Phl game dev’t industry: Getting ahead of the game

MANILA, Philippines - The PC and game consoles industry is rapidly evolving, and advancements in processing, programming, graphics, and design will continue to spur the growth of the game development industry.

International research firm MarketsandMarkets reports that the global animation and gaming market will be worth $242.92 billion by 2016.

Industry revenue primarily comes from PC games and devices that carry games as a secondary feature. However, the most notable development in the game industry is the proliferation of mobile devices such as smartphones and tablet computers. This has expanded opportunities for increased revenues and employment in the game development sector.

“The worldwide game industry is estimated to hit up to $90 billion by the end of 2012. The top game development companies are trying hard to sort through to still find ways to continuously better their business models,” said Alvin Juban, president of the Game Developers Association of the Philippines (GDAP).

“Economies of scale are favoring the smaller game studios right now because of smaller burn rates and especially with the trend of using newer and more cost-efficient game engines. What has been also getting a lot of attention is the trend in serious games, which in a nutshell, is gamified learning of almost any topic,” said Juban.

Crowdsourcing

He added that companies and indie developers are now more keen on “crowdsourcing” to get their games ideas on the production line.

GDAP, a partner association of the Business Processing Association of the Philippines, reports that the country’s game development sector is still in its infancy, with only about 60 firms as of December 2011.

Despite this, the local gaming sector aims to get a big slice of the industry and increase its 0.2 percent share in the global game development market. In 2011, the industry had less than 3,000 employees and earned $12 million in revenues, an increase of 13 percent from 2010.

“Game development companies based in countries like Taiwan, Korea, Japan and recently, France have explored opportunities for joint venture projects with us, as well as training partnerships and consultancy for establishing a Philippine presence,” Juban said.

Talented workforce

The Philippines provides a rich stream of talented workforce equipped with the skills set to perform character design, game programming, application programming for use in games (such as the creation of chat application for online games), user interface design, motion capture services, game art and animation, voice dubbing and sound production, game porting (translation of existing games into other language formats or into other platforms), game testing, and gamer community support.

“The lingering bearish global climate in the US and Europe has moved players to start extending their resources offshore to create competitiveness. With a highly trainable and competent talent pool, we are confident that global clients will realize the potential of the Philippines as the destination of choice for outsourcing game development services,” Juban said.

Juban also noted that game developers, IT professionals, and graphic artists in the Philippines also provide support for game management for top games like Farmville and casual games for social networking sites like Facebook.

Other skill sets that Filipino game developers possess include end-to-end game development of mobile and casual games, character creation, 2D and 3D art and animation, 3D modeling and texturing, motion capture clean-up and editing, custom game design and development, game testing, concept design, concept art, and character illustration, all of which require meeting international standards of world-renowned game publishers. 

For Juban, the game development industry is the place to be. “With the booming sales of tablets and smartphones seen to blow the top off most predictions, it is obvious that a game development career is one of the most aspirational options in the world,” Juban said.

“And being called a ‘game developer’ is probably the sexiest job title right now for the new generation,” he added.

With the Philippines hoping for up to five percent of the global market share in the next three years, the game is clearly far from over.