Where big games players thrive

Jan 16 2008 by Karen Dent, The Journal

Pumping music, screeching tyres and rattling gunfire are at the heart of one of the region’s and the UK’s fastest growing businesses. Karen Dent meets the computer game makers.

ONCE known for its heavy industry, the North-East has made a surprisingly big splash in the world of computer games development.

Nationally, about half the UK’s computer games workforce is based in London and the South-East, but 450 people are employed in the sector in this region.

This is 9% of the UK’s games development workforce in one of the fastest growing areas of the creative industry sector, which in turn is the fastest growing segment of the economy. Brits spend more on entertainment software than on renting films or at the cinema box office, a trend that is predicted to continue.

The North-East has a pioneering role in developing games, which are now far from being just child’s play. There is a solid regional infrastructure to support the industry. In 2004, One NorthEast set up Codeworks, a centre for digital innovation in the North East. Its GameHorizon project acts as a business network for computer games enterprises.

In addition, the DigitalCity group aids the creation of digital businesses coming out of Teesside University, which has a top reputation for training the computer games creators of the future.

The sector is a mushrooming mix of new and old, large and small. Businesses range from large development- based studios, such as Gateshead’s Eutechnyx – which employs more than 80 full-time programmers, artists, animators and games designers locally and 28 staff in its Hong Kong office – to outsourcers, which put together animation and music – to independent start-ups with a couple of staff.

The computer games industry may seem a relatively new concept, but the North-East is considered one of the industry’s pioneers in the UK, according to Carri Cuncliffe, head of sector development at GamesHorizon.

“Traditionally, we’ve always had a strong games development community here,” she said. “Quite a few of the companies based here started here back in the 80s. Atomic Planet in Gateshead started their business literally from their father’s garage.

“There are very few technological barriers to developing games here. You don’t have to distribute the games from here. It’s not a massive issue to be located here.”

Online communications, the fact the North-East’s cities are within easy reach of each other and the lower cost of living compared with London and the South-East have helped make the region an ideal start-up spot for games companies. Dr Jim TerKeurst, director of the Institute of Digital Innovation (IDI) at DigitalCity in Middlesbrough, said: “If you are a young company, it can be a lot more viable to be based here, then to go to London for meetings. Proximity isn’t as important as it used to be. It can be done anywhere you have teams of really motivated, talented people.”

DigitalCity is an initiative to nurture the North-East’s digital industries, which is based at Teesside University. IDI works to create businesses and awards fellowships to graduates from the region’s universities. So far, about 50 companies have been created via this route.

“They come up with ideas and we give them some seed money to take it forward; we’re an enabler,” said Dr TerKeurst, who is originally from Detroit. “A number of computer games companies have come out of our fellowships. We think we’re doing a great job.”

Teesside University computer gaming graduate Jeremiah Alexander, 24, started Babel Digital in Middlesbrough to design educational computer games. In 2006, his idea won Codeworks’ first Game Academy competition and he used the prize of expert business mentoring to set up his enterprise. Babel Digital develops games for educational and training purposes.

“We broadly fall into the field of serious gaming. It’s quite a new area. There’s a lot of speculation it’ll be a large area in the future,” said Jeremiah, who uses his skills on the technical side of the business and employs two other people on the creative side.

Originally from London, he says there were strong professional reasons to remain in the region rather than return to the capital: “There were opportunities available to me to pursue something unique that may not have been available if I moved back down to London.

“When you’re working in the digital sector, a lot of communications and information is transferred over the internet, so the location isn’t that important.”

DigitalCity is also responsible for a number of computer games business suggestions submitted to the new design and creative fund that was set up last summer by early stage finance and business support company NStar.

Mark Fenwick, who manages the fund, said: “We are not trying to be a bank or a lender of last resort; we sit somewhere in the middle. We don’t want to handle something that is a bankable proposition; we need to take a risk with projects that still have commercial potential.

“We’ve not made an investment yet, but we’re committed to making one. There is one deal on the table. Games is one of the sectors that is very buoyant.”

The region is also well known in the gaming world for collaboration between large and small businesses. The willingness of established companies to help new starters is a reason why the industry is thriving in the region. Carri Cuncliffe said: “Definitely, the sense of collaboration is different – you don’t see it at that level anywhere else.”

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Network gives support

GAMEHORIZON acts as a networking organisation for the North-East’s games industry and also provides support and promotion for the sector.

Its advisory board includes representatives from some of the industry’s biggest names, including Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE) and Microsoft. Darren Jobling, of Eutechnyx, and Darren Falcus, from Atomic Planet, both locally-based big hitters in the games world, also sit on the board.

It runs initiatives to help those with bright ideas gain a foothold in the industry:

:: Game Academy is a competition giving companies and games graduates the chance to pitch their ideas to a panel of games industry experts;

:: I Love Games educational events, in which games developers visit schools to talk about the skills they will need to develop a career in the industry;

:: Games placements give students and graduates the opportunity to attend paid placements with North-East games companies.

Games Horizon is also planning a conference, to be held in Newcastle in June, which is expected to attract 250 of the sector’s top executives to debate, share ideas and learn about the business and its direction.

GameHorizon’s website is at www.gamehorizon.net

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