” he said.

Atto, the main character of Australian-made steampunk platformer game Clockwork, holds hands with Milli, the time-spirit who lives inside his pocketwatch.

Next on the priority list was a producer, he said, explaining that without one, it was difficult to ensure the approximately 1500 man-hours a month involved in making the game were being used as effectively as possible.

“The animation guy could spend 10 days to make a finger move and the programmer says that’s not the way you should have done it,” he said.

Mr Gumber said testing was critical to the game development process, as not getting that right would have dire consequences come release day.

“If it (the game) is not right, people will kill it in a day with negative reviews — that’s two years worth of effort down the drain,” he said.

One of the big challenges facing the Australian industry was the lack of experience, he said, adding that fortunately passion and enthusiasm still abounded locally.

While many large developers had Australian studios previously, they have closed down, leaving the Australian games industry with “a bit of an experience problem”, according to Mr Gumber.

Mr Gumber said games designers need experience to create world-class games, but as there weren’t many games studios left in Australia, the people with the skills and experience for major projects have headed overseas where the jobs are.

He said this did not bode well for the future of the games industry in Australia, particularly when it came to major projects, especially if the major companies did not set up or return to the country.

“There’s so much competition; it’s prohibitive to make a (major) game here,” he said.

The team at Parramatta-based games developers Gamesoft, who recently released steampunk platformer game Clockwork.

Adding to the issues of experience and local knowledge, Mr Gumber said consumer attitudes towards mobile games in particular needed to change if the Australian games industry was to become economically viable.

“Mobile and tablet games, people think they should be free,” he said.

“It’s cost us $500,000 to make and consumers don’t want to pay for them.

“People think the (mobile) games are free, so they shouldn’t cost much to make — it’s not true, we have to keep paying people.”

Mr Gumber said while Gamesoft was viable by being an offshoot of Mr Gumber’s successful mobile app development company AppSquare and he said the most important trait of a successful developer or business owner was persistence.

“I think my newness to the industry is why I’m still here,” he said.

“We’ve learned experience the hard way.”

That persistence has paid off, with Clockwork out now on the Steam platform.

“We’re beyond thrilled to finally give fans their chance to explore the world of Watchtower that we’ve crafted in Clockwork,” Mr Gumber said.

“More than two years of development, as well as an incredible outpouring of support from the community, has led us to this point — and we’re very excited to get the PC release out of the gate.

“A big thankyou to all the feedback from fans and media who’ve spent time with the game — we’re committed to delivering a clever and compelling game and look forward to future platform releases.”

Originally published as What does it take to make a game in Australia?