Heaps has happened in the Kiwi games industry over the last few months, and the NZGDA has been very busy.

Here’s what’s been going on:

• See you at AnimFX, 15-17 November
• Kiwi Games Industry Grew 46% this year!
• NZ Gamers: Not Sweaty Teenage Boys
• Spreading the Word: Raising the Games Industry’s Profile
• Coming Soon: The New NZGDA.com Website
• Discussions with Government about Games Sector Support

See you at AnimFX, 15-17 November, Te Papa, Wellington
AnimFX is three days of gaming, vfx and animation with an impressive line-up of international speakers plus the chance to network with game developers from throughout New Zealand. The Games Masterclass which is limited to 40 places is nearly full, so book fast.

International speakers include Club Penguin founder Lance Priebe, Patrick Hudson from Robot Entertainment, Tracey Sellar from Microsoft Studios and many more. The opening Tuesday night drinks are being bought to you by NZGDA, so come along to network with other game developers and learn from each others’ experiences.

Kiwi Games Industry Grew 46% this year!
Pat yourselves on the back. In August we did a survey of game studios in New Zealand, which showed a huge burst of growth. Highlights include:

• The New Zealand games industry grew by 46% in the last year (that’s 100 jobs) and now employs over 350 full-time equivalent positions.
• 80 new job positions are expected in the next year.
• 42% of gaming jobs in New Zealand are for programmers, 39% for artists, and 19% are for marketing and management.
• Unlike films and TV, games jobs tend to be full-time and permanent roles paying above average wages.
• 59 video games are being made in New Zealand in 2011 – the majority of which are online and mobile games.
• 99% of games developed in NZ are exported and sold via the Internet.

Thanks to everyone who participated in the survey, these stats are really helpful and impressive.

NZ Gamers: Not Sweaty Teenage Boys
More research! The Interactive Games & Entertainment Association represent game publishers and distributors in NZ and Australia, and are supporters of NZGDA and GDAA too. Each year they commission Bond University to do a survey of game playing in NZ and Aus, which well and truly dispels the stereotype of gamers being teenage boys.

The report found that:

• The average NZ gamer is 33, and 47% are female.
• 93% of Kiwi households play games. Of those, 51% have consoles, 38% play games on mobiles and 9% on tablets.
• 72% of gamers are adult (over 18).
• 21% gamers play social games; 8% play MMOs.
• 90%+ of gaming parents play with their kids and use games to help educate their kids.

Spreading the Word: Raising the Games Industry’s Profile
We often hear people ask “is there a games industry in New Zealand?”, so to counter this NZGDA members have been doing their bit to raise the industry’s profile locally particularly with business and tech audiences:

• The Weekend NZ Herald ran an impressive two-page feature in the business pages profiling four studios.
• NZGDA chairperson Stephen Knightly wrote a guest column for the NZ Computer Society’s newsletter.
• Several volunteers manned a NZGDA stand at the ICT Jobs Fair in the Rugby World Cup ‘Cloud’ for three days during the Robotics World Cup.
• Ben Delleca from Cerebral Fix and Will McLennan from Stickmen Studios spoke at the recent NZICT Digital Content Forum in Wellington, along with Lionsgate’s President of Digital Media Curt Marvis.
• Tyrone McAuley from Sidhe and PikPok presented at the Canterbury Software Summit.
• Mitch Olson, co-founder of SmallWorlds spoke at the Technology Trade & Investment Forum in Auckland.

Coming soon: the new NZGDA.com website
We’re working on a new website to showcase the successes and capability of NZGDA members to the world, especially to international developers looking to relocate here and potential business partners. The new www.nzgda.com will be our external showcase website, and www.playmaker.org.nz will be our internal community network. The Investment NZ arm of NZTE has generously funded this refresh – watch this space.

Discussions with Government about Games Sector Support
Behind the scenes the NZGDA committee have been having all sorts of discussions with all sorts of government agencies.

The Ministry of Culture & Heritage and the Ministry of Economic Development are beginning a review of Screen Sector funding, and games is included in the scope (which is a huge step forward in itself). The review will look at the existing Post, Digital and Visual Effects Production (PDV) grant and the Screen Production Incentive Fund (SPIF), but the review team are open to any blue skies ideas. The NZGDA committee will be meeting with the government review team on Wed 16 Nov during AnimFX. If you have any ideas or suggestions whatsoever for how the government can support the games industry, or want to be involved, please email stephen@ingame.co.nz.

Auckland Supercity mayor Len Brown visited the Media Design School and met several Auckland games studios last month, and we’ve also had positive discussions with Auckland Council, NZ Trade & Enterprise and the Ministry of Science & Innovation (who have funded several game-related R&D projects in past).

If you have any suggestions, questions or request for the NZGDA please email stephen@ingame.co.nz.