THE VIDEO GAMES INDUSTRY: AN OVER-LOOKED INCUBATOR FOR AUSTRALIA’S FUTURE STEM TALENT

One of the things we need to contend with as game developers is the idea among those outside the industry that what we produce is nothing more than frivolous entertainment. This is quite clearly the implication of the Federal Government policy towards the games industry, where we’re not provided support nor funding on any level, and indeed, we are the only art form not to be supported by government.

And yet it’s simply not true. Even if you discount the cultural and artistic value of what game developers create, so many of us have much broader roles in the community, because when it comes to audio-visual experiences, game developers have a greater level of expertise than any, and this means we’re in demand far beyond the entertainment that we provide.

Take for example Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR). It is the games industry that has really driven the interest in VR, but as the technology becomes more established, there’s so much more to VR than games. Real Estate agents are having VR walk throughs of homes developed so people can attend a property inspection without needing to be physically at the home, and who has a better idea how to build virtual spaces in three dimensions than game developers? The first attempt to send humans to Mars will be far safer than the attempts to get humans to the moon because, before the trip has started, the astronauts will have completed many hours in highly-detailed simulations. Read more

Ross Symons - Dynamic Business - 10 July 2017