Industry Survey Results - 2015

LexAquillia

Hi all,

The results of the industry survey are out, you can access the full report here: http://makegamessa.com/downloads/MGSA2015IndustrySurveyResults.pdf

Thank you to everyone who participated, and I look forward to your participation again next year!

Nick

quintond

I will definitely be participating in next years one. 8-}

Some good information in here. Thanks for the effort.

LC_Lupus

@LexAquillia, Rather disappointing to see so few women or people of colour (I'm not helping this of course seeing as I'm a white male), but I have one question concerning the employment graphs. Does the term "artists" entail visual artists alone or does it also refer to writers? Or do they fall under "designers" instead of "artists?" Or were writers not counted at all? Just curious.

LexAquillia

We didn't have writer as a specific category, however if a company did employ one or contract to one they would've included them. Where they put them is up to debate (to my mind it they would've been included under business support). If we have enough demand for it I can include writers as a separate category next year.

LC_Lupus

As it stands there isn't much demand for writers in gaming as whole. Maybe, and hopefully, this will change a bit in the future as independent games start to create more story oriented titles. I'll just cross my fingers and hope in the mean time.

EvanGreenwood

LC_Lupus said:

As it stands there isn't much demand for writers in gaming as whole.

I'd agree there's little demand. But I'd disagree that there is little need. The writers I know who have been successful with small to medium budget games have built their own demand (or straight up built their own games), and the teams that they've worked with have benefited immensely.

Though I would say there is almost no demand for writers from other mediums (like literature and films), and I think there never will be (except in very text heavy games where the constraints that games normally put on writers are lessened).

But I'd expect a good writer who has experience in games could find work in games right now. And the demand will only increase in the future.

(I think a lot of indie games are intentionally building games that require little writing because they don't have the skills to tell a good yarn. The availability of games writers would change that, and we'd all get more diverse experiences as a result).

LC_Lupus

@BlackShipsFilltheSky, I am a writer from the medium of literature but I've been in love with games since I was a child. Writers, or at least competent ones (I pray that I'm competent), are able to adapt to different mediums. Games require a different form of writing, but I think that it's a generalization to state that writers from other mediums would have no demand; if anything a person that's written a couple books has already proven themselves to be capable of spinning a yarn. It's all just about adapting to something new.

I'm doing my own stuff because I couldn't find other people with any need for a writer, and so I fall under that category, and hopefully I can build demand for myself too. Just takes a lot of hard work and perseverance to get it right.

EvanGreenwood

Well good luck! (I'm sure you'll figure out what I meant in that case)

EvanGreenwood

Regarding the industry results: I'm a little surprised that 90% of the studios in South Africa are building their own IP. I had assumed that there was more contract work focussed studios.

Although another way of interpreting that data is that 32% of the studios in the industry are devoted to building their own IP, with 58% releasing games of their own IP in order to showcase their game development skills and gain more contract work.

dislekcia

BlackShipsFilltheSky said:

Regarding the industry results: I'm a little surprised that 90% of the studios in South Africa are building their own IP. I had assumed that there was more contract work focussed studios.

Although another way of interpreting that data is that 32% of the studios in the industry are devoted to building their own IP, with 58% releasing games of their own IP in order to showcase their game development skills and gain more contract work.

It might be an interesting statistic for next year's survey to see what fraction of studios' income comes from which kind of activity. Also, what percentage of a studio's time is spent in which activity. There are probably some interesting conclusions to be drawn from that sort of info...

EvanGreenwood

@dislekcia Yeah, I'd be super interested in that. Not sure if it's useful for the government report type stuff (which I think is probably the main purpose of the census), but certainly intriguing to me.

LexAquillia

@BlackShipsFilltheSky I think what you'll find is that the "contract" houses are starting to leverage the stable income of contract work to branch out into IP creation, on the basis that it can have a much higher ROI.

EvanGreenwood

@LexAquillia Yeah, that's what I'd expect. I've been a bit concerned about the visibility of contract work on the forums and in general in indie game development. But I'm a little less concerned if 90% of all SA studios do want to produce and profit from their own IP.

Tuism

The question isn't whether people "want to" produce and profit from their own IP... The question is the route towards it is uncertain, and uncertainty is difficult for just about everyone.

EvanGreenwood

@Tuism Well, I had been hearing things about Make Games focussing on IP creation to the exclusion of contract work. And considering 68% of this industry engages in contract work it isn't something we can afford to exclude. That's the context in which I was writing that message.

In any case I was using the term "want" more in the sense of actually planning to do something rather than desiring it (like Coca-Cola wants to sell soft drinks at a ridiculous mark-up). And what @LexAquillia said supports the idea that 90% of SA game studios are busy with or planning their own IP.

Jelligeth

Dang! Came into the scene JUST too late! Could have had a slice of that pie all to myself if I were here sooner (1 Asian female lolzors). Maybe next year...