The South African indie video gaming scene is on a growth path and is making headway into the international market.
So says RW Liebenberg, head developer and MD at Cape Town-based independent video game development studio, Thoopid.
"A lot of overseas companies are outsourcing independent video game developers from SA because our creative content in advertising, video gaming and other digital platforms ranks among the best in the world. So, in essence, they are getting excellent work at prices that would be much higher in their own countries," explains Liebenberg.
He points out that app stores like iTunes and Google Play provide game developers with an international platform for their games to be featured in front of a global audience, therefore increasing the accessibility to international publishers, which is resulting in a lot more of SA's own home-coded games being developed.
"We recently released Snailboy, a physics-based puzzle game about a garden mollusc who's been robbed of his shell collection and needs help getting it back. It became one of the top games on Apple's App Store within weeks of its release, reaching across more than 120 countries, and made it into the top five paid games in the South African version of the store," he says.
Thoopid's social manager, Amanda Presley-Knox, adds that African developers are also responding to the rise in smartphones and Internet accessibility, not only in Africa but also around the world.
"In the past, SA has not been making the mass-market million-dollar games such as competing markets like Japan and the US, but South Africans have been playing those games, fervently. In 2013, the South African app store introduced the games category, giving consumers and developers access to a new territory of mobile gaming," she says.
Another huge benefit of mobile game development, adds Presley-Knox, is the ability to develop good games with smaller teams, which is also less financially restrictive for indie start-ups like Thoopid.
Travis Bulford, co-founder of Celestial Games, a company responsible for developing Toxic Bunny - which sold 150 000 units internationally - notes that investment from government and big business could catapult local talent even further and put the gaming industry on par with the world's best.
"The Australian government has been subsidising their gaming industry from 1996 and more recently invested $20 million to help build a sustainable base for the Australian interactive entertainment industry to respond and grow in a global market expected to reach $90.1 billion by 2015," he says. "SA should take note of this."
Distribution has also been a challenge, according to Liebenberg.
"For 'indie' companies, it's harder because distribution companies want a huge chunk of your profits, so we've opted for less costly means to be more visible, like putting up videos of games at a developing stage on platforms like Facebook and YouTube, which helps us gain traction."
Piracy is also seen as an opportunity for 'indies', with Liebenberg stating that a lot of their games are downloaded illegally in places like China, Russia and SA.
"We don't have the monetary means or resources to police it and it's a good thing in that more people are becoming aware of us. Less focus on security measures also lowers production costs."
For 2014, Presley-Knox predicts that other small indie gaming teams will pop up and defy boundaries, therefore challenging games companies such as Thoopid.
"As the saying goes, competition breeds innovation, and with the success of African video gaming companies in 2013, others will also begin to see the potential of gaming and jump on the bandwagon," she concludes.
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