I sat down with Mark Fludder and Jason Mullen from the Queensland Government, as well as Steve "Sly" Williams from Krome Studios, to talk about the game development scene in Brisbane and the surrounding area. Over the years, many "hubs" have popped up in the industry, cities that have become a focal point for game studios for various reasons. Obviously there's San Francisco, as well as places like Seattle, Austin, Vancouver - to the east we have Boston, Montreal and New York rising fast. Joining them now is the capitol of Queensland, Brisbane - boasting over 600 people employed in more than 18 studios, making up 40% of the developers in Australia, and the job growth over the past three years has been 60%. Queensland hopes to continue its growth and top 1000 developers in the next 2-3 years.
It was only several years ago around the turn of the century that the Queensland Government took action to help spur the growth of the game development industry, and so they sat down with the major studios in existence at the time, including Krome and Pandemic. Back then, both studios had less than 24 people on staff, and the few other studios in existence were composed of fewer than a dozen people. The government's plan after talking with the studios was to help foster their growth through collaboration, rather than just direct financial assistance. Queensland came together across all fronts, from universities to support companies to development studios to international outreach through the government (such as relations with Washington State). Soon everyone had the resources they needed to create a stable ecosystem for game development.
It starts with the schools. There are 4 schools in the state that have game development programs: Griffith University, James Cook University, Qantm College, and Queensland University of Technology. Queensland is currently in the process of strengthening its internship program between the schools and the studios, focusing more on graduate-level interns. Sly noted that around 10-12 interns per year are taken under the wing of Krome Studios these days. The relationship between the schools and studios eases the transition from the classroom to the office for graduates, and even those who wish to go off on their own can seek support from the government, who will happily pair them with a mentor and work with them on financial needs (never forget though that even here there's no such thing as a free lunch).
Although the schools are a major source of influx for companies, Queensland is also welcoming in internationals with open arms. While relocation expense will most likely be the responsibility of the employee, the government and studios recognize the value of highly-positioned and experienced game developers willing to make the move to Australia and in special cases do pick up the tab. Ironically, the amount of people who have been coming into the state recently has actually backlogged the temporary visa system, which used to be the easier way to set up shop in Australia. While the government is retooling the system to better handle the flow of immigrants (hopefully by the end of the year), people have actually had shorter wait times applying for permanent residency.
Finally, the studios and their support companies (like Game Audio Australia and Liquid Animation) have their own ties not only to each other and the schools but the government as well for resources such as dealing with international publishers. All these resources have helped studios explode with business - Krome and Pandemic as well as other big studios like Auran and Virtual Mechanix now have well over 100 people, some approaching 200. Sly revealed that Krome is currently working on anywhere from 4-5 projects at any given time, and probably have enough tabled projects to last them well into the next decade.
But despite all the wonderful successes Queensland has had, is it really someplace you'd want to live and work? Why bother when you have to slog to work every day through rain and bad weather in cold temperatures? Fortunately this isn't an issue many people will have trouble dealing with, because it's not really an issue at all. Queensland sports a sub-tropical climate, averaging 300 days of sunshine and low temperatures in the 40's in winter. The cost of living in Brisbane is cheaper in comparison to other major cities - living costs are 9% higher in Los Angeles, 37% higher in New York and 51% higher in London. All the studios have adopted a core set of hours that hovers around 10-5, and on Fridays the widespread tradition is to stop, drop and relax come 4:30 in the afternoon. "No matter what they're doing, no matter where they are on a project" says Sly. Obviously overtime is always an issue in the games industry, and while everyone at the table recognized it was an unavoidable factor, Sly stated that Krome made sure it never spilled over into a single weekend, and that other studios had the same policies in place.
The ball is definitely rolling down under in Queensland, now the government and the studios are all looking to maintain the momentum, hoping they can all keep up with the rapid growth that has overtaken the industry there. It's impressive to see how much has been accomplished by the Queensland government and the numerous game studios in such a short amount of time, testament to the increasing popularity and financial success of the games industry. If you've ever wanted an excuse to try living in Australia, Queensland is doing all it can to give you one. Find out more at www.queenslandgames.com.au
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