Games
The Computer Games Industry In NZ.
The computer games industry in New Zealand has been in development for the past twenty years. Initially it was made up of a scattered group of 'enthusiasts' who worked from home or in small groups to create software and itneractive experiences. This saw a plethora of online games and some console development for Commodore 64, Amiga etc
The last ten years has seen a growth in the professionalism of the industry and in October 1991 I facilitated a meeting at Industry NZ to bring the sector together to attempt to build its brand as a serious entertainment business in New Zealand. I was an ICT Sector Analyst at the time. Industry NZ then merged to become New Zealand Trade & Enterprise where I worked for almost five years as Creative Digital Sector Manager.
Industry NZ invested a small amount of funding at the time to get a web presence to form an official association and Mario Wynands (Sidhe Interactive) was elected Acting President of the New Zealand Game Developers Association - he still holds the role today as President. The other three attendees were Rob Arlidge (Creative Sector Manager) and game developers Mark Sibley (Blitz BAsic) and Simon Armstrong (Acid Software). Jon Labrie (CTO Weta Digital and CEO of new mobile game company, Blister sent his apologies.)
The NZGDA has facilitated seminars, conferences and workshops across New Zealand and represented NZ at the Australian Game Developers Conference (AGDC) and the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3Expo) and the GAme Developers Conference (GDC) over the last few years.
The first game developers conference, FUSE, was held in Dunedin at the Otago University and was led by Senior Computer Science lecturer, Simon . FUSE had a list of international guest speakers (Daniel Sanchez Crespo, Sheri Graner Ray and Ernest Adams to name a few). This was immediately followed by the first Games and Girls Symposia the week later in Auckland which attracted over 150 people.
Page witten by Clare O'Leary
Director