![]() ![]() “Due to the iterative nature of how we make games, we’re interacting with the fan base of the game from very early on, through Discord and other forums. Often it’s unexpected things that do well, and the things that you think will do well, don’t,” says Rothmann.įor this reason, they have to remain closely tuned in to the responses to their prototypes and in touch with their followers. We haven’t figured out a good, consistent methodology for that yet. “It seems that people generally aren’t good at vetting their ideas. With a library of successful games, you’d think they have some inkling about the kind of games that would do well, yet Rothmann suggests they remain surprised. They are the most successful South African-based gaming company driving their own intellectual property. Some have left for greener pastures or are working in the gambling or banking industries, according to the Tshimologong report.įree Lives employs 21 people. Such games would also need an extensive number of highly qualified specialists, which are in short supply in South Africa. Mainstream audiences demand sophisticated products that the industry terms Triple A games - generated with budgets not too dissimilar to Hollywood blockbusters, between $50m and $80m. What is the winning formula for creating a popular indie game? In Cape Town in early December gaming professionals will congregate at the fifth Africa Games Week to connect and exchange ideas.Īs the majority of consumers of indie games are in the US and Asia (according to Steam’s live tracking statistics) it’s tricky for African-based developers to have direct insight into the kind they might be after. Maybe those games are not reaching us or people don’t know that they can approach us or don’t want to approach us,” he says. ![]() Sadly, we rarely see games reach that first vetting. We believe the best time to lend assistance is when someone has a promising early prototype but not the resources to take it to a point where it has demonstrated its viability and can be pitched to a publisher. “We are interested in helping up-and-coming local developers. There’s a paucity of viable prototypes being produced, suggests Rothmann. They co-produce them for US and European-based companies. But few of the companies produce their own games. Game jams and hackathons regularly take place in South Africa. Of those, about 8% sold 10,000 units or more, according to Video Games Insights. Almost 12,000 games were released on the platform in 2021. It might only cost $100 (about R1,700) to publish your game on the largest online shop for games - Steam - but competition is stiff. ![]() Making the transition from hobbyist to game developer - dubbed a game dev - isn’t easy. This isn’t only motivated by a desire to connect with the gaming community but for practical reasons - it can take up to three years to build an indie game and it’s expensive and risky to create one that you’re not sure will appeal. This isn’t only due to gamers playing these products in the making of games from the prototype to the final product, developers rely on their feedback. Being part of the art-making process and driving a narrative based on your own choices and actions offers a sense of agency that few art forms can match. It looks like an oddly satisfying way to spend your time - greening the screen, so to speak.Īs such, gaming offers an avenue not only for artists to poke fun at the status quo but envision a future and, most importantly, allow viewers to become participants in building it. Their upcoming game, Terra Nil, centres on transforming a barren landscape destroyed by human exploitation to its natural state via a combination of technologies and tools. Their games don’t only pivot on poking fun at aspects of masculine identity packaged by Hollywood. ![]()
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