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| Game Port: Game Development in Singapore Part 1 |
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CloudNine Member since: 11/21/2002 |
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 Posted - 6/27/2004 11:48:53 AM |
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| Interesting :) I used to live in Singapore, so I recognise a few of those places from the photos. Pity it's so far away from the UK though :( Singapore's involvement in game development can only be good for the industry. It's well connected to Hong Kong and the business world, so games will start be taken seriously. And there's finally a good centre for Asian game development (I feel Japan has it's own culture), so it's good news for the game programming industry. There won't be outsourcing like the USA to India, the GDP of Singapore is equal to the USA and they live the same kind of lifestyle. It'll be good as a testbed, quite a few different cultures and it's got good internet connectivity. [Journal] |
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Pipo DeClown Member since: 2/16/2002 From: Amsterdam, Netherlands |
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 Posted - 6/28/2004 4:52:33 AM |
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Quote: I'm not back. I'm just visiting. |
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DavidRM Staff Member since: 7/16/1999 From: Tulsa, OK, United States |
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Posted - 6/29/2004 2:51:08 PM |
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Quote: I realize I was only there for a week, and only talked to a handful of people, but I didn't get any sense of this at all. Across the border in Malaysia...yes...I heard about that. In Singapore itself, though, no. Keep in mind, though, that while certain markets get a lot of media attention for their casual use of warez...there is a lot of game piracy here in Northa America too. And Europe. I'm not saying one justifies the other, of course. Just commenting that things are seldom as different as they are similar. -David DavidRM DavidRM Software The Indie Game Development Survival Guide JoeIndie.com |
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dot Member since: 7/15/1999 From: Singapore, Singapore |
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Posted - 6/29/2004 10:06:28 PM |
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| Game piracy is not that dominant in singapore, because of the relatively cheap pricing of games nowadays. And also, the government has been rather hard on cracking down on piracy. Couple of years back, you could easily find 2 or 3 shops selling pirated warez along a simple walk through the neighbourhood. Nowadays, they are not so common. I would say your observation of Singapore as a game pirate is out-dated and rather biased on historical facts. On another note on David, just wondering how many 'unofficial views' have you got in regards to Singapore as a deployment and development hub. IDA always plan a rather rosy picture, but however fail to give in as much support as they promise. I do not have personal dealings with them, but my company does (You have actually contacted my company for help on your article.) Note that what follows are my personal unofficial opinion, and does not reflect my company's stand on the issue. For a deployment hub, IDA has been pestering us on bringing in AAA class MMORPG. They paint pictures of great internet infrastructure in place. However, when asked if they could provide grants or other form of fianacial help, the contact person simply ask us to figure out a way ourselves. As one would know, licenses for AAA titles are expensive, and it would take a huge sum of investments over a long period of time to actually see returns. Thus, investors are almost unwilling. Second is the actual deployment cost. Sure, we may have great infrastructure, but the cost of internet connection, floor space, overhead, etc cannot be overlooked. Granted, the cost are lower than european and american countries. However, you do not have to look far from singapore for a more suitable deployment ground. Even if their infrastructure is not as good as singapore, their overall cost is much lower, and thus can yield a faster and higher return on investment. Point to note also is that the Singapore internet infrastructure has not been truely tested with a AAA title boosting very high number of players. What kind of facts and figures can IDA pull out to actually prove this fact? However, that is not to say the singapore government is unsupportive. MDA, the media development authority, is actually more supportive than IDA. I already know of several grants given by MDA to developers for technology and engine demos. IDA grants are relatively harder to get, and they seem to adopt a mindset of just talking and sitting back to wait for results, instead of actively working for it. (I'm talking about only the department in charge of game development in this case, to be fair). In regards to support by schools, sadly most graduates they chunk out do not have the proper skills. That is not to say they are poor programmers. However, personally I think it is more important to have the knowledge to find answers, than knowing the answers itself. Exams are mostly given in the context of what is taught. They do not promote researching beyond the context taught that much as overseas. I have had many cases of graduates who are my friend's friend asking me to teach them on how to do simple java program. What these schools provide, instead, is simple basic foundation work on programming. Anything beyond that and you gotta cross your fingers if you hire them. We had a bunch of internship last year, and they were more disruptive to our work than helpful. To be fair, however, they did not actually volunteer to come here. We even had two bio technology student who came here for attachment. For christ's sake we are a game development company! The school did not give us a chance to interview them as well, so we are simply dumped a bunch of them. So we've learnt our lessons and decide to stop taking interns. And for those who actually took game development as a specialization, they are disappointing as well. (One wonder why they took it if they dont seem that interested) To be fair, however, those who are real passionate on game development do go beyond their studies to research on the game development area. |
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DavidRM Staff Member since: 7/16/1999 From: Tulsa, OK, United States |
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Posted - 6/29/2004 11:29:18 PM |
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| Thanks for the great post, dot. My next article hits on some of the points you raise, and moves away from the "rosy picture" to a more gritty "report from the trenches", based on conversations and interviews with a handful of developers. -David DavidRM DavidRM Software The Indie Game Development Survival Guide JoeIndie.com |
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Pipo DeClown Member since: 2/16/2002 From: Amsterdam, Netherlands |
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Posted - 6/30/2004 6:36:25 AM |
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Quote: Just to clear it up. First, it's not my observation since I clearly said I quoted my friend. Second, my friend grew up there and still lives in Singapore, so I guess his observation MIGHT be 'out-dated', as you put, but on the otherhand, he might have a better knowledge. Just by walking in a street you can't figure out if there's piracy. David is right, kinda. There's a lot of piracy in the rest of the world too. But the warez here are mainly the quality games, where in Asia it's anything that can be turned into warez. From GameBoy games to trading cards, and even clothing/bags, make-up and electronics. It's not limited to computersoftware. I think that that's the main reason why people see Asia as the 'ultimate piracy continent'. On the other hand, this is a good thing. The people like games and electronics, so if there was a way we could make them (the pirates, I do believe there are buyers there) buy our products, we'd get a very big market there. I'm not back. I'm just visiting. |
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